Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, Deacon King Kong, and Five-Carat Soul
Kill 'Em and Leave is more than a book about James Brown. Brown embodied the contradictions of American life: He was an unsettling symbol of the tensions between North and South, black and white, rich and poor. After receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth, James McBride goes in search of the "real" James Brown. McBride's travels take him to forgotten corners of Brown's never-before-revealed history, illuminating not only our understanding of the immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated Godfather of Soul, but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown's enduring legacy.
Praise for Kill 'Em and Leave
"A tour de force of cultural reportage."--The Seattle Times
"Thoughtful and probing."--The New York Times Book Review
"Masterly . . . powerful."--Los Angeles Review of Books
"McBride provides something lacking in most of the books about James Brown: an intimate feeling for the musician, a veracious if inchoate sense of what it was like to be touched by him. . . . It may be as close [to 'the real James Brown'] as we'll ever get."--David Hajdu, The Nation
"A feat of intrepid journalistic fortitude."--USA Today
"[McBride is] the biographer of James Brown we've all been waiting for. . . . McBride's true subject is race and poverty in a country that doesn't want to hear about it, unless compelled by a voice that demands to be heard."--Boris Kachka, New York
"Illuminating . . . engaging."--The Washington Post
"A gorgeously written piece of reportage that gives us glimpses of Brown's genius and contradictions."--O: The Oprah Magazine
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Community Reviews
My only complaint about the book was that I felt McBride was too light handed in addressing Brown's abusive behavior, particularly toward women. He didn't ignore Brown's challenging personality traits, but he definitely downplayed Brown's habit of hitting women, and I got the sense that it in no way impacted McBride's esteem for Brown -- that McBride views Brown's flaws as merely part of his perfection. I would have appreciated some sense of disappointment conveyed over this aspect of who he was. But all in all, it was an excellent book and a pleasure to read. I learned a lot about pretty much everything.
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