Dirty Bird Blues

Clarence Major is an avant-garde novelist, short-story writer, and poet known for his bold experiments with language and style. What many don't know, however, is that Major can be a fine storyteller, capable of bringing his formidable talents to more conventional narrative forms as in this novel. This is the story of Manfred Banks, a blues musician in the early 1950s. We follow Man, as he's nicknamed, as he tries to woo his estranged wife, Cleo, as he struggles to make a living playing his music in Chicago, and then leaves for Omaha, where he finds work in a steel mill, and a weekend gig playing in a bar. When Cleo rejoins him things look as if they are finally coming together, but this is the kind of man for whom the blues line "if it wasn't for no luck, I wouldn't have no luck at all" was written. Major has written a fine, compelling novel, with language and characters as rich as the blues songs that are its inspiration.