Blues and Trouble, Tom Piazza
Blues and Trouble, Tom Piazza
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Blues and Trouble
Twelve Stories

Author: Tom Piazza

Narrator: Todd Menesses

Unabridged: 4 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/18/2022

Synopsis

Exploring the diverse landscape of American life, the stories in Blues and Trouble: Twelve Stories capture the lives of people caught between circumstance and their own natures or on the run from fate—from a Jewish couple encountering a dealer in Nazi memorabilia to the troubled family of a Gulf Coast fisherman awaiting a hurricane.Tom Piazza’s debut short story collection, originally published in 1996, heralded the arrival of a startlingly original and vital presence in American fiction and letters. Set in Memphis, New Orleans, Florida, Texas, New York City, and elsewhere, the stories echo voices from Ernest Hemingway to Robert Johnson in their sharp eye for detail and their emotional impactNew to this volume is an introduction written by the author. Drawing themes, forms, and stylistic approaches from blues and country music, these stories present a tough, haunting vision of a landscape where the social and spiritual ground shifts constantly underfoot.

About Tom Piazza

Tom Piazza is celebrated both as a novelist and as a writer on American music. His twelve books include the novels A Free State and City of Refuge, the post-Katrina manifesto Why New Orleans Matters, and Devil Sent the Rain, a collection of his essays and journalism. He was a principal writer for the innovative HBO drama series Treme, a four-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for Music Writing, and the winner of a Grammy Award for his album notes to Martin Scorsese Presents The Blues: A Musical Journey. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he lives in New Orleans, where he is at work on a new novel.

About Todd Menesses

A finalist in the 2020 Independent Audiobook Awards, Todd Menesses has recorded over seventy-five audiobooks to date, varying from fantasy, sci-fi, and horror to nonfiction and religion, all from his professional home studio. A twenty-five-year veteran voice actor, Todd continues his training with some of the best in the business, including Pat Fraley, Scott Brick, Johnny Heller, P. J. Ochlan, and Joel Froomkin. He has been praised for his believable character acting and accents. A native New Orleanian now transplanted in Kansas, when not watching his beloved New Orleans Saints (whom he used to work for in the broadcast booth) or collecting all things comic books as he has since age ten, he spends time with his family enjoying exploring the great outdoors.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Greg

A nice, brisk collection of short stories with themes that point out subtle hypocrisies and quirks that somehow could only be American. The stories are brief and have a rhythmic quality. The best story was C.S.A., about a young Jewish northern couple who visit a downtrodden antiques store in Memphis......more

Goodreads review by Dave

Tom Piazza is a wonderful writer. He's may be the best chronicler of New Orleans. He's an accomplished writer about jazz. Unfortunately, that talent does not carry over to short stories. From early in his career, these are uniformly undeveloped in plot and motivation and are based mostly on youthful......more

Goodreads review by Michael

A book of unrelated short stories long on description but short on plot and resolution...only a couple of them held my interest.........more

Quotes

“Tom’s stories…pulsate with nervous electrical tension, reveal the emotions that we can’t define.” Bob Dylan

“Tom Piazza’s writing is filled with energy and tender, insightful words for the brilliant and irascible.” Elvis Costello

“In a few notes he can summon up a character’s voice or create a locale: a New Orleans cafe, a New York music company, a Gulf Coast fishing port.” Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Told in a clear tenor voice, Piazza’s first collection is as wonderfully dislocating as an all-night drive.” Publishers Weekly

“Kin to everyone from Huck Finn to Jack Kerouac and blues guitarist Robert Johnson…Piazza’s book revives the essence of the short story.” Library Journal

“Characters tend to be outsiders, often on the run, sometimes from failed relationships. Sometimes, too, the most enduring relationships are also the most unlikely.” Booklist

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