Price: $15.95 - $14.41
(as of Aug 02, 2024 00:09:50 UTC – Details)
“[A] compelling debut…Townsend’s writing [is] full of fresh turns of phrase and keen insights.” ―Ayana Mathis, New York Times Book Review
Fourteen-year-old Audrey Martin, with her Poindexter glasses and her head humming the 3/4 meter of gospel music, knows she’ll never get out of Kentucky―but when her fingers touch the piano keys, the whole church trembles. Her best friend, Caroline, daydreams about Hollywood stardom, but both girls feel destined to languish in a slow-moving stopover town in Montgomery County.
That is, until chance intervenes and a booking agent offers Audrey a ticket to join the booming jazz scene in Harlem―an offer she can’t resist, not even for Caroline. And in New York City the music never stops. Audrey flirts with love and takes the stage at the Apollo, with its fast-dancing crowds and blinding lights. But fortunes can turn fast in the city―young talent means tough competition, and for Audrey failure is always one step away. Meanwhile, Caroline sinks into the quiet anguish of a Black woman in a backwards country, where her ambitions and desires only slip further out of reach.
Jacinda Townsend’s remarkable first novel is a coming-of-age story made at once gripping and poignant by the wild energy of the Jazz Era and the stark realities of segregation. Marrying musical prose with lyric vernacular, Saint Monkey delivers a stirring portrait of American storytelling and marks the appearance of an auspicious new voice in literary fiction.
ASIN : 0393350827
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; Reprint edition (February 2, 2015)
Language : English
Paperback : 368 pages
ISBN-10 : 9780393350821
ISBN-13 : 978-0393350821
Item Weight : 10.4 ounces
Dimensions : 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
Customers say
Customers find the story compelling and the foreshadowing perfect. They also praise the writing style as beautiful and detailed. Opinions are mixed on the characters, with some finding them rich and visionary, while others say they didn’t develop enough.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
