Mark BinelliRezensionen

Once I finally started reading this book (which I received as an LT Early Reviewers book way back in 2015), I still only managed to read it in fits and starts over a period of several years. It spent most of that time languishing at the bottom of my TBR stack, all the while throwing me the stink eye.

Starting out, I was unclear whether the book was supposed to be read as a fictionalized biography of Hawkins or as something else, something weirder. Some sections read as straight-up biography, laying out facts in a journalistic style, providing block quotes, and even citing print sources, before transitioning into fictional-sounding vignettes that couldn’t possibly be true (could they . . . ?). That uncertainty bothered me more than it should have; nevertheless, the constant detours for Internet fact-checking proved off-putting to my reading experience.

The sequence of vignettes in the first fifty pages or so comes across mostly as a series of non sequiturs, bouncing back and forth through different periods in Hawkins’s life—sometimes interesting, but unsatisfying as a whole. I was looking for even a vaguely plotted through line to establish and anchor the narrative. After setting the book aside for months and then picking it up again around page sixty, I was able to read the main character as merely a fictional character, not agonizing anymore over whether I was reading a fictionalized account of a real person or not. I was at least enjoying much of the writing, if not the actual novel itself.

There’s a bit somewhere in the middle of the book about Jay’s myriad offspring meeting up at a reunion of sorts (an event that’s apparently based in fact), which struck me as a perfect ending to the novel. But sticking it in the middle, with no lead-in or follow-up, was a puzzling authorial choice, and left the remainder of the book feeling like a long, drawn-out epilogue of sorts.

Part of the back cover text uses the term “collage” in describing the book, and that’s very much what it is—a collection of intriguing pictures from Screaming’ Jay Hawkins’s life that manages to cover up an area on a blank wall with a lot of colorful images, but without painting a coherent and focused view of the man. This was an interesting but ultimately frustrating read that I probably would have enjoyed more if it had either been a straight biography of Hawkins or a novel featuring a character like him.½

Quite disappointed in this. To be honest, I didn't think it was that well written for one thing, nor was it well organised (individual chapters were okay, but the arrangement of material in there seemed haphazard). There was no overarching thesis, it was really just a collection of disjointed anecdotes and potted histories. Sometimes with some strange digressions. It all felt a bit perfunctory - as one example, the author sneaks in to watch the filming of a blockbuster movie in his old school; at some point, before the big denouement, he gets bored, goes home, gets high with his neighbour, regrets having left the shoot but (thankfully) decides against driving back, wakes up the next day and goes back to find everyone gone and a few remnants of the shoot. There seemed a certain lack of purpose in his examination.

He also rails against "ruin porn" and people who go exploring the abandoned buildings, with seemingly little awareness that, without that direction and organisation - without that seriousness of purpose - his book itself does not amount to much more than that.

I got bogged down occasionally and I wanted more pictures, but it was quite interesting. And discouraging.

I didn't really understand this book. I had never heard of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, but I know the song I Put A Spell On You. This book promised to be a fictionalized account of his life, filled with myth and truth.

So what's really true? What's fact?

I didn't care for the writing style. I never got to know Jay, really. He isn't portrayed in a sympathetic or flattering way. The narrative was disconnected. I like odd books but this one sure fell flat.

No spell on me, here.

You don't need to be from Detroit to enjoy this. You don't even need to have ever been there, I never have, and don't suppose I ever will. My only reference points for Detroit are Motown, Detroit Techno, Moodymann and Season 2 of the Crimetown podcast - which touches on some of the same ground. But what makes this interesting is its portrait as a city, not just in decline, but actually massively shrinking, and this allows for lyrical paens to industrial decay - or "ruin porn" and "urban prairie". Of course there are shoots of recovery, and these have increased since this book's publication, but Binelli explores whether a new economy, relying on a digital economy and urban farming can ever really create sufficient employment or economic activity to be truely viable.

