Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2014 -

This is a book readers will want to own.  Meticulously researched and beautifully written, it is a study of racism, chauvinism, courage, talent, and the power of place.  Sharpley-Whiting (Vanderbilt Univ.) draws on a wealth of untapped sources to tell the stories of 25 African American women who, during the Jazz Age, traveled to Paris in search of personal and creative freedom.  Moving beyond the legendary Josephine Baker, the author brings to life an entire community of black artists, writers, and performers who were reaching for something else in Montmartre and Montparnasse.  Though her primary focus is the singer and nightclub owner Ada Bricktop Smith, Sharpley-Whiting draws vivid portraits of a host of other multitalented black expatriate women, including Jessie Fauset, Augusta Savage, Alberta Hunter, and Gwendolyn Bennett.  Halfway through the book, in a clever twist, the author moves from nonfiction to autobiographical fiction, and a splendid work of academic research and analysis morphs into a compelling murder mystery starring Bricktops Paris.  Fact and fiction inform and illuminate one another.  For more on the life and times of this remarkable grande dame of cabaret culture, readers should consult her actual autobiography,Bricktop, written with James Haskins (1983).Summing Up: Essential. All readers