Rage To Survive
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Only two hundred and sixty pages long and written in a massive font, having just read the five hundred page "Billboard Book of Number One R&B hits" which was presented in a minuscule text this seemed paltry by comparison. I had finished reading it in a couple of days and it certainly left me begging for more. Why is it always the case that the books you want to last longest are always the ones you get through quickest? So what makes this book so special? Primarily it is the fact that Etta James has led such a colourful life. She is the daughter of a woman who lived off the road and who may have been a prostitute. As a drug addict Etta was a woman who lived in the darker side of life, not only mixing with big stars, but also pimps, pushers, gangsters, whores and also brutal men. Liz Smith writing a review for New York Newsday said, "Any major movie studio would do itself a huge favor by turning this book into a sizzling big-screen saga", which is a view I wholly endorse. Billie Holiday's story in 'Lady Sings the Blues' became a massive film for Diana Ross, but the potential of this story is greater. It is a book you cannot put down because the story is not that of an ordinary life. More than any Soul biography I have read, it is more like action packed blaxploitation novel. Although the book is credited to co-authors it is unlikely that Etta is the major contributor. The story might be hers, but the craft is almost certainly David Ritz's. Remember that Etta was a high school drop out, and from the tale she has told confirms that she was largely un-educated. The book is unlikely to win any major literary prizes, but that is largely down to the style Ritz adopts. The story is very simply told, in nice bite size chunks. By avoiding a highbrow presentation Ritz makes the story accessible to a wide variety of readers. It also gives the book authenticity, because it is clearly told in the way that Etta would have told it to him, complete with street slang, intonation and double negatives. It is a book which is full of warts, but ignoring those it grips from start to finish, and if I were to recommend one biography to be read this year then this would be it. |
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Why Not visit the Authors other Website, 'The Alternative Blackpool Website' at http://www.localdial.com/users/jsyedu133/bpool This Site Last Updated 18/05/05
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