Detroit has been badly administered, no doubt. Binelli describes monumental incompetence and corruption, services that are inconceivably bad for the world's wealthiest country, and a tsunami of crime. This is not without its moments - actually quite a few moments - of black humour, entertaining for the reader of course, but not so much for Detroit residents.

In short, and excellent piece of journalism

This is a rather experimental fictional biography of one of the world's biggest storytellers and most unknowable musicians, Screaming Jay Hawkins. Binelli puts his journalism background to good use and the known facts of Hawkins' life shine through as we move through childhood, military service, years on the road, brief stardom, jail time, and obscurity (not necessarily in that order). The tone is pitched just right for a biographical novel on Rock and Roll's own wild man, and the change in tone and time and rhythm match up to the music of the man. I liked this even more than I thought I would -- it's a risky genre that could have gone very wrong, but in this case went very right.

A fictionalized biography of Screamin' Jay Hawkins (1929-2000), the singer famous for the legendary song I Put a Spell on You. An early interest in opera may have sparked the idea for his presentation of the song by entering the stage in a coffin carried by six white-gloved pallbearers. Although choppy and not particularly well-written, Binelli does a decent job of depicting the life of this weird performer.

My daughter-in-law passed this one on to me otherwise it would not have come to my attention.½

Hawkins, best known for his hit "I Put A Spell On You" and his witch doctor stage get-up, was also a man who loved to tell tales about himself. He claimed to have been raised by a Blackfoot tribe, to have served in WWII at just fourteen years old, to have fathered 75 illegitimate children. Binelli takes these outlandish tales and creates realistic stories that layer into a man who led a remarkably full life. He meets other musical greats, along with getting career advice from Stan Freed, who takes Hawkins coffin shopping for his new act.

This is a very good book on the current status of Detroit. It does descirbe the problems of crime and long stretches of abandoned homes. However, it does look forward to a better, greener, and less segregated future. He does take up the situation of Highland Park, arguably in worse shape than Detroit which totally surrounds it because its small size an lack of resources. Contrast this with Hamtramck, also surrounded by Detroit, but having strong ethnic traditions, formerly Polish, but now more Balkan or Middle Eastern. Binelli is more of a reporter, so lot his writing is of the snapshot nature, but he does find lots of stories½

Interesting little book.
I remember the song, "I put a spell on you", and how the singer arose out of a coffin on stage, but did not know much about Jay Hawkins. This book tells of his life, in a slightly different form than the usual biography.
And he had so many illegitimate children that they held a reunion to get to meet each other!

If you are a fan of Anthony Bourdain, you may recognize some of the same style in this book. The author describes the collapse of Detroit, the people who continue to live there, the promising signs of resilience and recovery shooting out of the crumbling infrastructure like flowers growing between cracks in the asphalt. Unfortunately, I didn't really like it as much as I wanted to because I was hoping for more of a public policy perspective - the decisions that destroyed the city, the decisions that are hindering its recovery and the decisions that need to be made to save what's left. Also, he doesn't talk about Eminem enough. :) But it's well written and definitely written with love for the city and the people who remain.

Jalacy Hawkins, aka Screaming Jay Hawkins, was born in Cleveland Ohio, in 1929. He is known, for exactly one classic song: “I Put a Spell on You”.

This novel, looks at his life, which is filled with the epic mythmaking, Hawkins created for himself, along with his outrageous, stage show. He would arrive on stage, in a coffin, with a bone clamped to his nose.

This is an interesting little book, but it has a choppy narrative and it never quite connects, the way I hoped it hoped it would. If this brief summary, holds any interest for you, give it a try.

