Herbert Quelle

It’s an odd venture, between two seemingly random and often overlooked cultures. They appear further apart even than their distance on a worn oversized globe. The American South’s Black, especially the part variety raised from the Mississippi Delta after the Civil War, and old Europe – specifically Germany, where craftsmanship became an art before the mechanized carnage of the 20th century erased so much of the civility that had been the creation of humble artisans. This venture brought together the Harmonica and the Blues and is recounted in Herbert Quelle’s story, Monika’s Blues.
The music and history laid out in the journey are fascinating and entirely accurate. The only delay in pursuing the book were the stops to discover artists and music along the way. When adding the songs and side trips found on Youtube, Monika’s Blues is translated from a novella into an epic.
The only difficulty in the venture is that the fiction is sometimes clanky, stilted and disjointed. I found myself wondering if Mr. Quelle wouldn’t have been better served by creating a memoir or work of history rather than fiction.
Regardless, Monika’s Blues are very much worth learning about and relishing in.… (plus d'informations)

I was very excited by the premise of this book; however the excitement soon faded. The triple attacks of Foreword, Preface and Acknowledgements felt like little more than attempts to convince me of how good this book was. Letting the book speak for itself would perhaps have been more effective; although, the book speaks very lightly. A history of the German harmonica in American Blues would be an engrossing and fascinating read. The decision to bury this within a poor fiction is the major problem with this book. Bland characters on a cliched road trip isn't much of a story. Having these characters suddenly launch into treatises on history, culture and music pulls us into the charade of it all.
I don't mean for this review to be so harsh. It's only the fact that this could have been a good book that makes me do so. Perhaps the author will decide to toss out the fiction and give us a deeply researched, light-shedding history. That's a book I'd love to read.… (plus d'informations)