Dexterous ... Perry is also expert at a less-sterile mode of writing, and what follows is a kind of affective investigation into the many roles of blueness in Black life ... Even if blue were a literary device, the book would not be spoiled. What unites its disparate contents is a mood, which is just as valuable as an argument. It is a contrapuntal document, musical and moving, and no less rich for its tumbling abundance. In place of clear conclusions are persistent themes, like recurring notes in a song.
Ranges...widely ... The book drifts, like the ocean; it turns suddenly cloudy, like the heavens; it trills, like the jaybird (to which another chapter is devoted). It will have you looking afresh even at your corner mailbox.
Perry effortlessly mixes memory with social commentary to unravel blue’s significance ... Not only is Perry well read in history, but she is also an appreciator of literature, music, and art ... Black and blue are brilliant and so is Black in Blues.
The sheer breadth and depth of this mosaic telling speaks to the power of Perry’s craft as both scholar and storyteller, illustrating the beauty of the very culture about which she writes.
