★ 01/22/2024
Biographer Alexander (Rough Magic) traces in this stellar and sometimes-devastating account the remarkable life of a “jazz legend” whose voice “had nothing to do with reality but everything to do with the truth,” as poet Owen Dodson once put it. Using as a narrative frame the artist’s final year—during which she dealt with cirrhosis of the liver and professional setbacks—Alexander flashes back to defining events of Holiday’s life, including engaging in prostitution as a teen, struggling with alcoholism, spending stints in prison for narcotics possession, and entering into a string of abusive marriages, the last of which—to Louis McKay—lasted in name until her 1959 death, when he inherited her assets even though she’d planned on divorcing him. Despite such challenges, Holiday—who’d changed her name from Eleanora to the more commercial-sounding “Billie” in her late teens—emerges as an artist who felt most alive while performing and conveyed in her songs the often-dark truths of her life better than any journalist could. Chronicling Holiday’s career, Alexander covers in meticulous detail her early successes; collaborations and friendships (she developed an especially close relationship with saxophonist Lester Young); and the music itself, including 1958’s Lady in Satin, her penultimate album and a “masterpiece of longing and sorrow” made singular by her beautifully “damaged, tortured voice.” The result is an excellent biography befitting of its inimitable subject. (Feb.)
Making it as real as if you had been there, Paul Alexander has done an incomparable job bringing to life both elements of his title. He shows us the malice and ignorance of Billie’s accusers and eventual killers, the love and support of friends, and her own courage and purity of heart. A must- read for all lovers of the immortal Lady Day.”
—Dan Morgenstern, executive director emeritus, Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers University
“The unfinished life of Billie Holiday haunts us. In Bitter Crop, Paul Alexander tells her story in a way that could put her soul and our questions to rest.”
—Gloria Steinem, award-winning author and political activist
“Perhaps only in this century can we fully change the narrative of Billie Holiday. Billie was a trespasser of taboos, a woman of tenderness and terror, whose story is repeated again and again by working-class women of color. This is a heartfelt ballad of a book written as only one artist could view another, with insight and sincere compassion.”
—Sandra Cisneros, best-selling author of Woman Without Shame
“A quietly gripping read.”
—Harper's Magazine
“Alexander pieces together some wonderful accounts of the singer by her close friends, to depict Holiday as resourceful and resilient.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“Ambitious. . . . In tracing Holiday’s longtime drug and alcohol use, which damaged her health and led to her spending nearly a year in prison for narcotics possession, Alexander also delves into the unwarranted sensationalism with which the press often covered these matters at the time.”
—The New Yorker
“The first major Holiday biography in more than two decades, Bitter Crop benefits from a tight focus and a cinematic structure. Alexander sets vivid scenes as he moves through the closing months of a life that was difficult from the start, weaving in detailed flashbacks to provide context for where Holiday found herself during her final act. . . . Alexander deftly sifts through the massive pile of Holiday misinformation, much of it perpetuated by Lady Day herself through interviews and in her 1956 memoir ‘Lady Sings the Blues’ . . . . Alexander, who has previously written biographies of Sylvia Plath and J.D. Salinger, captures some of the tragic beauty of Holiday’s life and art. But he also does justice to her innate toughness and survival instincts, and the work ethic that burned until her body finally gave out.”
—The Boston Globe
“In Bitter Crop, Paul Alexander … details the ‘perennial hardships’ of Lady Day’s life but argues that she finally triumphed as one of America’s greatest singers. . . . Engrossing and moving. . . . The author calls Billie ‘the consummate performer whose gift was her ability to make a listener experience the emotion she was feeling as she sang a song.’ As a writer, he, too, is a stellar performer, using his considerable writing skills to help readers experience the emotional tenor of Holiday’s turbulent life. His book is quite special—authoritative, highly readable, and filled with vivid scenes.”
—The New York Journal of Books
“[A] stellar and sometimes-devastating account [of] the remarkable life of a jazz legend. . . . Chronicling Holiday’s career, Alexander covers in meticulous detail her early successes; collaborations … and the music itself, including 1958’s Lady in Satin, her penultimate album and a ‘masterpiece of longing and sorrow’ made singular by her beautifully ‘damaged, tortured voice.’ The result is an excellent biography befitting of its inimitable subject.”
—Publishers Weekly [starred review]
“A talented biographer paints a memorable portrait of an American master. . . . Alexander’s evocative prose seamlessly complements the painstaking research that he conducted via interviews with contemporaries of Holiday, his thorough archival mining, and his use of never-before-seen material from private collections to distinguish the fact, fiction, and embellishment about Holiday’s life that has been disseminated by music critics, early biographers, and Holiday herself. . . . [Alexander] tells Holiday’s story while delivering a cogent social history of America in the first half of the 20th century. . . . [Alexander] has written a tale as unique as Holiday’s voice and, more importantly, given voice to the life of an American original. An extraordinarily fascinating book.”
