Memories Vision
Ken Coleman
Reviewed by Betty Gelean
Ken Coleman has put together a wonderfully historic pseudo-biography
that reads like a true interview of Queenie Jones, "most famous,
notorious, and controversial black female entertainer of all
time". I personally could not tell if this was a fictional
account of an actual person or straight fiction. This centenarian
has seen it all. The good, the bad, and the ugly, but mostly in
reverse order. Being a black girl in the south in the early 1900s
she witnesses the worst of America's history with the lynchings and
murders of black people just for being there. Some of her story
is reminiscent of that of Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday, Josephine
Baker and later even Eartha Kitt and more, in particular finding a safe
place to perform in France. But I am ahead of myself here.
Take a small girl who is very close to and admiring of her preacher
father, only to lose him when he was caught by white men when he went
after the light coloured boys who raped her at the young age of
14. Queenie was left with feelings of shame, guilt, and pregnant
as well. As she says "I deserved it. I was being punished for
being forward with boys. God was teaching me a lesson, one that took me
another fifty years to learn." This is the way her life began,
seeing children and men hung, stumbling over corpses, just because they
were black.
This is not necessarily the story of white vs. black though. This
is a story of love, of growth, of fame and fortune, and finally
peace. This is a running history of America as told from the lips
of one person who lived it all, the complete century. But it is
also a story of awakening.
For what seems an unfathomable reason and is not explained in the early
part of the book, Queenie has asked a young Jewish writer to come and
write her memoirs. Steven Eidleberg can not understand why she
has asked for him, and the most she would tell him was that one of his
stories showed insight and compassion, she called it brilliant,
Pulitzer Prize material. But throughout the book he can not shake
the feeling that more is involved.
The entire interviews are held in the hospital in secret while Queenie
reminisces but grows weaker with every day. The life she led as a
great, but raunchy, entertainer through the thirties to the sixties is
a revelation of how many did live. A big woman with a bigger
presence and amazing talent, her anger and lack of trust through those
years made her tough and scrappy, and placed her in situations where
only her great talent and fame saved her.
The interaction between these two extraordinarily different people is a
marvel to behold. Steven feels spellbound by the story and
believes this book will be his best writing ever. A story that
"needed to be told". But his devotion to both the story and to
Queenie herself causes a lot of rumbling in the Jewish community and
gradually affects his marriage, but he can not let go. So much of
the history of the black people he had very little idea of because it
was virtually ignored in the Jewish community, and yet there are
commonalities too, both races ostracized for different reasons.
Both are outcasts, and both are in a way segregated. The book
gives the reader a lot to ponder on these relationships and on the
history of both. Understanding how the blacks accepted their lot
is very psychological and I for one found these comparisons and
reasonings of great interest.
The book is packed with famous names in the black music genre and the
author has made it all feel very real and intense, and yet there is a
full retinue of feelings described and eventually dealt with as the
laws changed. There is an open joy in Queenie and yet she could
fist-fight with the best of them. She could pack any venue with
her talent. She survived the decades in whatever manner she was
able. She was still performing into her 70s, was internationally
famous, and always controversial and confrontational. A period of
time comes into her life that brings her into a relationship that
changes her completely.
What more can I say, there are surprises through the book, but
especially toward the end. There is humour, great insight, an
unusual but close connection between the writer and the singer as he
writes as fast as he can to get the full story before she passes
away. There is a wiseness in Queenie of age that probes Steven's
insecurities and blind acceptance of the life he leads as a Jew.
I particularly enjoyed one quote "when the student is ready, the
teacher will appear". How often true. The book is very
conversational in nature and I really enjoyed reading it. I feel
I learned from it too. Mr. Coleman has done a remarkable job of
writing the story in the voice of Queenie and of Steven, so much so
that it is difficult to remember it is a fictional story.