Kill 'Em and Leave
by James McBride
Buy on AmazonKill ‘Em and Leave tells James Brown’s story through quiet scenes and colorful, real-life characters who knew Brown in and outside the frenzy of his 1960s stage shows. It’s part documentary and part meditation on Brown’s legacy: his highly cultivated (and successful) attempts to remain a mystery, his wily fights with the IRS and, oh yeah, that race thing that shaped him into an American original. This is no uplifting showbiz fairytale; it’s too funky, too haunting for that.
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"Kill ‘Em and Leave tells James Brown’s story through quiet scenes and colorful, real-life characters who knew Brown in and outside the frenzy of his 1960s stage shows. It’s part documentary and part meditation on Brown’s legacy: his highly cultivated (and successful) attempts to remain a mystery, his wily fights with the IRS and, oh yeah, that race thing that shaped him into an American original. This is no uplifting showbiz fairytale; it’s too funky, too haunting for that."
NPR Books We Love — 2016 · apps.npr.org