She routinely asks questions throughout the book like, "What did I say? Who was he? What did I do? Would he play here again?" At first this seems strange and disorienting. Soon, though, it becomes clear that what you're reading is her re-asking questions being posed to her. You might be reading the book and think, "What did Lorraine think of Max Gordon when she first met him?" And she pose a question like, "What did I think of him?" as if you and she were having a conversation. While this isn't a breakthrough approach to memoir, it does work extraordinarily well here, making the book as accessible and enjoyable to jazz newcomers as it is to die-hard fans.
At the back of the book are two appendices, a chronology of every performance at the Village Vanguard during Lorraine Gordon's time as operator, and a discography of the recordings made of those performances. These add depth to the memoir and serve as a nice punctuation to the wonderful chapters that precede it, an exclamation point to the life recounted so beautifully by one of the most important figures in jazz history.
Article comments
1 - Scott Hughes
I haven't read this book yet. Thanks for the review. I'm going to post about it on the Book & Reading Forums.
2 - Natalie Bennett
This article has been selected for syndication to Advance.net, which is affiliated with newspapers around the United States. Nice work!