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Rating: 
Summary: Had Promise
Review: Griffin's opening chapter is interesting and effectively presented, and by itself would make an adequate article on Holiday's life. There's not enough content here to warrant a book, and, in fact, it reads more like a first-year graduate student's paper than a text polished for publication. It seems that Griffin favored the copy and paste method here, repeating herself, literally, at times, in subsequent chapters, word for word, from previous chapters. This was not done to lend the text a wondeful insularity or elipticalness...I think she was just confused as to what to say and where to go. That Griffin adores Holiday is clear, but her worship of this Jazz Diva doesn't translate well into postmodern theory, and the pomo buzzwords Griffin sprinkles throughout the text seem to hinder her own understanding of and relationship with Holiday and to her music...Ultimately, the author ends up sounding disingenous and uncertain and not quite cognizant of the social politics she purports to examine and explain. Still, the glimpses we do get of Holiday stand out and shine marvelously.
Rating:
Summary: Had Promise
Review: Griffin's opening chapter is interesting and effectively presented, and by itself would make an adequate article on Holiday's life. There's not enough content here to warrant a book, and, in fact, it reads more like a first-year graduate student's paper than a text polished for publication. It seems that Griffin favored the copy and paste method here, repeating herself, literally, at times, in subsequent chapters, word for word, from previous chapters. This was not done to lend the text a wondeful insularity or elipticalness...I think she was just confused as to what to say and where to go. That Griffin adores Holiday is clear, but her worship of this Jazz Diva doesn't translate well into postmodern theory, and the pomo buzzwords Griffin sprinkles throughout the text seem to hinder her own understanding of and relationship with Holiday and to her music...Ultimately, the author ends up sounding disingenous and uncertain and not quite cognizant of the social politics she purports to examine and explain. Still, the glimpses we do get of Holiday stand out and shine marvelously.
Rating: 
Summary: Thank you for the insight
Review: I'm a graduate social work student and I recently wrote a paper about Billie for a class on counseling creative clients. From a strengths perspective, Billie's life was a creative success. She lived true to herself and she lived for herself. Given the enormous odds she faced, as a black woman in that time period, she overcame much. Ms. Griffin has done her justice and I highly recommend her book.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but flawed
Review: This book promises much but delivers little....which is a great pity since it could have been a much better book than it is. Part of the problem lies in the fact that it is not well written and is in severe need of editing. The book is repetitive in the extreme (see p. 181 for a glaring example - where we are told in two CONSECUTIVE sentences that Abbey Lincoln was under consideration to play Billie Holiday in a filmed version of Lady Sings The Blues). Other examples involve being told something, and then two or three pages later the same information is repeated. This is sloppy and shows that the author (or her editors) did not bother to proofread the manuscript in any meaningful way. The other problem with the book is that it offers little in the way of insight. Sure the author has some ideas - but they are not enough to stretch out over the length of a book. It might have made an interesting presentation at a conference where it could have been presented as a 20 minute talk, but over the length of a book it becomes tiresome. Billie Holiday deserves better than this. Sorry to be so negative, but i bought this book with a great sense of anticipation and felt really let down by it. A real case of the critic not being up to the level of her subject.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting but flawed
Review: This book promises much but delivers little....which is a great pity since it could have been a much better book than it is. Part of the problem lies in the fact that it is not well written and is in severe need of editing. The book is repetitive in the extreme (see p. 181 for a glaring example - where we are told in two CONSECUTIVE sentences that Abbey Lincoln was under consideration to play Billie Holiday in a filmed version of Lady Sings The Blues). Other examples involve being told something, and then two or three pages later the same information is repeated. This is sloppy and shows that the author (or her editors) did not bother to proofread the manuscript in any meaningful way. The other problem with the book is that it offers little in the way of insight. Sure the author has some ideas - but they are not enough to stretch out over the length of a book. It might have made an interesting presentation at a conference where it could have been presented as a 20 minute talk, but over the length of a book it becomes tiresome. Billie Holiday deserves better than this. Sorry to be so negative, but i bought this book with a great sense of anticipation and felt really let down by it. A real case of the critic not being up to the level of her subject.
Rating:
Summary: Something to do Billie Holiday a little Justice
Review: This book serves to show yet another side of Lady Day. Despite a tendancy to repeat herself, Farah Jasmine Griffith gets her point across eloquently. She peals away layers created by media, stereotypes, and the politics of her time that hide a complex, intelligent and more human Holiday. Fans of the Lady will enjoy this newest edition to the collection of writings about her.
Rating: 
Summary: A brilliant work
Review: This is a brilliant analysis, rumination, meditation, on Billie Holiday. I believe the previous reviewers who did not agree with me missed Professor Griffin's use of jazz phrasing within the prose of her work, the reworking and repetition of themes to provide new insight. It is a technique that perhaps would only be understandable to a jazz lover, but it is part of the creative wisdom of this piece. This is the best work on Billie Holiday that I have ever read and I highly recommend it. And incidentally, Dr. Griffin is one of the most respected scholars of African American and American Studies, so she should never be compared to a first year graduate student. I suggest readers check out her other work as well.
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