Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Bitter Crop by Paul Alexander - Wait list

Bitter Crop

The Heartache and Triumph of Billie Holiday's Last Year

by Paul Alexander
Maya Days
Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Place a hold Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
0 of 1 copy available
A revelatory look at the tumultuous life of a jazz legend and American cultural icon
“A book written as only one artist could view another, with insight and sincere compassion.” —Sandra Cisneros, best-selling author of Woman Without Shame
In the first biography of Billie Holiday in more than two decades, Paul Alexander—author of heralded lives of Sylvia Plath and J. D. Salinger—gives us an unconventional portrait of arguably America’s most eminent jazz singer. He shrewdly focuses on the last year of her life—with relevant flashbacks to provide context—to evoke and examine the persistent magnificence of Holiday’s artistry when it was supposed to have declined, in the wake of her drug abuse, relationships with violent men, and run-ins with the law.
During her lifetime and after her death, Billie Holiday was often depicted as a down-on-her-luck junkie severely lacking in self-esteem. Relying on interviews with people who knew her, and new material unearthed in private collections and institutional archives, Bitter Crop—a reference to the last two words of Strange Fruit, her moving song about lynching—limns Holiday as a powerful, ambitious woman who overcame her flaws to triumph as a vital figure of American popular music.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    February 13, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593825471
      • File size: 345359 KB
      • Duration: 11:59:29

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 22, 2024
      Biographer Alexander (Rough Magic) traces in this stellar and sometimes-devastating account the remarkable life of a “jazz legend” whose voice “had nothing to do with reality but everything to do with the truth,” as poet Owen Dodson once put it. Using as a narrative frame the artist’s final year—during which she dealt with cirrhosis of the liver and professional setbacks—Alexander flashes back to defining events of Holiday’s life, including engaging in prostitution as a teen, struggling with alcoholism, spending stints in prison for narcotics possession, and entering into a string of abusive marriages, the last of which—to Louis McKay—lasted in name until her 1959 death, when he inherited her assets even though she’d planned on divorcing him. Despite such challenges, Holiday—who’d changed her name from Eleanora to the more commercial-sounding “Billie” in her late teens—emerges as an artist who felt most alive while performing and conveyed in her songs the often-dark truths of her life better than any journalist could. Chronicling Holiday’s career, Alexander covers in meticulous detail her early successes; collaborations and friendships (she developed an especially close relationship with saxophonist Lester Young); and the music itself, including 1958’s Lady in Satin, her penultimate album and a “masterpiece of longing and sorrow” made singular by her beautifully “damaged, tortured voice.” The result is an excellent biography befitting of its inimitable subject.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Performing this revealing look at the complexities of the revered jazz pioneer Billie Holiday, actress Maya Days connects with every ounce of the brilliance and tragedy of the singer's life. Strategic pauses in Days's phrasing and spot-on dialect for dialogue make her sentences sing with auditory variety. But it's her heartfelt resonance with Holiday's difficult life that makes the author's evocative writing so riveting. Despite Holiday's experiences with racism, her drug and alcohol history, and her long relationship with an exploitive, abusive romantic partner, she never felt like a victim. The details of her earlier life and her final year portray her as a lifelong survivor and a hustler, someone who knew what she wanted: to express her pathos, connect with audiences, and interpret songs like no one else. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      May 31, 2024

      Biographer Alexander (coauthor, The Deliberate Church) examines the life of jazz icon Billie Holiday, as seen through the lens of the last year of her life. Alexander's meticulously researched account details pivotal moments in Holiday's life. She grew up in extreme poverty, dropped out of school in the fifth grade, and was a sex worker during her teens. She is considered one of the greatest jazz singers, captivating audiences in the U.S. and Europe with her distinctive voice and musical phrasing. Even while performing with all the greats of the jazz era, she struggled with a string of abusive relationships and developed a serious substance-use disorder. Racial and gender discrimination added to her difficulties. She developed cirrhosis of the liver but refused medical advice and treatment, and during her last year, she continued to perform despite her health issues and harassment from U.S. government agencies. She died at age 44. Though Alexander's account is riveting, the flashback chronology makes the story hard to follow in audio. Additionally, Maya Days's uneven phrasing makes her narration jerky. VERDICT Although the audio is somewhat flawed, music aficionados will find much food for thought in this impressive biography of a remarkable artist and performer.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading