Oh, Play That Thing (Volume 2 of The Last Roundup)
Registered by HoserLauren of Burlington, Ontario Canada on 1/29/2012
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
I received this book quite a while ago but never registered it.
From Chapters:
On the last page of "A Star Called Henry", the first volume of the "The Last Roundup" trilogy, we left Henry Smart on the run from his Republican paymasters, the men for whom he had perpetrated murder and mayhem. He flees from Dublin to Liverpool and from thence to Ellis Island, New York, America. And this is where "Oh, Play That Thing" begins...It's 1924, and New York is the centre of the universe. Henry falls on his feet, as a handsome man with a sandwich board, and - this being Prohibition - behind his sandwich board a stash of hooch for the speakeasies of the Lower East Side. When he starts hiring kids to carry boards for him, he catches the attention of the mobsters who run the district and soon there are eyes on his back and men in the shadows. It is time to leave, for another America: Chicago. In Chicago, there is no past waiting to jump on Henry. The place is wild, as new as he is, and newest of all is the music. Furious, wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. His music is everywhere, coming from every open door, every phonograph. But Armstrong is a prisoner of his colour; there are places a black man cannot go, things he cannot do. And the mob is in Chicago too: they own every stage - and they own the man up on the stage. Armstrong needs a man, a white man, and the man he chooses is Henry Smart. This is a novel of prodigious energy and invention. Its language and its rhythms are as breathtaking as the music it celebrates. It shows yet again that as a writer Roddy Doyle is unequalled in his vision, his ambition, his ability to surprise us with each new novel. It is nothing less than a triumph.
From Chapters:
On the last page of "A Star Called Henry", the first volume of the "The Last Roundup" trilogy, we left Henry Smart on the run from his Republican paymasters, the men for whom he had perpetrated murder and mayhem. He flees from Dublin to Liverpool and from thence to Ellis Island, New York, America. And this is where "Oh, Play That Thing" begins...It's 1924, and New York is the centre of the universe. Henry falls on his feet, as a handsome man with a sandwich board, and - this being Prohibition - behind his sandwich board a stash of hooch for the speakeasies of the Lower East Side. When he starts hiring kids to carry boards for him, he catches the attention of the mobsters who run the district and soon there are eyes on his back and men in the shadows. It is time to leave, for another America: Chicago. In Chicago, there is no past waiting to jump on Henry. The place is wild, as new as he is, and newest of all is the music. Furious, wild, happy music played by a man with a trumpet and bleeding lips called Louis Armstrong. His music is everywhere, coming from every open door, every phonograph. But Armstrong is a prisoner of his colour; there are places a black man cannot go, things he cannot do. And the mob is in Chicago too: they own every stage - and they own the man up on the stage. Armstrong needs a man, a white man, and the man he chooses is Henry Smart. This is a novel of prodigious energy and invention. Its language and its rhythms are as breathtaking as the music it celebrates. It shows yet again that as a writer Roddy Doyle is unequalled in his vision, his ambition, his ability to surprise us with each new novel. It is nothing less than a triumph.
Journal Entry 2 by HoserLauren at LFL - Turner Dr. in Burlington, Ontario Canada on Saturday, August 13, 2022
Released 1 yr ago (8/14/2022 UTC) at LFL - Turner Dr. in Burlington, Ontario Canada
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I've been doing some bookshelf cleaning and I've had this book for too long, time to share! I'll be giving these to someone to help populate a little free library in Mississauga. To the finder of this book: I hope you enjoy reading this book. Please keep it or set it free when you're done. If the book is of no interest to you, please release it into the wild for someone else to find and enjoy. I hope you will make a journal entry so its journey can be tracked and to let me know the book has been found. You can remain anonymous if you wish, but if you join BookCrossing, you are in for a great experience.
I found this book in a front yard library in Burlington, Ontario I look forward to reading it.
UPATE: The book was fast paced, in general I was more interested in the supporting characters than Henry Smart. He certainly had an interesting life, curious what happened next but not enough to seek out the first or next book. The times and places Henry Smart traveled interested me. Perhaps if I read the first book in the series first I would have enjoyed the book more.
UPATE: The book was fast paced, in general I was more interested in the supporting characters than Henry Smart. He certainly had an interesting life, curious what happened next but not enough to seek out the first or next book. The times and places Henry Smart traveled interested me. Perhaps if I read the first book in the series first I would have enjoyed the book more.
Journal Entry 4 by LFLHunter at LFL - Phoebe Cres. in Burlington, Ontario Canada on Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Released 1 yr ago (9/6/2022 UTC) at LFL - Phoebe Cres. in Burlington, Ontario Canada
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
Leaving in a front yard library in hopes the person who finds this book makes a journal entry. You can join Bookcrossing or remain anonymous. Tell us what you thought of the book or where you found or left it.
