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Dirty Bird Blues
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  • Published: 8 February 2022
  • ISBN: 9780593457931
  • Imprint: RH US Audio Adult
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $23.00

Dirty Bird Blues

Formats & editions
EBook
8 Feb 2022
Audiobook
8 Feb 2022
Paperback
1 Mar 2022
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A quietly influential force in African American literature and art, Clarence Major makes his Penguin Classics debut with the twenty-fifth-anniversary edition of Dirty Bird Blues
 
The PRH Audio book of Dirty Bird Blues by Clarence Major won a 2022 EARPHONE AWARD. Narrated by Dion Graham.
 
A Penguin Classic

Set in post-World War II Chicago and Omaha, the novel features Manfred Banks, a young, harmonica-blowing blues singer who is always writing music in his head. Torn between his friendships with fellow musicians and nightclub life and his responsibilities to his wife and child, along with the pressures of dealing with a racist America that assaults him at every turn, Manfred seeks easy answers in "Dirty Bird" (Old Crow whiskey) and in moving on. He moves to Omaha with hopes of better opportunities as a blue-collar worker, but the blues in his soul and the dreams in his mind keep bringing him back to face himself. After a nightmarish descent into his own depths, Manfred emerges with fresh awareness and possibility. Through Manfred, we witness and experience the process by which modern American English has been vitalized and strengthened by the poetry and the poignancy of the African-American experience. As Manfred struggles with the oppressive constraints of society and his private turmoil, his rich inner voice resonates with the blues.
  • Published: 8 February 2022
  • ISBN: 9780593457931
  • Imprint: RH US Audio Adult
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $23.00
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Praise for Dirty Bird Blues

"Clarence Major has a remarkable mind and the talent to match."--Toni Morrison

"For over forty-five years Clarence major has been on the cutting edge of literature..."--Richard Price

"Clarence Major is a consummate artist..."--Ana Castillo

"A measure of Clarence Major's skill is the ease with which he both evokes Chicago with a few choice brush strokes, and then, later, builds a portrait of 1950 Omaha that is a portrait of the blues itself, thriving in small, dark clubs in small towns where the weary gather for solace on the weekends. (...) The structure of the novel, the underlying hope of the novel, the very gestalt of Man's world is blues-based. Major's book is studded with bits of it -- some traditional, some original, all of it wonderfully evocative."--Thomas Cobb, The Washington Post

"Language is central to "Dirty Bird Blues"--how it echoes from the folk traditions Banks brought north from Georgia, how it bubbles up from the joys and sorrows of his own life, how African American speech continues to shape the majority dialect in ways today's rappers have demonstrated all over again."--Michael Harris, The Los Angeles Times

"As Major traces his hero's struggle to understand himself and control his demons, he thrills us with some of the wittiest, most melodious inner dialogue ever written and moves us with dramatic confrontations between loved ones that are remarkable for their sensitivity, authenticity, and significance." --Donna Seaman, Booklist