James McBride, best-selling author of "The Color of Water" and "The Good Lord Bird," has written a furious ode to the troubled life and legacy of the incomparable James Brown. Part appreciation, part biography, the book is structured as a mystery: Why has this singular figure in American culture - a genius on the order of Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan - been so grievously misrepresented and misunderstood, all the more so since his death in 2006 at age 73? Unlike other writers who have focused largely on Brown's groundbreaking music, McBride seeks to investigate the "amorphous blend of black politics, culture and music" that shaped the Godfather of Soul.
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