—Kirkus Reviews [starred review]
“In a stringent and clarifying inquiry into the betrayals and abuse [Billie] Holiday faced, and the triumphs she nonetheless achieved, [Paul] Alexander chronicles the last harrowing year of the singer’s tragically shortened life. . . . Alexander delves into Holiday’s loving affairs with women, disastrous relationships with duplicitous and violent men, sustaining friendships, and essential musical collaborations. In fluent command of an enormous amount of detail both enraging and awe-inspiring, Alexander vividly recounts Holiday’s valiant and ravishing last recordings and performances as her health deteriorated but her conviction stayed strong. A portrait as affecting and indelible as Holiday's exquisite performances.”
—Booklist [starred review]
“Paul Alexander brought me right into the room with Billie Holiday. Despite all of her challenges, she remained determined to do what she absolutely had to do—sing! The book is filled with the irony of life—humor, sadness, and everything in between. A truly deep and inspiring work!” —Catherine Russell, Grammy Award–winning jazz artist
“Sensitive, searing, and unforgettable as Lady Day herself, Bitter Crop is an exquisite testament that offers breathtaking insight into Holiday’s final year. Alexander’s tour de force transcends the mythology of Holiday’s wounds and bruises to recognize her pure voice and heart, reminding us that Billie Holiday is with us yet.”
—Rachel Eliza Griffiths, author of Promise
“A nonfiction portrait of Billie Holiday that reads like a novel, Bitter Crop takes you into the rooms where she lived and the venues where she performed to give you a revealing, up-close look at a musical genius who became an American icon. A brilliant achievement!”
—Don Winslow, New York Times best-selling author of City of Dreams
01/26/2024
Alexander (Rough Magic: A Biography of Sylvia Plath) adopts a unique narrative structure in this biography based on the last year of Billie Holiday's life. That is when she developed a severe case of cirrhosis of the liver after years of a substance use disorder. As Alexander counts down the months until the singer's death in July of 1959 at the age of 44, he acquaints readers with the salient events and characters that made up the story of her life by moving back and forth in time, which may confuse some readers. Throughout, the book describes Holiday's singular legacy in the world and her live performances; some were triumphant, whereas others were labeled "disastrous." VERDICT Ultimately, this book achieves a successful and accurate tribute to Lady Day and her immense talent while also painting a stark and honest portrait of her life and hardships. Recommended for fans of jazz and the legendary Holiday.—Amy Shaw
Performing this revealing look at the complexities of the revered jazz pioneer Billie Holiday, actress Maya Days connects with every ounce of the brilliance and tragedy of the singer's life. Strategic pauses in Days's phrasing and spot-on dialect for dialogue make her sentences sing with auditory variety. But it's her heartfelt resonance with Holiday's difficult life that makes the author's evocative writing so riveting. Despite Holiday's experiences with racism, her drug and alcohol history, and her long relationship with an exploitive, abusive romantic partner, she never felt like a victim. The details of her earlier life and her final year portray her as a lifelong survivor and a hustler, someone who knew what she wanted: to express her pathos, connect with audiences, and interpret songs like no one else. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
★ 2023-12-16
A talented biographer paints a memorable portrait of an American master.
Alexander, the author of biographies of J.D. Salinger, Sylvia Plath, and John McCain, revisits the story of the brilliant jazz singer Billie Holiday (1915-1959), concentrating on the final year of her life, which almost perfectly encapsulated the spirit of her turbulent success, ambition, and significant struggles with romantic relationships, alcohol, and drugs. Readers familiar with jazz will instantly recognize the title’s reference to Holiday’s most recognizable song, “Strange Fruit,” the poignant anti-lynching anthem that met with mixed reviews from white audiences and warnings from the federal government against its performance. Alexander’s evocative prose seamlessly complements the painstaking research that he conducted via interviews with contemporaries of Holiday, his thorough archival mining, and his use of never-before-seen material from private collections to distinguish the fact, fiction, and embellishment about Holiday’s life that has been disseminated by music critics, early biographers, and Holiday herself. Though Alexander demonstrates an impressive knowledge of jazz, this book is not exclusively for music aficionados. He tells Holiday’s story while delivering a cogent social history of America in the first half of the 20th century. The author incorporates published reviews of Holiday’s performances, interviews she gave, and wonderfully composed vignettes of TV, radio, and recording performances, particularly the session that produced what Holiday considered her finest album and life metaphor, Lady in Satin (1958). That album “would come to represent a final capstone in a life that was defined by personal heartbreak eclipsed by a level of artistic achievement rarely witnessed in the world of popular music.” Alexander demonstrates why—despite the disappointments, broken dreams and relationships, and personal failings—Holiday believed her life to be a triumph. He has written a tale as unique as Holiday’s voice and, more importantly, given voice to the life of an American original.
An extraordinarily fascinating book.
