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with the police as if they have a live hostage. Unable to wait, Billy stealths his way into the building, finds the apartment being used, breaks in, and kills the gang. Finding Fawn dead, he has a
Vietnam flashback, where he realizes he had been the fragging target, for ratting on the war crimes of his seargent. As the police move in, he kills himself.
27:
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Over Elsa's objections but Barry's approval, VidamĂa is picked up one morning by Billy's uncle, Michael
Sanderson, and taken to Maud's house. Billy and VidamĂa meet and get along very well, although Maud does most of the talking. VidamĂa is amazed to learn she has about a hundred new relatives, and
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Fawn is lured into an abandoned building by a gang of four Puerto Ricans. Her brother Cliff witnesses them entering, and runs home for help. Billy has Cliff call 911, then preps himself for combat, and heads to the building. The gang rapes Fawn, when the police arrive, they kill her and negotiate
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VidamĂa spends most of her next several summers with the
Farrells. Most of the time Billy is withdrawn. The family often jams, with Billy sometimes joining in on the guitar. During her fourth summer, shortly before her 16th birthday, an old jazz acquaintance of Billy shows up looking for him. He
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Billy, on returning to the States, located the
Santiago family, Joey's mother Ursula and younger sister, Elsa, age 15. Elsa had fallen in love with Billy from a photograph Joey had sent home, and meeting Billy in person led to a brief affair. Pregnant, Elsa dropped out of high school and broke up
207:
VidamĂa's sweet sixteen birthday party is an expensive extravaganza, topped by Elsa giving her a credit card with a $ 25,000 limit. VidamĂa starts thinking of using it to help Billy. She gets Billy to start playing the piano again. After a year she uses her credit card to buy a piano for Billy,
183:
phenomenon, and this led to her interest in her own ancestry. This led to her questing for her father, at age 12. A friendly police officer who knew Billy, finds VidamĂa and took her to meet her grandmother, Maud
Farrell. Knowing Billy's delicate state of mind, Maud takes her time to arrange a
238:
The store proves a success, and VidamĂa pays her mother back for the piano. Elsa is surprised and furious upon learning VidamĂa is dating
Wyndell from the detective (who did not identify her visits to Elsa's father), and confronts VidamĂa. Elsa denies race is the issue, and threatens to have
134:
is set in New York City in the 1980s, and tells the saga of Billy
Farrell and his daughter VidamĂa. Billy is a lackluster Irish-American who gave up music after losing two fingers, and some of his sanity, in Vietnam. Billy and VidamĂa first meet when she is 12 years old. Her mother is a
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Motivated by her payback vow, VidamĂa and her half-sister
Hortense ("Cookie") open a video store, with financial support from Barry. VidamĂa tracks down her black grandfather, Justino/Tino "Tumba" Santiago in the Bronx, nicknamed for his playing of the
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250:, likely done by drug runners. Billy comes to a realization about himself: that his original enlistment and withdrawal from music was fundamentally due to cowardice. Being white, he would never perform at the level of the great jazz pianists.
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Elsa finally agrees to let VidamĂa meet her father and his family again for a mid-December
Christmas party. VidamĂa loves her time with them. The one sour note is Billy's refusal to join the family when they go carolling.
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makes plans to meet Billy's other children, her three half-sisters and a half-brother. Taken home, she is confronted by Elsa, who is furious, lies about what happened between her and Billy, and forbids future meetings.
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The novel begins in May 1988. VidamĂa
Farrell, almost 16, is finishing 10th grade, and recalls her first meeting with her father nearly four years previously, in August 1984, shortly after her 12th birthday.
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finds two of his children and jams with them, and when Billy shows up, he joins in. Something about the performance leads VidamĂa to the conclusion that Billy is hiding, and VidamĂa resolves to help him.
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with Billy. She later finished high school, went on to college, married Barry LĂłpez-Ferrer, and got a Ph.D. in psychology and became a psychotherapist/marriage counselor. Becoming wealthy, they moved to
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ancestry. She begins wondering about Elsa's never mentioned father, thinking perhaps he was black. Elsa finds this development so disturbing that she hires a private detective to follow VidamĂa.
506:"A Symphonic Novel" appears on the cover, but it is not a subtitle. The phrase does not appear on the book's title page, copyright page, or in later lists by the author of his works.
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Billy Farrell had been an accomplished jazz pianist before serving in Vietnam, and in one attack, he lost two of his fingers, part of his skull, and his buddy Joey Santiago.
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sprawling, iconoclastic, ambitious, stunningly written novel that is part picaresque, part Bildungsroman and part recapitulation of America's last half-century....
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Reviews were positive in general. Some compared the novel to works of Thomas Wolfe, E. L. Doctorow, Thomas Pynchon, Ralph Ellison and William Faulkner.
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and is raising VidamĂa in the suburbs. But VidamĂa finds herself strongly attracted to her father, her father's family, and the Lower East Side.
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This powerhouse of a novel ... brings vividly to life, with its polyphony of voices, the simmering ethnic stew of the great American city.
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produces an almost hypnotically readable novel—about jazz, about race, about coming-of-age, and above all, about New York.
