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| "Reading The Horn" copyright 2019 Kristin Fouquet
In my childhood, it was customary for my parents to bring my brother and me to the French Market on Sundays to buy our weekly produce. It was on one of these occasions I heard the most amazing music. The song emitted through a radio owned by the man selling Creole tomatoes. I lingered to listen until my mother called for me. When I caught up, I asked about that music. Her reply, “Just jazz.” Despite being native to New Orleans, I wasn’t brought up in a household with jazz. It was up to me to learn the musicians and the songs- from trad jazz onward. Jazz became my favorite music.
Ten years ago, at the recommendation of the much-respected Carter Monroe, I read The Horn by John Clellon Holmes. It had such a deep effect on me, I recently decided to pick it up for another read. I’m so glad I did.
The Horn is considered the definitive jazz novel, so my humble opinion of it will hardly drive up sales. Yet, after rereading it, I was reminded of what impressed me a decade ago. Beyond the imaginative plot and poetic prose, is the cleverly crafted structure. The book itself is a song- consisting of alternating chapters of choruses and riffs. Each chorus offers a different musician’s viewpoint into the protagonist and his or her history with him. Every riff continues the present day into evening. I believe the literary first names of both horn players- the aged protagonist, Edgar, and his young challenger, Walden- are deliberately symbolic. Holmes was brilliantly observing how jazz has its own evolution much like literature has its own- proving The Horn is more than “just jazz.”
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"Reading Karen Lillis" copyright 2014 Kristin Fouquet Perpetual Poetry: Words Inspiring Words a review of The Paul Simon Project by Karen Lillis I have a confession to make. I am not a poet. I write fiction and I believe writing poetry is a completely different process. I love reading good poetry, but I am in no way a poetry scholar. These are the reasons I usually do not review poetry chapbooks. The Paul Simon Project by Karen Lillis is only my second exception to this rule. Influenced by Simon’s words and music on the album Still Crazy After All These Years , Lillis duplicates the song titles for her poems in this collection. Some follow a similar path as the subject of the song; others venture in their own direction. The album’s title song inspires a poem which mimics the melancholy and sentimentality of the original. Yet, she pumps it up with a contemporary edginess and gender reversal. In “M...
I'm certain I've read "The Horn" more times than any other novel. I simply keep coming back again and again.
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