Mark Binelli's book, Screamin' Jay Hawkins' All-Time Greatest Hits, is characterized as a novel, and of course it is — Jalacy Hawkins' whole life was a fantasy of crazy exaggerations and half-truths created by the master voodoo showman as he bent and blended his public life into a brief star-turn in the 1950's music scene. The book is a lovely romp and a tribute to a freaky performer who, if nothing else, left us one of the most haunting love songs ever produced...whether he intended it to be so or not.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins was an early pioneer of the “shock rock” style of performing, during his prime he would be carried onto the stage in a closed coffin from which he would emerge and begin performing, often adding aspects of magic or voodoo into his stage act. He came from an era when entertainers often “embellished” or, just as often, completely created their own biographical backstory from half-truths or complete fiction.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ All-Time Greatest Hits by Mark Binelli is very clearly categorized as a novel on the front cover. I’m guessing (but I don’t actually know) that this means some of the things related in the book have been “enhanced” or recreated to give a better understanding of how young Jalacy Hawkins of Cleveland, Ohio became the wild entertainer known as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins.

It is difficult to tell, at times, where fact ends and fiction begins… or rather it is difficult to say how much of the “truth” is true. For example the claim that Hawkins was repeatedly visited by the ghost of Jimmy Gilchrist, the man whose death was responsible for his big break opening on tour for Fats Domino… or just how much of his stage costume and manner might have been inspired by a chance nighttime encounter with a Kumbai tribesman in New Guinea… and then there is Hawkins claim to have sired over 70 children (after his death over 30 of his children attended a staged “family reunion” media event).

The book isn’t a linear biography (again, the author calls it a novel so biographical novel might be the best label). The plot is told in segments from different periods of Hawkins’ life. Going back and forth in time from early years to peak celebrity to has-been novelty act and back again. It put me in mind of many random late night conversations over time that one might have with a friend after last call at the local tavern. The friend telling you about different significant moments in their life. After a few months or years of these conversations you get a fuller picture, a better understanding, of who your friend is and how they became the person they are today. That’s kind of how this novel unfolds.

Screamin’ Jay Hawkins is largely forgotten today, if he is remembered at all it is usually for his best known hit “I Put a Spell on You”. I must admit that I had only a vague knowledge of who he was prior to reading this book, being more familiar with the Creedence Clearwater Revival version of ‘I Put a Spell on You’.

I didn’t realize that Hawkins had participated in some of legendary disc jockey Alan Freed’s famous concert shows with early rockers like Jerry Lee Lewis. In fact, it was Freed who first suggested Hawkins’ trademark coffin entrance. It seems that in his day he was seen as something of a contemporary to those early rock pioneers before his career stalled and he became more identifiable as a novelty act.

Even had there been no real life Screamin’ Jay Hawkins the book would read as an interesting story of a fictional celebrity. As it is, it reads as something of a cross between a biography and a fantasy. A little uneven at times but well worth a read.

There is some (limited) strong language and suggestions of sexual behavior - not terribly explicit but might be considered offensive by a sensitive reader.

A strange book about a strange man! I'm not sure that non-fans would appreciate it, but I did, particularly since I knew his music and stage presence but not much of his background. The fragmented approach is bizarre but fun, and appropriate given that it is a fictional telling, not a biography. For such a enigmatic figure, it seems very apt, though it certainly blurs the lines between fact and legend. For me it was sort of a quick beach read, but it is definitely enjoyable and I would recommend to Screamin' Jay fans (and of course, everyone should be a fan).

I found the front cover for Mark Binelli's new novel, Screamin' Jay Hawkins' All-Time Greatest Hits, to be lively and colorful. The same palette extended to the back cover, where the usual blurb plus reviews could be found; both of which were straightforward and laudatory, but wouldn't necessarily motivate me to make a purchase if I had stumbled across the book while browsing the new release rack at a bookstore. Between the front and back covers are 201 pages of text enhanced by additional pages for a table of contents, a selected bibliography, acknowledgements, and finally, a page devoted to the author. I enjoyed the cover art far more than those 201 pages of filler.

