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Twelve Bar Blues
‘Twelve Bar Blues’ was published by Viking in May 2001. It won some rave reviews (beneath) and some shit ones (beneath contempt). It also won what was then called the Whitbread Novel Prize in 2001.
What the blurb says:
Spanning three continents and two centuries, Twelve Bar Blues is an epic tale of fate, family, friendship and jazz. At its heart is Lick Holden, a young jazz musician, who sets New Orleans on fire with his cornet at the beginning of the last century. But Lick’s passion is to find his lost step-sister and that’s a journey that leads him to a place he can call ‘home’. Meanwhile, at the other end of the century, we find Sylvia, an English prostitute, and Jim, a young drifter. They’re in search of Sylvia’s past, lost somewhere in the mists of the Louisiana bayou.
Patrick Neate has written a story that straddles time and space, love and friendship, roots and pilgrimage and everything between. Poignant and hilarious, it will hook you – like a favourite tune – till the end.
What the critics say:
‘If I could choose one current British writer to tell tall tales around my fantasy campfire, it would be Patrick Neate’ Daily Telegraph
‘Hugely enjoyable’ Independent on Sunday
‘An endearing romp. Continents, and eras, come together in an infectious celebration of a mixed-up music – and the mixed-up people who create it’ Boyd Tonkin, Independent
‘A rollicking novel … energetic, divinely plotted. If the description of Lick raising the roof of a honkytonk doesn’t make your heart beat a little faster, there might be something wrong with your heart’ The Times
‘Truly epic … consistently pleasing and worthwhile’ The Face
‘A sprawling, raucous tale spanning two centuries … digging deep into the lives of African chieftains, New Orleans prostitutes and the musical heritage of the Deep South … A formidable work of imagination. ’ Evening Standard
‘Stories are the lifeblood of Patrick Neate’s fiction – his novels, like Salman Rushdie’s, are full of them and simultaneously fascinated by them. His playful touch belies the emotional pull of his poetry: his skill is to entertain and enchant while quietly picking away at his reader’s hearts’ Metro
‘A genre-crossing peach of a fiction that neatly intertwines raucous tales of post-colonial Africa with lives of turn-of-the-century American prostitutes and jazz musicians. Vivid, bold and energetic … an engaging and imaginative novel’ Guardian
‘A century of jazz, blues and lost love, Neate’s energetic novel has its heart in the bars of America’s Deep South … a moving tale’ Marie Claire
‘Scurries enthusiastically through jazz dens of New Orleans, a post-colonial African village, London and New York. Fast-paced, funny and entertaining’ Economist
'Entertaining. . . . An anything-goes melting-pot hybrid of Ragtime and White Teeth.' The Los Angeles Times
'Neate has crafted a sprawling, ambitious work of fiction. . . . It's relatively rare, the novel that successfully captures the can't-quite-put-into-words feel of music. . . . Neate, while acknowledging music's mystery and indefinable qualities, takes that silence and turns it into living literature.' The San Francisco Chronicle
'Tale spinners, yarn weavers and myth makers are sprinkled like cayenne pepper on a Crescent City crawfish plate throughout Twelve Bar Blues, an atmospheric, expertly layered piece of literary fiction.' The St. Petersburg Times
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