Joplin's Ghost.Joplin's Ghost by Tananarive Due Tananarive Due (tuh-NAN-uh-reev DOO; born 1966) is an American author. Due is originally from Florida. Her mother is civil rights activist Patricia Stephens Due.[] Due earned a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern University and an M.A. Atria Atria The heart has four chambers. The right and left atria are at the top of the heart and receive returning blood from the veins. The right and left ventricles are at the bottom of the heart and act as the body's main pumps. Books, September 2005 $25, ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m 0-743-44903-8 Due is often described as a horror writer, but her smart, original stories seem to transcend the genre. In her most recent novel, Due tells the story of a singer who is haunted--quite literally--by the long deceased composer and ragtime ragtime: see jazz. ragtime U.S. popular music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries distinguished by its heavily syncopated rhythm. Ragtime found its characteristic expression in formally structured piano compositions, the accented left-hand king Scott Joplin Noun 1. Scott Joplin - United States composer who was the first creator of ragtime to write down his compositions (1868-1917) Joplin . That singer is Phoenix Smalls, a beautiful, young R&B artist who dreams of producing music on her own terms. While on tour, Phoenix stops in St. Louis for a performance and, at her father's insistence, visits Scott Joplin's home, which has been preserved as a historical site. When she leaves the house, however, Joplin's ghost follows. Soon, Phoenix is caught in a struggle between Joplin's world and her own, and she is forced to choose between the love of a man who once broke her heart and her growing connection to the seductive ghost who wants to make her his own. Due has a gift for creating memorable characters and part of her storytelling success stems from her willingness to do things a little differently. Her novels regularly feature men and women from across the African Diaspora--from the Ethiopian immortals in My Soul to Keep (HarperCollins, 1997) to a Creole magician in The Good House (Atria Books, 2003). In Joplin's Ghost, the major players are also multicultural--Phoenix's mother is Jewish, her father is African American African American Multiculture A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. See Race. and her boyfriend is Afro-Latino; this adds an extra layer to the characters' interactions. While Phoenix is the protagonist, many of the other characters are just as interesting, and some are so intriguing that you wish that Due had developed them a bit further. Due's Joplin is a tragic figure, and the author does a fantastic job of exploring who the composer was and how his experiences were shaped by the times in which he lived. Due is a master of tightly woven, convincing and complex plots. Every supernatural encounter magnifies the evil that threatens Phoenix's life, and readers should feel well prepared for the books' dramatic conclusion. Joplin's Ghost lacks the emotional appeal of some of her earlier works, however, and sometimes it's difficult to connect with and care about these characters. It's also possible that there are simply too many voices present. --Reviewed by Denise Simon Denise Simon is a writer in Brooklyn, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . |
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