Blues para Charlie Darwin

by Nat Hentoff, Montserrat Serra Ramoneda (Translator)

En Blues para Charlie Darwin, sólo las notas de un tema de jazz, como un lamento, consiguen atravesar la espesa humareda de tabaco que cubre el Greenwich Village neoyorquino, un barrio sumergido en bourbon en el que policías, músicos o traficantes de drogas intentan sobrevivir en una jungla despiadada que se rige por sus propias leyes. Noah Green, un policía judío, y su lacónico compañero negro, Sam Mc Kibbon, investigan el sangriento asesinato a navajazos de una mujer. La atractiva periodista Shannon Leahy, que cubre la información de ese crimen para su periódico, será una de las pocas sorpresas agradables para el sufrido policía.

Genres: Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Nathan Irving "Nat" Hentoff was a historian, novelist, music critic, and syndicated columnist. As a civil libertarian and free-speech activist, he has been described by the Cato Institute—where he has been a senior fellow since 2009—as "one of the foremost authorities on the First Amendment" to the U.S. Constitution. He was a staff writer for The New Yorker for over 25 years, and was formerly a columnist for The Village Voice for over 50 years, in addition to Legal Times, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, and The Progressive, among others. Since 2014, he has been a regular contributor to the conservative Christian website WorldNetDaily, often in collaboration with his son Nick Hentoff.

Hentoff was a Fulbright Fellow at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1950 and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in education in 1972. The American Bar Association bestowed the Silver Gavel Award in 1980 for his columns on law and criminal justice, and five years later his undergraduate alma mater, Northeastern University, awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Law degree. While working at the Village Voice in 1995, the National Press Foundation granted him the W.M. Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Award. He was a 1999 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Commentary, "for his passionate columns championing free expression and individual rights," which was won by Maureen Dowd. In 2004 he became the first non-musician to be named an NEA Jazz Master by the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts.

Hentoff lectured at many colleges, universities, law schools, elementary, middle and high schools, and has taught courses in journalism and the U.S. Constitution at Princeton University and New York University. He serves on the Board of Advisors of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (F.I.R.E.) and is on the steering committee of the Reporters' Committee for the Freedom of the Press.

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the 13th Precinct, Whipple ran up to the desk sergeant and asked for Randazzo.

"Who shall I say is calling?" The sergeant looked down at the slight man shaking, no doubt, from the cold rain.

"I'd rather not use a name." The voice was muffled by the scarf. "It'll be worth his time. Listen,"--he looked pleadingly at the sergeant--"it's a matter of life and death. It really is. And more than one death is involved."

The sergeant nodded. "You picked the right precinct. We do wholesale as well as retail. I'll let the lieutenant know you're here."

The victim lay on the kitchen floor, her body decorated with multiple stab wounds, the murder weapon left sticking out of her back. Her husband, an unemotional NYU professor, claimed to have slept right through the attack and SWEARS the front door was locked when he went to bed.

Uh-huh!

Or . . . does his shaky story hold up?

Hentoff is one hep cat, with a flair for crackly dialogue and great taste in music. The mystery is juicy and intriguing. I loved Detectives Green and McKibben. And, bonus points - The dog DOESN'T die!

The overly-sensitive should probably stay away as there are racist and homophobic rants galore.

Too bad there's only one more title in this series - The Man from Internal Affairs. I would have enjoyed spending much more time with these guys.

[David Rush · Rating 2 out of 5]

What the HELL did I just read?

At the most superficial level it is mildly intriguing and usually manages to keep your interest up to find out what happens next at each stage. But there are parts where it seems like it is all just a way to push some philosophy on you.

The philosophizing is done by the retired NYC policeman Riordan who hates Jews and gays but is a mentor to the younger black detective featured in this book. At some point, really apropos of nothing he trots out this surprising Charles Darwin quote...

Riordan took out his wallet, extracted a slip of paper, peered at it and read
“At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace throughout the world the savage races.”
pg. 177

Race is a big part of this novel so are we supposed to think this is now he sees people? And what does it mean to the story? And which race is the savage race?

It makes no sense in the whodunnit part of the book, so why did he put it there?

But it must mean something, otherwise why name the dang book after Charles Darwin? In no way is it obvious, so why not just say what you mean? This deliberate obscurantism is not clever, it is boring.

I assume the title is some reference to James Baldwin’s play “Blues for Mister Charlie”, which is about an Emmett Till like murder of a black man in the south and I also assume, he surely knew about James Baldwin and he wrote this novel after Baldwin wrote that play so he MUST be making some sort of statement. Maybe??

I assume this, but can’t find if he is making a response to Baldwin or simply riffing on Baldwin’s title...again the deliberate obscurantism is not clever, it is boring.

The story has cardboard characters that are kind of interesting in an uncomfortable way. You are never sure if his clichés about Jews, gays, black people, and Hispanics is commentary, actual views of people, or just lazy writing.

In trying to figure out what the heck this was, I Goggle Hentoff and found he was an admirer of Jazz and wrote about it which first made him famous, he is also known for an absolutist view on abortion (fetus = human. That is it, end of story, abortion is murder). And ALL free speech is allowed, again, end of story.

And he finished up his time on earth working for the Cato institute where such certainty is not only appreciated but required.

So, what the HELL did I just read?

I don’t know.

And I don't know if anybody cares about Nat Hentoff any more. But just from this novel he was an odd guy who doesn't seem to really want to tell you what the hell he is writing about.

I found the book at a never before visited used bookstore across town and felt obligated to at least buy a papernack book and I vaguely recognized Hentoff’s name and took a chance.

[Joel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew Nat Hentoff from his jazz connections and liner notes, so was interested to read this mystery, expecting it to be set in the jazz world. Unfortunately, it was not. There are a few passages in passing related to jazz, and in those instances, Hentoff’s devotion and expertise shines through. The rest focuses on the seedy world of New York and the work of the police precinct. Several murders and cases take place, but they don’t tie together and end up fizzling. Not much of a mystery and a pretty depressing view of the city.

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pacing on this was good and the writing style felt a little forced at times but had some nice things in it too and it was easy to finish, but it was a bit of a weird read.
Politically it aged badly and it didn't make it out of the 80s. All the women were props, the only reason they mattered was as a way to motivate men but really, they could have been nixed. There was one overweight Jewish sad sack and the rest of the men were all full of themselves and self-congratulatory. I don't know.