I picked up this book in preparation for an interview with James McBride for the National Book Festival in Washington D.C. back in September. Of the ~6 books that I scanned, researched and prepared for, Kill 'Em And Leave was the only one that I made sure to sit down and read cover to cover.

I don't know a lot about music. I love funk in the sort of passive way that most people like chocolate cake -- put it in front of me and I'm going to be happy, but don't ask me what it's made of or why the particular portions within it work in the way that they do. And I've always liked James Brown, though my experience with his music is sort of inhaling it ambiently like you might Michael Jackson, The Beatles or Beethoven.

So this book was something of a departure for me.

At the same time, it kind of wasn't. James McBride is an accomplished author and journalist, and this book was clearly a labor of love on his part -- musician that he is. He has to be, in order to achieve what he has with Kill 'Em And Leave.

Relying mostly on shoe leather and interviews with people who were important in Brown's life at various periods in his life, he manages to sketch a portrait of the Godfather of Soul using the negative space around him. McBride touches on some of the superficial things like his hair or his womanizing, but where you really get a strong picture of who he was as a man is in the ways he influenced the lives of those who knew. And it's those sparks of feeling that really populate this book.

And really, if nothing else, this book is an excellent excuse to dust off some of James Brown's albums, which, I have to say, really stand up well to the test of time.