Black Bottom Saints: A Novel

by Alice Randall

Paperback, 2021

Status

Available

Genres

Publication

Amistad (2021), 368 pages

Description

Fiction. African American Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML: An enthralling literary tour-de-force that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints is a powerful blend of fact and imagination reminiscent of E.L. Doctorow's classic novel Ragtime and Marlon James' Man Booker Award-winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings. From the Great Depression through the post-World War II years, Joseph "Ziggy" Johnson, has been the pulse of Detroit's famous Black Bottom. A celebrated gossip columnist for the city's African-American newspaper, the Michigan Chronicle, he is also the emcee of one of the hottest night clubs, where he's rubbed elbows with the legendary black artists of the era, including Ethel Waters, Billy Eckstein, and Count Basie. Ziggy is also the founder and dean of the Ziggy Johnson School of Theater. But now the doyen of Black Bottom is ready to hang up his many dapper hats. As he lays dying in the black-owned-and-operated Kirkwood Hospital, Ziggy reflects on his life, the community that was the center of his world, and the remarkable people who helped shape it. Inspired by the Catholic Saints Day Books, Ziggy curates his own list of Black Bottom's venerable "52 Saints." Among them are a vulnerable Dinah Washington, a defiant Joe Louis, and a raucous Bricktop. Randall balances the stories of these larger-than-life "Saints" with local heroes who became household names, enthralling men and women whose unstoppable ambition, love of style, and faith in community made this black Midwestern neighborhood the rival of New York City's Harlem. Accompanying these "tributes" are thoughtfully paired cocktails�??special drinks that capture the essence of each of Ziggy's saints�??libations as strong and satisfying as Alice Randall's wholly original view of a place and time unlike any other.… (more)

Media reviews

National Public Radio (NPR)

Back in the heyday of Detroit — from the Great Depression through the 1950s — Joseph "Ziggy" Johnson knew just about everybody who was worth knowing in the shops, bars, churches, theaters and nightclubs that lined the streets of that city's celebrated Black neighborhood, called "Black Bottom."

...Ziggy Johnson is just one of the over 50 mostly real life African American artists, doctors, sports figures, activists and behind-the-scenes movers and shakers who populate this novel — many of whom I've never heard of and most of whom I now want to know more about. I can't think of a more sparkling way to get some education about the history of Black Detroit beyond Motown than to read Randall's novel.... Black Bottom Saints is a gorgeous swirl of fiction, history and motor oil; there are also plenty of cocktail recipes here to make the rougher stories go down a little smoother.

Show Less

— 3 more

New York Times

You can see pictures of the impresario Joe “Ziggy” Johnson on the internet, wearing a beautiful suit and surrounded by beautiful women. But if you want to hear him, get to know him and be dazzled by him, you need to go back to his world, his “caramel Camelot” — Detroit from the late 1930s

to the late 1960s.... Framed as a deathbed memoir, Randall’s novel presents mini-biographies of the friends and acquaintances Ziggy deems worthy of his pantheon, each accompanied by the appropriate libation. Some of the chosen are famous; others ought to be. And all have been included because, in Ziggy’s sphere of operations, “God doesn’t make saints, people do.” ...And lest we quibble that some of his honorees didn’t spend much time in the Detroit neighborhood known as Black Bottom, he reminds us that it’s both a place and “an attitude” — “a strong cocktail that made a person believe they could do what they wanted to do, they could be who they wanted to be.”

Show Less

Publisher's Weekly

Through a narrative shaped as a book of saints’s biographies, from poet Robert Hayden to singer Ethel Waters, Ziggy records his encounters with 16 famous and lesser-known characters who made Black Bottom, the commercial and residential heart of Detroit’s black community in the early 20th

century, into a destination for “breadwinners” fleeing the Jim Crow South in search of a better life. As Ziggy reflects on his life from his deathbed, the reader learns about the family he made from strangers and students—most notably the tennis player Althea Gibson, referred to throughout as “Colored Girl.” Randall’s portrait of black America sheds light on cultural history through startlingly personal moments, such as Ziggy dropping his Women’s Club aunt Sadye Pryor’s name for social currency. Whether chronicling famous historical figures or local characters, Randall makes Ziggy’s saints worthy of his reflection. This works as a memorable love letter to Detroit, as well as a remarkable tableau.

Show Less

Kirkus Reviews

The last testament of an African American showbiz insider is here rendered as an impassioned, richly detailed, and sometimes heartbreaking evocation of Black culture in 20th century Detroit and beyond. If Randall’s book at times gets carried away with its emotions, it also compels you to ride

along with your own.

Show Less

User reviews

LibraryThing member hemlokgang

Basically, thus is a history of a section of Detroit which was home to an incredible number of black artists and performers. As a white reader, I was saddened to hear of the numerous times that black performers were copied by white performers who went on to great fame. It is well written,

interesting, and educational!

Show Less