As much as I wanted to enjoy this book, I just couldn't get into it. I understand that this is considered a novel and based on some facts of Jay Hawkins life, however this was a smorgasbord of stories that were almost too outrageous and sometimes unbelievable. The time frames skipped around a little too much for my taste and I'm not sure I have a clearer idea of the actual artist. The writing itself is fun and lighthearted, it just wasn't something I would read again or recommend to anyone who doesn't know anything about this strange but true musician.

Binelli has delivered a book as enigmatic as his subject, Screaming' Jay Hawkins. Calling itself a novel, the book doesn't so much as dramatize his subject's life as deliver a series of Borges-esque riffs, episodes and glimpses. "Glimpses into the life of.." is the best way to describe the storytelling, which is remarkably effective, giving the reader the feeling one is a voyeur rather than an audience member. The glimpses teach us that Screamin' Jay was not the madman set upon the world to shock and entertain but an ordinary man channelling or, rather, beset by the madness of the world. Hawkins only gave back what the world gave him. The shock and awe was the interest.

There is a growing sub-genre of the imagined novel biography, the biofic, as I call it. I had not really cared for such books until this one. The trap that many biofic authors fall into involve contrivance, use of canned themes and, worst of all, the imbuing of modern sensibilities into characters from the past. And at times, I wondered if Binelli's dialogue didn't have too much of a post millennial ring to it. But I am not sure about that. In all, Binelli's book is a novel for people bored with novels, something genuinely different and profound: a biofic that merits serious discussion.

A novelized version of the life of the wild, one hit wonder blues singer, Screamin' Jay Hawkins. I'm not enough of an afficionado of the singer to really appreciate this book.

I'm kind of embarrassed to say that I didn't know who this musician was until I read this book. This is a work of fiction, but it's based on a true, in the flesh, person. I've heard "I Put a Spell on You" a zillion times (actually, love this song and the many renditions of it), but I never really knew the person wrote and performed it. With that said, it was a strange book that tried to combine real events with fiction that didn't play well together. I had a difficult time finishing it, to be honest.

"Screamin' Jay Hawkins' All-Time Greatest Hits", written by Mark Binelli, is a work of fiction built around the life of the legendary singer who is best known for his hit "I Put A Spell On You". If you are looking for an accurate biography of Screamin' Jay, this is not the book for you. I received "Screamin' Jay Hawkins' All-Time Greatest Hits: A Novel" as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.

Screaming Jay Hawkins was an enigmatic blues singer with one hit, "I Put a Spell on You." This is a fictionalized account of his life. Its not structured chronicalogically, but jumps around from incident to incident; his childhood, WWII service, early singing career, and first meeting opening up for Bo Diddley.
Hawkins was certainly an interesting character, he was carried onstage in a coffin, and carried a human skull with him, and his music featured elements of voodoo and cannibalism. I'm sure this tome would be of nterest to Hawkins fans, but if you're looking for a definitive account of his life (which this was never meant to be) this isn't it.

"Screamin Jay Hawkins All Time Greatest Hits" was a disappointment to me. While I knew it was going to be a fictionalized account of his life, it turned out to be more of just a work of fiction using Screamin Jay Hawkins as a character.½

I thought I would like this novel better. It follows the life of Screamin' Jay Hawkins, a musical pioneer who is best known for his song, "I Put A Spell on You". The story itself is rather disjointed and jumps from scene to scene. The novel does a great job of portraying a larger than life person with exaggerations and blendings of truth and fiction.

I received a free copy of this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers.½

This is the kind of book that confuses me. It's billed as a novel, but is written in the style of a biography of [[Screamin' Jay Hawkins]], a musician who is best known for writing the song "I Put a Spell on You." Even after reading it, I'm not certain which incidents are based on real events, which are based on Hawkins' own (probably false) stories about himself, and which are wholly made up by the author. I would actually view that as a good thing, because the book is billed as a novel and not a biography.

It makes for a very entertaining story. The only real problems are that it is very short, and tends to jump around a bit. It makes for a fun, quick read based on the life of one of Rock's early pioneers, but lacks real depth.