Josephine Baker's Last Dance: The Story of A 20th Century African American Performer

I won Josephine Baker's Last Dance by Sherry Jones about two years ago through Goodreads Giveaways and I recently finished reading it.  Yes, I know.  I'm a disgrace.  It's just that I tend to prioritize blog tours because I need to post on a definite date. Then there's the authors, publishers and publicists who contact me directly about a book asking me to review it within a certain time frame.  Having a specific deadline works best for me.   Goodreads Giveaways don't even require reviews.  I still like to post reviews of those I won from that source when I have the time.  The last time I reviewed a Goodreads Giveaway win, it was 2019, and I reviewed it only on Goodreads. That's what I tend to do when the review is going to be relatively short, and I haven't been asked to review the book on a blog.

I've read three novels by Sherry Jones previously.  The first two were the books devoted to Mohammed's daughter, Aisha.  They were The Jewel of Medina and The Sword of Medina which I reviewed on Goodreads.  I participated in the blog tour for Jones' Heloise and Abelard novel, The Sharp Hook of Love. That post appeared on this blog here .   I didn't expect that it would take this long for a review of a  fourth Sherry Jones book to appear.

                                           

                              

I've never read a novel about Josephine Baker.  In fact, the only other one that I found online is a graphic novel that can be found on Goodreads  here.  So Josephine Baker is an unusual subject for a novel.  I had heard of her, and wanted to know more about her life.  That's the reason I entered the Goodreads giveaway.

 Although Josephine Baker was born in the U.S., as a Black woman she couldn't be a great star in  America during the first half of the 20th century, as she was in Paris.  This is why she lived in Paris for almost her entire adult life.  The French song that is most associated with her,  "J'ai Deux Amours" expressed her affection for her two loves, her country and Paris.  As a narrator, Sherry Jones commented that her country didn't love her back.  When she was in the U.S. , Josephine had to contend with race prejudice and segregation.   She wasn't immune to them because of her success in Paris.  She came back to the United States at one point with the purpose of organizing a campaign against segregation.  I had no idea that Josephine Baker had briefly been a civil rights activist during the 1950's.  I considered that aspect of her life, the biggest revelation in Josephine Baker's Last Dance.

I tried to understand Josephine Baker's orientation toward marriage. On the one hand, she seemed to believe that she ought to marry a man if she was in love with him.  This happened a number of times.  On the other hand, she didn't want a man to control her life.  Husbands and men who aspired to be her husband were likely to try to make decisions for her.  One man who wasn't legally married to her actually pulled off a masterful effort to keep Josephine under his thumb that I  thought was only possible for husbands.  I could only imagine that she was too involved in her career to notice what he had done.   I am happy to say that she extricated herself from that adverse situation without the help of a man. 

My only disappointment with this book is that Sherry Jones tantalized me with the idea of Josephine Baker as a pilot, but never gave me any more than two bare mentions of it.  I love reading about women in the history of aviation, and in fact woman pilots is a major focus of this blog.   So don't tell me that Josephine owned a plane and had flying skills, but never give me even one scene of her flying.  I felt deprived.   I would have given this book five stars on Goodreads if  there had been piloting sequences during the period of Josephine's life when I thought it most likely that this could have happened. 

I could have loved Josephine Baker's Last Dance, though I did like what we were given very much.  Josephine was really an extraordinary woman with great gifts that have lived on in the history of performing artists. Yet I did want to have more detail about her contributions in other areas.   Perhaps another author will one day write that Josephine Baker novel.  On that day, I will celebrate.

 

Betty & Coretta

I'm probably talking about a movie you've already watched or recorded, but just in case...and because there's still time (supposed to be showing on Lifetime the entire month of February), I'm going to post about it anyway.


You've heard that saying...behind every great man, there's a great woman...and this movie is about the great women behind Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

We never hear much about them. After all, these women were trailblazers in a time when women "belonged at home."

Betty was pregnant, with no home and no money when Malcolm was murdered--in front of her and her daughters. Most women would whither up into a ball and cry. You know what she did? Raised 6 daughters, bought a family home with the money from her husband's autobiography, got her college degree (phD), began teaching, spoke against people using her husband's name to commit violence. And oh, she had a radio show too, the first in the area that was "black-owned." Not trying to be un-politically correct, but quoting the movie.

Coretta spent the rest of her life fighting to get her husband his national holiday and speaking to empower WOMEN, not just African Americans. She was by Betty's side often. She had her home and her privacy invaded, her marriage mocked.

Had their men joined forces while alive, history may have been different. As it was, these women had no choice but to do it for them--unite under the same cause, with the same mission.

The real Martin & Coretta

They were very different...Betty thought protecting her children from Malcolm's death was the answer. She fought to shield them in every way--possibly leaving them somewhat unprepared for the real world and who they were, as we see in Malcolm's daughter throughout the movie. Coretta gathered all her children a mere four days after Martin's death and marched with thousands in the very city he was killed.

Loved this movie. Bout time the women got some recognition. Superb performances from all actresses. I also liked how the movie showed us the aftermath of death for the children--Malcolm's daughter. I appreciated that twist. My only quibble: I'd have left out the Martin messing around bit. No need to defile the man's reputation.

HUGE OMG moment: Betty's death. Very sad. I did not know that happened.

Lifetime. Set your DVRs.

Clarabelle's Rose by Judy Kashi

A brutal tale. Very brutal...about how bigotry and racism destroys lives and families...about what it's like to be raised in it, to face it, to fight it.

The main players:

Clarabelle is at first a snotty white trash chick. The more you read about her background though, the more you can see why. She's raised to be one. She's beaten on a daily basis for anything and everything, foul words and language is just ingrained into her, racism and hatred... Her father is a klansman. Her only escape--she thinks--is her boyfriend. He's a prick who is just using her till he joins the Army. (I didn't care for him appearing later in the book. Though, it ties in with the people can change theme.)

Sara is an African American woman whose husband was lynched by Clarabelle's father. She struggles with grief and making a new life for her and her daughters in a world that hates her due to her skin color. She rises above but later in the story, when the truth about her Clarabelle is revealed, she hates too.

Rose is Clarabelle's daughter and the result of a rape. She's half black/half white. Sometimes she hates white people, sometimes she want to paint herself so she can be like them and life will be easy...

There's a kind Jewish family, a man grappling with his faith, a lawyer who breaks the law for justic... Readers literally see it from all sides. No end to the heartbreak. Even the ending contained brutality. But the story shows that people change and you CAN rise above your beginnings and you DON'T have to hate like you may have been taught.

I'd recommend it, but there was quite a few editorial issues such as missing commas, misspelled words, and odd sentences that made me do a double take. With another solid round of editing, it would be great. It was a brutal but extremely engaging story that sucked me in.

Four bikes. I received this from the author in exchange for an honest review.