The Ragtime Fool

January 25, 2010
American obsessions with race and glory dominate Karp’s lively conclusion, set in 1951, to his Ragtime trilogy (after 2008’s The King of Ragtime
). Decades earlier, Brun Campbell was ragtime genius Scott Joplin’s only white pupil. Now an elderly barber in Venice, Calif., Brun frantically publicizes Joplin, ragtime, and himself. In Hobart, N.J., Alan Chandler, a 17-year-old piano student, has fallen in love with ragtime music. Both Brun and Alan are excited to hear that a journal Joplin kept may soon be published. In Sedalia, Mo., Joplin’s home for many years, diehard Klansmen are plotting to bomb an interracial ceremony honoring the composer. Brun and Alan race to Sedalia, where they find themselves caught in a confused swirl of various characters who want to steal the valuable journal—or stop its publication. Karp handles the intricate plot well, but the best part of the book is its picture of people torn between what they want to forget and what they need to remember.

February 15, 2010
Karp wraps up his ragtime mystery trilogy (following The King of Ragtime, 2008) by returning to the life of Brun Campbell, hero of the series opener, The Ragtime Kid (2006). The story picks up in 1951 with aging Brun finding a new friend in 17-year-old ragtime fan Alan Chandler. The two, who live on opposite coasts, meet in Sedalia Missouri, at a 1951 Scott Joplin festival and are brought together by their interest in Joplins recently discovered journal, which is being held by his increasingly ill and senile widow. The 1951 setting lends itself to an exploration of Klan activities, as a local group plans to attack the Joplin ceremony. As usual, Karp populates his book with nearly as many historical characters as fictional ones, many of whom will be familiar to readers who enjoyed the earlier books. Ragtime remains central to the series, both in terms of its ambience and its plots, making the trilogy a must recommendation to fans of jazz and American roots music.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)