Valaida

by Candace Allen

Book Overview

Valaida listened hard. After the melody's intro and Earl's left-hand-to-right-hand cascades of piano sound, her space opened, and Valaida jumped in. She blew. She entered the music, saw the chords, embellishes, the references to other songs as plain as day behind her eyeballs, and she used them. She jumped from bar to bar like a benzine-fueled billy goat. She didn't miss. She hit her peaks and whinnied in triumph. In the nebular light of the Terrace's...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1844081729
• ISBN13: 9781844081721
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Virago Press (UK)
• Length: 504 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Kind of a letter to Ms Allen

Ms Allen, What is it in your way of writing that I liked so much? Something that reminds me of Toni Morrison (a favorite)... Yes, I have it: a special knowledge ! You KNOW what you wrote about, you researched it well and long, you heard Valaida play (on records, no doubt), you lived it in your mind and your heart... It consumed you for a long time and you wrote, you wrote, you wrote. Maybe a bit too much, it is (maybe) a bit overlong book but... I ADORED IT! (I could make critics, some bits & pieces of it but I prefer to only say that.) I write myself, never like you or Morrison, but I can feel all the work behind such a great novel, its panoramic scope, the polka dots of all the people and the places in it. And to agree with another reviewer here: As Spielberg made a great movie with Alice Walker's Color Purple, your book would do an extraordinary movie or series. I must thank you for bringing Valaida Snow to life. Who else could you write about? Sincerely.