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692:"No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again"
657:"No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again"
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No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again
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No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again
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No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze Bill Bailey Ain't Never Coming Home Again
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Music is referenced frequently in the novel. Songs that receive more than a passing mention include:
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A humorous novel about a Puerto Rican Eskimo is mentioned, a description that matches the author's
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meetings. Someone recognizes Billy, and tells him the killing of Joey and his wounding was a
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This short form of the title appears in several reviews and is used by the author himself.
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VidamĂa begins dating Wyndell Ross, a black jazz saxophonist six years her elder, of part
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Wyndell arrested for statutory rape, VidamĂa threatens to marry Wyndell immediately.
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There follow funerals, grief, and reconciliations, and the start of some careers.
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The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle
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The Lamentable Journey of Omaha Bigelow into the Impenetrable Loisaida Jungle
710:"Not Available at Your Local Bookseller: Edgardo Vega Yunqué's Latest Novel"
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No Matter How Much You Promise to Cook Or Pay the Rent You Blew It Cauze ...
146:". The song and the relevant lyrics are explicitly mentioned in the novel.
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social-climbing, assimilation-minded Puerto Rican who has married a wealthy
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winners. The novel itself won the Washington Post Book of the Year Award.
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The author's storytelling is unapologetically sentimental and rambling....
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Billy agrees to a gig, but the stress of performing leads Billy to attend
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The novel's title is a play on the title and lyrics of the jazz classic, "
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626:"East Side Story; Violence, music and passion fuse in an American family"
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Billy reacts to the meeting with flashbacks, of both Vietnam and music.
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Vega Yunqué includes some personal self-reference in the novel.
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enraging her mother. VidamĂa promises to pay the money back.
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The novel is divided into four parts, called "movements".
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girl just entering puberty, is having suicidal thoughts.
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Jazz Fiction: A History and Comprehensive Reader's Guide
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368:(the author's step-daughter) attended, p. 275.
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420:Gene Santoro, The Washington Post Book World
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646:New York Post, quoted on amazon.com reviews
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128:. The author has called it a "jazz novel."
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443:PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award
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278:", title, pp. 13,144,435,437,602,635
578:Farrar, Straus and Giroux. p. 144.
276:Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?
144:Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?
557:Vega Yunqué, Edgardo. "Author's Note".
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177:VidamĂa, aged 10, was taken in by the
295:"She's a Latin from Manhattan" (from
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669:(4): 391. 2003-10-15. Archived from
50:B. Middleworth/Elke Hesser/Photonica
533:. Scarecrow Press. pp. 49–50.
301:), pp. 40–5, 615–7
283:Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart
14:
916:Novels set during the Vietnam War
441:Vega Yunqué was one of the 2004
16:2003 book by Edgardo Vega Yunqué
911:Novels about race and ethnicity
759:"The Four Horsemen of Avenue B"
218:VidamĂa's half-sister Fawn, an
358:High School of Performing Arts
1:
602:Livshin, Julia (2003-12-14).
572:Vega Yunqué, Edgardo (2003).
304:"Estoy Buscando a Kako" (the
736:The Portable Lower East Side
725:Published excerpts include:
624:Santoro, Gene (2003-10-19).
466:, the first or paternal
203:Second Movement: The Horizon
901:Novels set in New York City
226:Third Movement: The Journey
31:Cover (hardcover/paperback)
942:
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397:New York Times Book Review
327:The Lakes of Pontchartrain
360:is praised as the school
258:Fourth Movement: The Drum
158:First Movement: The Quest
79:Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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757:Vega, Ed (Summer 1992).
820:Short story collections
329:", pp. 131–2
322:", pp. 100–1
320:On Green Dolphin Street
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285:", pp. 33–4
308:), pp. 73,84,122
896:2003 American novels
765:(40). Archived from
712:. 12 September 2008.
431:?, Publishers Weekly
813:Edgardo Vega Yunqué
630:The Washington Post
527:David Rife (2008).
336:", pp. 354,609
126:Edgardo Vega Yunqué
124:is a 2003 novel by
41:Edgardo Vega Yunqué
21:
926:Family saga novels
906:Novels about music
608:The New York Times
604:"Sax and the City"
409:Bill Ott, Booklist
334:My Funny Valentine
298:Go Into Your Dance
921:Novels by Ed Vega
883:
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730:Vega, Ed (1988).
696:Publishers Weekly
292:", pp. 40,42
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112:978-0-374-22311-3
47:Cover artist
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771:. Retrieved
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732:"Chapter 1"
132:Bill Bailey
67:Family saga
890:Categories
773:2014-05-22
677:2014-02-25
634:Book World
632:. p.
514:References
313:Summertime
811:Works by
382:Reception
233:tumbadora
184:meeting.
172:Tarrytown
74:Published
662:Booklist
462:In this
429:—
418:—
407:—
393:—
248:fragging
220:intersex
91:Hardback
55:Language
468:surname
89:Print (
58:English
845:Novels
746:
582:
537:
476:Yunqué
437:Awards
77:2003 (
37:Author
636:T.03.
449:Notes
266:Music
180:Roots
98:Pages
63:Genre
763:BOMB
744:ISBN
580:ISBN
535:ISBN
472:Vega
364:and
356:The
107:ISBN
667:100
470:is
137:CPA
101:638
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
