Paris Blues

by Harold Flender

"A stinging novel of a man seeking escape in a world of cellar clubs and hot music... and the abandon of a passionate affair..."

Eddie Cooke—a man seeking escape…escape from the gnawing bitterness in his heart…escape from a burning resentment of the past.

Against the background of the French jazz world—the smoky cellar clubs, the smouldering music, the easy love—Harold Flender has written a biting novel of Americans in Paris.

Genres: Fiction

157 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

Reviews

[Tim Null · Rating 4 out of 5]

Call me crazy but I believe Paris Blues is celebrating the civil rights movement that had recently begun in the American South three years prior to the release of Harold Flender's book in 1957.

Although Paris Blues has numerous black characters, it clearly wasn't written for black people. It was written for white people. The book tells white people that they will derive a great many benefits from granting black folks full membership in society.

On the surface, Paris Blues seems to focus only on Paris, music, and a bunch of American tourists. That's because white people in America in the 1950s weren't ready for a frank and honest discussion about civil rights.

Are we now ready for such a conversation? Call me crazy, but I hope we are.

Nothing is quite resolved at the end of the book, except the major character is resolved to pursue a resolution. That seems like a fitting ending.

I'm hesitant to recommend Paris Blues because, although I had a not-quite-five experience with Paris Blues, one-third of Goodreads reviewers currently have had an experience of 3 or less.

I learned about Paris Blues in a round-about way. A fan of Diahann Carroll posted the trailer for the Paris Blues movie on Instagram. I watched the trailer, then wondered if the movie was based on a book. I found out it was, so I read the book. I plan on watching the movie. It's available for free in the Roku app.

Paris Blues made me curious about what inspires movie people to turn a book into a movie when the book isn't a best seller. I concluded it was strong characters that drive the plot, lots of good dialogue, and an attractive location.

"...a rule wouldn't be a rule unless it was broken once in a while."

"And when he played a blues he poured into it all of his loneliness and quiet despair."

[Kathryn DeSinaasappelen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing wasn't great, but the story was compelling. I think it's a good example of story vs writing, and how you can excuse a little bad writing for a good story.

I connected with this book because I am an expect. I understood Connies POV of the magic Paris held.  However I also understand Eddies, of hating his home, and finding happiness in another place. It would be best for expats.

This book went in a way I wasn't expecting, and I loved the ending. I thought I predicted the book, but it left me pleasantly surprised.

Full review: https://wp.me/p92q9w-ev

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny thing happened after the Second World War. American GIs came home and returned to their domestic lives, and suffered a case of homesickness…for Paris, France. Hollywood responded by releasing dozens of films extolling the beauty and romance of life in Paris…Funny Face, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Gigi, Trapeze, the list goes on and on. Harold Flender’s novel Paris Blues made a difference from all the rest because it wasn’t a love letter to Paris, but a political commentary about how France provided asylum for black musicians from the United States.

Flender’s novel is a high wire act between hipster-cool fiction with an African-American soap opera romance novel of a radical jazz saxophonist falling in love with a schoolteacher on a school faculty tour. Our main man argues the cons of returning to the US with his new love – his points are well expressed, but of course love gets in the way of his safe house relationship with Paris.

In between the romantic interludes there are passages of musicians suffering from mental illness, a visiting American jazz artist (Mad Man Moore, a sort of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins meets Dizzy Gillespie showman), and an aging schoolteacher who finally lets her hair down in the City of Lights. Paris Blues is a very good novel, even subversive for its time in its depiction of a black couple being the center of a romance. One of the few times where both the novel and the movie are equally entertaining.

[Alana Cash · Rating 1 out of 5]

I chose to read this book because it was about a jazz musician living in Paris after WWII, but the very things that drew me to the book were missing. The descriptions of Paris were nonexistent ("the Tuilleries were beautiful" or "the street were crowded" isn't quite enough). I got the feeling the author was writing about Paris from a guidebook and that maybe he'd been there for a few days, but there was no life to the Paris he wrote about - it could have been any city. The characters were undeveloped and shallow, speaking in stilted and silly vocabulary. As for the main character being a jazz musician, the author gives an indication that he listened to jazz and knew what he liked to hear - stating the name of songs in a way that seemed like name dropping - but he didn't capture the feeling of music, which he needed to do since he was writing about a musician. And, if there is a plot in this book, I was still mystified as to what it was at page 54 when I quit reading.