Hudson Lake by Laura Mazzuca Toops
(Paperback)
- Publisher: Twilight Times Books
- Pub. Date: February 2007
- ISBN-13: 9781933353579
- Sales Rank: 339,958
- 213pp
Synopsis
"In the summer of 1926, jazz lovers from the Midwest go where the weather is hot and the music hotter--the Blue Lantern club on Hudson Lake. A rural Indiana dance hall, the Blue Lantern's resident jazz band features a legendary young cornet player named Bix Beiderbecke.
For Bix, Hudson Lake is a safe but temporary harbor from a failed romance, conflicts with his middle-class Iowa family, and a growing dependency on alcohol. For Joy, the fiery redheaded resident, Hudson Lake provides everything she needs–a roof over her head, music she loves--and Bix. For Harriet Braun, a young Indiana University student at the resort for the summer, Joy and the musicians are just another subject for study--until her involvement with Bix turns her safe world upside down. And when outside influences like local bootleggers, a Chicago investor named Jack McGurn and even the Ku Klux Klan suddenly show up, jazz isn’t the only thing that’s hot at Hudson Lake."Customer Reviews
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Hudson Lakeby Anonymous
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July 09, 2008: In 1926, in spite of being out of the way in a remote rural part of Indiana, the hottest jazz spot in the Midwest is the Blue Lantern Club on Hudson Lake. Especially popular amongst aficionados is the Jean Goldkette Orchestra featuring highly regarded Bix Beiderbecke on the coronet.-------------- Bix has come to isolated Indiana to avoid life as he failed at love, family, and now alcohol. Women love the great coronetist, but they accept that in Bix?s mind jazz comes before them locals and those from Chicago and Indianapolis accept that is part of Bix his Iowa family never did. Of course I.U. student Harriet understood what a fling with a musician meant until Bix Joy, a flapper who hangs out with gangsters, also has interest in Bix. However, women and jazz may mix, but the big city mob wants bootlegged alcohol and jazz to mix too whereas the Ku Klux Klan plans to own the conservative area, which means no big city jazz. Bix has no time for either violent group as his two women have become possessive.----------------- This superb biographical fiction tale brings to life the Jazz Age in the Midwest as the audience gets an in close look at the band, obviously Bix, and their personal issues re doubts about skills and family. The invasions by the KKK and the Chicago mob add depth to the 1920s in Indiana. However, this is Beiderbecke?s tale in every sense as his struggles to be loved and accepted are fraught with self tormenting doubt and self destruction when he could not cope with accolades even as he begged people to praise his work. HUDSON LAKE is a strong historical tale in which the reader gains a vivid glimpse of a bygone Americana era through the travails of Bix and the band.------------ Harriet Klausner
Hudson Lakeby Anonymous
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September 05, 2007: The Jazz Age is in full swing at Hudson Lake where the Jean Goldkette Orchestra plays on weekends with Bix Beiderbecke on the cornet, the man people come to hear. Bix was a man who loved music over all else. The women like Joy and Harriet who came into his life knew they came second and their affairs would last only until the orchestra moved on to other engagements. It was a time of hot music, hot boodleg whiskey and wild, frenetic dances while in the background lurked old values some felt were being ignored and the young were being led astray. It was a time of turbulence that changed society. Talented Laura Mazzuca Toops opens the door to take us back in time with her lifelike characters and realistic settings. You'll feel like you've been there. This is a book I can highly recommend with pleasure to any reader. Enjoy. I sure did.
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