The story starts with Scottish Sir Angus traveling from
Great Britain to New York on the Britannic, first class, of course. With him is
his grievously injured younger brother, Malcolm. The purpose of their trip is
to seek medical care for Malcolm. His fellow travelers are very impressed with
him, and plans are made to see him further after arrival in New York. The only
problem is that he is Irish, his real name is Francis Dempsey, he is an escaped
criminal (for selling French postcards and the like), and his money is stolen from
an IRA safe house that he accidently blew up with their own explosives. He is
on the run and doing it with style.
Michael (Malcolm) was caught in the explosion and has
suffered hearing loss and a severe concussion. The only one he can hear now is
the ghost of W.B. Yeats, who spends a lot of time with him.
Meanwhile, oldest brother Martin (he has no fake Scottish
name) emigrated to the US years before and has been making a living (albeit a
poor one) as a jazz musician. In the middle of preparing for his sister-in-law’s
wedding, he is assembling an amazing jazz band that will cross color lines –
something not yet done in 1939. He is also out of a job as a horn player,
something which has upset his wife very badly. She’s taking care of two
toddlers in a rundown apartment and wishing for something more than constant
drudgery. So when Francis barges into their lives, with money and problems, she
doesn’t know whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing- but it’s probably bad.
Nobody kills IRA operatives and steals their money and gets
away with it, no matter how far they run. An Irish gangster in New York finds
Francis and gives him an ultimatum: do what I ask- a job which will no doubt be
fatal to Francis- or his family will all be killed. Oh, and Michael, unable to
communicate, has wandered off.
It’s a big, sprawling, book with numerous narrative streams.
The characters range from the very rich to the very poor. There are gangsters, people
who want to be EX gangsters, royalty, extremely neurotic people, artists, and
every other kind of person. I enjoyed the story, although sometimes I had
trouble remembering the narrative stream of one character after reading about
others for many pages. Part of the enjoyment I found was the descriptions of
everything that was happening in NYC at the time: the World’s Fair, the receding
Depression, the burgeoning jazz scene especially in Harlem- NYC was alive with
change. Four and a half stars.
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