Synopses & Reviews
In 1949, Sonny-Rett Payne, a jazz pianist, fled New York for Paris to escape both his family's disapproval of his music and the racism that shadowed his career. Now, decades later, his eight-year-old grandson is brought to Payne's old Brooklyn neighborhood to attend a memorial concert in his honor. The child's visit reveals the persistent family and community rivalries that drove his grandfather into exile.
The Fisher King -- a moving story of jazz, love, family conflict, and the artists' struggles in society -- offers hope in the healing and redemptive power of one memorable boy.
Review
Edwidge Danticat The Washington Post The Fisher King masterfully carries us back and forth between the streets of Paris and the brownstones of Brooklyn, among French, American, Caribbean, and African-American cultures, and between a present that can't be avoided and a past that won't be dismissed....This is one of those novels that you will be reading again and again for many years.
Review
Valerie Boyd Atlanta Journal-Constitution Lean and beautifully written, this novel -- like the jazz at its core -- swings and soars and deeply satisfies.
Review
San Francisco Chronicle Paule Marshall is one of our finest American novelists. Applauded by critics, treasured by readers, her books not only attest to her great gifts as a storyteller, they are also filled with the particular blend of wisdom, generosity, humor, and passion that has distinguished her writing over the years.James McBride Author of The Color of Water Paule Marshall is a superb writer and a true creative spirit. Her work over the years has inspired many younger writers, including myself.Grace Paley Author of Just As I Thought Two intransigent old women, a couple of gentrified Brooklyn brownstones generations past Brown Girl, Brownstones, a son -- a jazz musician -- driven in those years to Paris, a lovely French-speaking grandson at his grandfather's pianola, other voices, lives, four generations looking at one another. A solid stubborn?beautiful?book. ?The New Yorker When Marshall writes about those she truly loves, she cannot be resisted. She brings an instinctive understanding, a generosity, and a free humor that combines to form a style remarkable for its courage, its color, and its natural control.
Synopsis
Paule Marshall, the highly acclaimed author of the classic Brown Girl, Brownstones, returns to a Brooklyn setting in this moving and revelatory story of jazz, class, and family conflict over four generations. In 1949, Sonny-Rett Payne, a jazz pianist, fled New York for Paris to escape both his family's disapproval of his music and the racism that shadowed his career. Now, decades later, his eight-year-old grandson is brought to Payne's old Brooklyn neighborhood to attend a memorial concert in his honor. The child's visit reveals the persistent family and community rivalries that drove his grandfather into exile.
The Fisher King--a moving story of jazz, love, family conflict, and the artists' struggles in society--offers hope in the healing and redemptive power of one memorable boy.
About the Author
Paule Marshall holds a distinguished chair in the Graduate Creative Writing Program at New York University. She has won many awards, including the John Dos Passos Award for Literature, an American Book Award, and a MacArthur Fellowship. She lives in New York City and Richmond, Virginia.