Shackling Water

By Adam Mansbach

Book Overview

At the age of nineteen, saxophone prodigy Latif James-Pearson boards a bus to Manhattan to find his aging idol, the great Albert Van Horn. The centers of Latif's universe soon become a Harlem boarding house, where he spends his days practicing intensely, and the downtown club where Van Horn's group performs and Latif hides in the shadows, listening. There, he begins a complex affair with an older white painter named Mona, and starts working for Say Brother, a charismatic drug dealer. But as Latif's frustrations with his playing mount, and the demands of balancing artistry, hustling, and love push him toward crisis, he is forced to confront his music, his past, and himself. A virtuosic story told with lyrical intensity, Shackling Water heralds the arrival of an important new voice in American literature.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400031591
• ISBN13: 9781400031597
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

Hot, hot, hot

Adam Mansbach's debut is luminous, this boy can write! So interesting to see that we are finally exploring the connection between jazz and hip-hip, which one can argue, are truly the only pure "American" forms of music.Mansbach tackles these subjects well, making both of these worlds truly come alive as we follow Latif on his journey into manhood and into the world of NYC.I wholeheartedly recommend this first-timers work and wholeheartedly disagree with the dissenter below. The problems and the beauties of the jazz and hip-hop world can not be brought to light by one novel alone......those who put that responsibility on one writers shoulders will always be disappointed. One writers view will always be a narrow view and I appreciate that Mansbach has opened the door for further discourse.Bottom line: buy it, read it and look forward to more from Mr. Mansbach.

An amazing debut

Mansbach has his finger on the pulse of so much here: jazz, hip hop, race, urban life. Laitf, the protagonist, is the kind of character who stays with you long after you finish reading. Even the minor characters are memorable, and the writing itself is beyond compare. Mansbach is really defining new territory here: this is writing that truly comes alive, that comments profoundly on the struggle of a young man in language all its own. I read this book in one sitting, without planning to.

A novel that sings

This stunning debut novel is a rocket ride fueled by the rhythms of jazz and hip-hop. But you don't have to know Coltrane from "Night Train" or hip-hop from doo-wop to appreciate the author's lyrical and powerful prose. The blurbs on the book jacket compare Adam Mansbach to everyone from Walt Whitman to James Baldwin; I would add the name of Jack Kerouac. Yet there is none of Kerouac's rambling or sloppiness in this tightly told tale of a black saxophonist who comes to New York to face the talent of his idol, the love of a white woman, the temptation of heroin, and most of all, himself. If a metaphor occasionally misfires or a page or two seems overabundantly introspective, that detracts little from the impact of a story that is both worth telling and well told.