The Palace Blues - by Brandy T Wilson (Paperback)

About the Book

"Set in the 1920s, The Palace Blues: A Novel tells the story of Frankie, a white Texas tomboy visiting her aunt and uncle in Chicago where she meets and falls for Jean Bailey, an African American, cross-dressing, blues singer. The novel is a physical and emotional journey of self-discovery and identity as told from a marginalized individual's quest to find a place in the midst of racial, cultural, gender and class conflicts"--Author's website.

Book Synopsis

It is the age of bathtub gin, jazz--and lines. Lines not to be crossed, and certainly not by women.

Ladies sing the blues at The Palace and the rebellious, resourceful Frankie admires the cross-dressing Jean Bailey from afar. Running from her family's oppressive pressure to marry, Frankie abandons her safe, white life in Chicago and follows the blues singer instead. At first it is merely an adventure of her star struck heart.

But the railroad yards, good times, riverboats and bum times lead Frankie on a remarkable journey between the sterile choices of her family and a reckless, daring life that at least offers a kind of freedom for a girl like her. Or is there another choice, one beyond the blues?