A Free State

Wow, this short (235 pages) novel packs a punch. Author Tom Piazza chooses the mid 19th century, a time of slavery and Colonial State polarity, to exam the phenomenon of Minstrelsy Entertainment. This is a time where the North and the South were divided upon the idea of slavery. Yet, Minstrelsy invo......more

I just finished this book and I'm not sure what I think. It was very much not what I expected. I thought it was going to be about the "free state" of Jones in the civil war. But that's my own fault for not reading the synopsis more carefully. The book was well written and was mostly told from the unu......more

**3.75** I enjoyed this little book with its big themes and its spotlight on a little-known form of entertainment during the mid-1800s: minstrelsy – the musical/theatrical minstrel shows involving white men who blackened their faces with burnt cork and took to the stage, parodying slave life. This sli......more

(Note: Tom Piazza is a friend of mine.) This is a novel that will shake you--rapturously beautiful descriptions of the joy and freedom music brings, the degradation that American Slavery brought to everyone touched by it--and most Americans were--it all comes together in this story of escaped slaver......more

Not the most eloquent writing, but a suspenseful and evocative tale, definitely putting me squarely in the weird, delusional society of mid-19th-Century America. And of course, one can't help but draw parellels to the weird, delusional society of today.......more