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. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )

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. ( )