BITTER CROP

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.