Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul

You wont leave this hypnotic book without feeling that James Brown is still out there, howling.The Boston Globe From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, Deacon King Kong, and Five-Carat Soul Kill Em and Leave is more than a book about James Brown. Brown embodied the contradictions of American life: He was an unsettling symbol of the tensions between North and South, black and white, rich and poor. After receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth, James McBride goes in search of the real James Brown. McBrides travels take him to forgotten corners of Browns never-before-revealed history, illuminating not only our understanding of the immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated Godfather of Soul, but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Browns enduring legacy. Praise for Kill Em and Leave A tour de force of cultural reportage.The Seattle Times Thoughtful and probing.The New York Times Book Review Masterly . . . powerful.Los Angeles Review of Books McBride provides something lacking in most of the books about James Brown: an intimate feeling for the musician, a veracious if inchoate sense of what it was like to be touched by him. . . . It may be as close [to the real James Brown] as well ever get.David Hajdu, The Nation A feat of intrepid journalistic fortitude.USA Today [McBride is] the biographer of James Brown weve all been waiting for. . . . McBrides true subject is race and poverty in a country that doesnt want to hear about it, unless compelled by a voice that demands to be heard.Boris Kachka, New York Illuminating . . . engaging.The Washington Post A gorgeously written piece of reportage that gives us glimpses of Browns genius and contradictions.O: The Oprah Magazine