Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)
If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery by Farah Jasmine Griffin
Add If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery to bookshelf
Add to Bookshelf
Read An Excerpt

Look Inside

If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery

By Farah Jasmine Griffin

By Farah Jasmine Griffin

Best Seller
Paperback $16.00

Apr 30, 2002 | ISBN 9780345449733

If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery by Farah Jasmine Griffin
Paperback $16.00
Apr 30, 2002 | ISBN 9780345449733

Buy from Other Retailers:

Paperback
–

  • Paperback $16.00

    Apr 30, 2002 | ISBN 9780345449733

    Buy from Other Retailers:

Buy the Paperback:

About If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery

More than four decades after her death, Billie Holiday remains one of the most gifted artists of our time–and also one of the most elusive. Because of who she was and how she chose to live her life, Lady Day has been the subject of both intense adoration and wildly distorted legends. Now at last, Farah Jasmine Griffin, a writer of intellectual authority and superb literary gifts, liberates Billie Holiday from the mythology that has obscured both her life and her art.

An intimate meditation on Holiday’s place in American culture and history, If You Can’t Be Free, Be A Mystery reveals Lady Day in all her complexity, humor and pain–a true jazz virtuoso whose passion and originality made every song she sang hers forever. Celebrated by poets, revered by recording artists from Frank Sinatra to Macy Gray, Billie Holiday is more popular and influential today than ever before. Now, thanks to this marvelous book, Holiday’s many fans can finally understand the singer and the woman they love.

Read An Excerpt

About Farah Jasmine Griffin

Farah Jasmine Griffin is a professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of "Who Set You Flowin’?": The African-American Migration Narrative, and the coeditor of A Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African-American Travel… More about Farah Jasmine Griffin

Product Details

Category: Arts & Entertainment Biographies & Memoirs

Paperback | $16.00
Published by One World
Apr 30, 2002 | 256 Pages | 5-1/2 x 8-1/4 | ISBN 9780345449733
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Praise

“This exquisite look at Lady Day is priceless.”
–Essence


“DAZZLING . . . THIS BOOK CONTAINS WRITING AS HAUNTING AND EVOCATIVE AS BILLIE HOLIDAY’S VOICE.”
–ANN DOUGLAS
Author of Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s


“[AN] AMBITIOUS, FREE-RANGING MEDITATION ON THE SINGER’S LEGACY . . . Griffin’s prose is both sentimental and intellectual. . . . Her observations are sound and illuminating.”
–The Washington Post

Looking for More Great Reads?
21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
Get the latest updates about Farah Jasmine Griffin
And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
By clicking “SIGN UP”, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and understand that Penguin Random House collects certain categories of personal information for the purposes listed in that policy, discloses, sells, or shares certain personal information and retains personal information in accordance with the policy. You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime.
Dismiss
Thanks!
Something awesome is on its way.
Back to Top

Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

Raise kids who love to read

Raise kids who love to read

Today's Top Books

Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

 An online magazine for today’s home cook

An online magazine for today’s home cook