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Bitter Crop is an unconventional portrait of arguably America''s most eminent jazz singer. Acclaimed biographer Paul Alexander shrewdly focuses on the last year of her life - with relevant flashbacks to provide context - to evoke and examine the persistent magnificence of Holiday''s artistry when it was supposed to have declined, in the wake of her drug abuse, relationships with violent men, and run-ins with the law. During her lifetime and after her death, Billie Holiday was often depicted as a down-on-her-luck junkie severely lacking in self-esteem. Relying on interviews with people who knew her and new material unearthed in private collections and institutional archives, Bitter Crop limns Holiday as a powerful, ambitious woman who overcame her flaws to triumph as a vital figure of American popular music.
About the author
Paul Alexander has published eight books, among them
Rough Magic, a biography of Sylvia Plath, and
Salinger, a biography of J. D. Salinger that was the basis of the documentary
Salinger that appeared on PBS, Netflix and HBO. His nonfiction has appeared in numerous publications, including the
New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the
Boston Globe, Newsday, New York, the
Guardian, The Nation, the
Washington Post, and
Rolling Stone. He teaches at Hunter College in New York.
Summary
A revelatory look at the tumultuous life of a jazz legend and American cultural icon
Report
The unfinished life of Billie Holiday haunts us. In Bitter Crop, Paul Alexander tells her story in a way that could put her soul and our questions to rest GLORIA STEINEM
