
Kill 'Em and Leave
Searching for James Brown and the American Soul
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Narrated by:
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Dominic Hoffman
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By:
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James McBride
About this listen
“You won’t leave this hypnotic book without feeling that James Brown is still out there, howling.”—The Boston Globe
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Good Lord Bird, winner of the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction, Deacon King Kong, and Five-Carat Soul, Kill ’Em and Leave is more than a book about James Brown. Brown embodied the contradictions of American life: He was an unsettling symbol of the tensions between North and South, Black and White, rich and poor. After receiving a tip that promises to uncover the man behind the myth, James McBride goes in search of the “real” James Brown.
McBride’s travels take him to forgotten corners of Brown’s never-before-revealed history, illuminating not only our understanding of the immensely troubled, misunderstood, and complicated Godfather of Soul, but the ways in which our cultural heritage has been shaped by Brown’s enduring legacy.
©2015 James McBride (P)2015 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Thoughtful and probing . . . with great warmth, insight and frequent wit.”—The New York Times Book Review
“McBride’s true subject is race and poverty in a country that doesn’t want to hear about it, unless compelled by a voice that demands to be heard.”—New York Magazine
“Masterly . . . powerful . . . McBride provides an invaluable service to the history of R&B.”—Los Angeles Review of Books
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Story
Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her 12 Black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother.
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Awesome
- By Michael on 05-30-17
By: James McBride
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The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
- A Novel
- By: James McBride
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 12 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store.
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Multiple Stories Obfuscate Narrative
- By Stephnsea on 08-12-23
By: James McBride
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The Trees
- A Novel
- By: Percival Everett
- Narrated by: Bill Andrew Quinn
- Length: 7 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Percival Everett's The Trees is a must-listen that opens with a series of brutal murders in the rural town of Money, Mississippi. When a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive, they meet expected resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a string of racist White townsfolk. The murders present a puzzle, for at each crime scene there is a second dead body: that of a man who resembles Emmett Till.
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Mindless repetitive bigotry
- By Catherine Spiller on 03-27-23
By: Percival Everett
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Erasure
- A Novel
- By: Percival Everett
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days."
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A Rollercoaster That Never Descends
- By Amazon Customer on 01-07-24
By: Percival Everett
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The House of Eve
- By: Sadeqa Johnson
- Narrated by: Ariel Blake, Nicole Lewis, Sadeqa Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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1950s Philadelphia: fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright. Eleanor Quarles arrives in Washington, DC, with ambition and secrets. When she meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his parents don’t let just anyone into their fold.
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This could've been good...
- By Speedreader on 10-13-23
By: Sadeqa Johnson
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The Nickel Boys (Winner 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)
- A Novel
- By: Colson Whitehead
- Narrated by: JD Jackson, Colson Whitehead
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.
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Who spoke for the black boys?
- By Darwin8u on 02-06-20
By: Colson Whitehead
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James
- A Novel
- By: Percival Everett
- Narrated by: Dominic Hoffman
- Length: 7 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a man in New Orleans, separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father, recently returned to town. As all readers of American literature know, thus begins the dangerous and transcendent journey by raft down the Mississippi River toward the elusive and too-often-unreliable promise of the Free States and beyond.
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Can we ever be free
- By J. Stirling on 04-04-24
By: Percival Everett
What listeners say about Kill 'Em and Leave
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- Robin
- 10-12-16
Please Please Please
I FEEL GOOD after listening to this. Amazing story and great narration. Please please PLEASE listen to this and find your soul, America's soul, and James Brown's creation of that soul.
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3 people found this helpful
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- SarahMc
- 04-15-24
Best biography ...
... I've heard in years, and wonderful narration, too. I felt like I was listening to a symphony.
My new favorite McBride opus!
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- barbaraj
- 08-23-16
Just when you thought you knew James Brown...
What made the experience of listening to Kill 'Em and Leave the most enjoyable?
The narrator caught the tone of the story. I couldn't wait to get back in the car to listen to more.
Who was your favorite character and why?
James Brown, the subject of the book. I learned much more about the man.
What does Dominic Hoffman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
His character voicing is incredible.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I felt the author educated the reader on African American culture as much as educated us on the Godfather of Soul.
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1 person found this helpful
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- JusticeW
- 02-20-25
Jumps around like Mr. Brown
This book was entertaining to listen to but difficult to follow because it was not written chronologically. However I don’t know if the print version would’ve been any easier. I learned so much about James Brown and all the infamous people I didn’t know he influenced so deeply. I think James McBride did a wonderful job humanizing him and highlighting the injustice that has been done to his estate- well enough to want to follow into the present and make sure those kids in need get the money Mr. Brown worked his whole life to get them
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- TonyaA6
- 05-29-16
A history lesson about the life of the Godfather of Soul
I almost described this as a telling of Mr. Brown as a complicated person but, really, he wasn't. He was a brilliant musician and artist, with a steadfast determination to give us his art on his own terms. And, flawed. We don't want to believe the people whom we admire are flawed because enjoying their work allows us to escape our flawed selves.
Thank you, Mr. McBride, for reminding us why James Brown was the Godfather of Soul.
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- K Moses
- 06-19-20
Great read and history lesson.
I enjoyed the book. it was a great story and education on better understanding the Godfather of soul.
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- Stephanie Youngs
- 08-31-16
All around great book.
Weather you are a fan of James Brown or not this is an excellent book. The book is also a great history lesson.
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5 people found this helpful
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- S. Hillis
- 03-19-21
A Must-Listen!
I just finished this book this morning, and I immediately went back to the beginning and started to listen to it again - it's just that good! The narration by Dominic Hoffman is excellent. It was only as I listened to it for a second time that I realized the pure beauty of James McBride's writing; before I was too wrapped in the fascinating details of the story to notice. McBride's research and interviews reveal a fascinating history of James Brown. A disclaimer, I know & admire Brown's music, but was not a huge fan, nor did I know a lot about his life except for what was in main stream news. The story is more than just a simple bio and cannot be told in isolation from popular culture, caste, & racism. The author does a wonderful job of giving recognition to many (unknown) musicians, family, and friends.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Kindle Customer
- 04-10-16
A Captivating Narrative of a Complex Man
First off, I usually do not write reviews but because of McBride's fluid narrative of Mr. James Brown, I was compelled to do so.
I grew up in the 1960s in NY and Mr. Brown's music had my friends jumping to his unabashed funk. He epitomized Blackness in a brash, and proudly unapologetic way.
Years later I would hear the stories of abuse of women, his band members, etc. I would also relocate to South Carolina, which McBride nailed in his descriptions of its resident's attitude and posture on race and status. McBride and the audio narrator do an Excellent job in conveying what possibly made Mr. Brown the complex man he was. From the insightful interviews, history and environment, Mr. Brown's story is one of survival. Right, wrong, and crazy, but non the less on his own terms.
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13 people found this helpful
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- Cam payne
- 01-31-23
10/10
I love the way in which idioms are applied in this book painting a vivid picture for listeners to imagine. It’s great to hear a different truth to who and what James Brown stood for. As a member of the millennial generation I was fooled into thinking he was a mad man. I was wrong and this book has led me to see the godfather for who and what he really stood for education and empowerment.
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