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Mojo Hand: An Orphic Tale
Presents the tragic story of a woman's involvement with the elderly blues singer, Blacksnake Brown
180 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
About the author
J.J. Phillips
4 books5 followersA poet and writer, she lives on the west coast of the USA. During the Civil Rights Movement she was arrested in North Carolina in 1962. Her novel Mojo Hand: An Orphic Tale, about a young woman's involvement with a blues musician, was first published in 1966, and was reissued in 1987.
(from Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby)
(from Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby)
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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September 19, 2017It's a glorious tumbledown, and I wish it were the go-to sixties cult book instead of Kerouac.
January 18, 2015
Mojo Hand was republished in the mid-80s and is highly recommended for author JJ Phillips' gorgeous prose. This is not a book about the semi-autobiographical plot so much as how the story is told. A young woman from an upper middle class family in San Francisco gets seduced by the blues and heads off to find bluesman Blacksnake Brown. Eventually they meet, he does her wrong in so many of the ways described in blues standards, and she tries (and fails) to leave him. Much of the power of the book lies in the almost dreamlike way the tough circumstances in the story are told. This is a novel well worth hunting up.
February 28, 2024
This book relates to another time though-interestingly much of the story takes place in my current city of Raleigh, NC. It was recommend by a NYT book newsletter and I’m glad I read it. Some beautiful prose but a dark read.
February 21, 2024
Love, pain, and the blues. And gorgeous prose.
February 9, 2013
There isn't much plot to this lesser known blues novel, but what it lacks in momentum it makes up for with J.J. Phillips' glorious prose and her subtle handling of various issues.
The story couldn't be simpler - Eunice, bored of her upper-class lifestyle, develops an ear for the blues, and after hearing a record by Blacksnake Brown, leaves to find him in Raleigh, falls in love with him, and sticks by him even as he abuses and neglects her, until his philandering finally gets him killed, with Eunice pregnant with his child. Most of this, however, comes down to a tiring cycle in which Eunice attempts to leave, but doesn't have it in her, a tragic scenario that would be more touching if it weren't so predictable.
What saves the novel, though, is Phillips' language, with descriptions that paint this world in a dreamy haze. When Phillips describes a hot day, you can feel practically feel the heat on the page dragging you down. She also has a talent for understatement, presenting significant details with a light touch, avoiding melodrama while still drawing on race and identity crises, gender power struggles, and class conflicts.
At times, Mojo Hand is simple to read, but it's never easy, and Phillips pulls no punches in treating her characters. For all the good times set to blues lyrics, there's an other foot waiting to drop.
The story couldn't be simpler - Eunice, bored of her upper-class lifestyle, develops an ear for the blues, and after hearing a record by Blacksnake Brown, leaves to find him in Raleigh, falls in love with him, and sticks by him even as he abuses and neglects her, until his philandering finally gets him killed, with Eunice pregnant with his child. Most of this, however, comes down to a tiring cycle in which Eunice attempts to leave, but doesn't have it in her, a tragic scenario that would be more touching if it weren't so predictable.
What saves the novel, though, is Phillips' language, with descriptions that paint this world in a dreamy haze. When Phillips describes a hot day, you can feel practically feel the heat on the page dragging you down. She also has a talent for understatement, presenting significant details with a light touch, avoiding melodrama while still drawing on race and identity crises, gender power struggles, and class conflicts.
At times, Mojo Hand is simple to read, but it's never easy, and Phillips pulls no punches in treating her characters. For all the good times set to blues lyrics, there's an other foot waiting to drop.
September 4, 2008
For those who have felt the pull of lust and love beyond all reason....
January 8, 2009
A great and forgotten gem about a young black woman from San Francisco who immerses herself in black Southern culture, voodoo and the blues.
June 27, 2022
An outlier blues novel where the pursuit of pleasure disappears into the pursuit of pain. I love its pre-Toni Morrison antisocial morbidity, though after reading it you’ll understand why it isn’t more famous.
Check out the author’s poem “Brautigan’s Brains,” inspired by an experience in the Berkeley Library when she discovered brain tissue and other viscera on the original manuscript pages onto which Brautigan actually “blew out his brains.”
Check out the author’s poem “Brautigan’s Brains,” inspired by an experience in the Berkeley Library when she discovered brain tissue and other viscera on the original manuscript pages onto which Brautigan actually “blew out his brains.”
November 4, 2021
A true lost masterpiece that deserves wider recognition. Phillips is a hypnotic storyteller with an uncanny ear for realistic dialogue and lyrical description. This one will not be leaving my mind any time soon.
July 18, 2023
The writing was incredibly good, but the story just wasn't for me.
July 25, 2024
A very odd impressionistic love story in which a young woman gives up her life to follow an old Black bluesman into depravity. Depressing and disconnected, but worth reading for the haunted rhythms and smoky poetry. Not unlike the blues.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews