![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Even the minor characters, like Mrs Jew the martial arts teacher, or Cochise Jones the musician, have surprising depths to their personalities. The characters have their own complex lives, some outrageous and some fairly banal, so that I felt curious about all of them, wanting to understand more about them and how their stories would develop. But Chabon gives them a history and culture that are quirky, comic and touching. I would not expect to be very interested in the story of two businessmen trying to keep Brokeland, their record shop, going, even when the story includes the threat of a mega music retailer planning to move into their neighbourhood. I was completely drawn into the story because of the characters: although most of them are ordinary folks getting through life, they are trying to work out complex issues. And it’s fun to read, with 500 pages of creative, apt prose. A comic novel that leads into all kinds of unexpected corners, this novel takes us into revolutionary politics and black exploitation films of the 1970s, the practice of midwifery in contemporary California, the tribulations of small business operators in Oakland, the second-hand jazz recording market, inter-racial relationships in the USA, fatherhood and the relations between two loner 14-year-olds. ![]()
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