My thoughts








Narrative and Plot









I have read A Sparrow Alone in the beginning of the year and really wanted to get into the sequel which I finally did as you can see. Muskrat Ramble didn't start as kinetic as the first book. It took its sweet time to establish the characters and familiarize you with them. Until the point, Mrs. Hughes makes her entry. From there on it just picks up pace.



The plot once again borrows from history and connects it to these fictional characters and affects their lives in many ways. The one recurring theme I felt was how Hannah still was a Sparrow Alone. Yet, she learned from her own experiences and became her own person.













Characters and Conflicts












Hannah still remains as the character one can empathize with. Both Alice and Emma , weren't exactly the dream daughters that one would have expected them to be by the end of the first book. However, life wasn't much kind to either of them. Some of the things were disturbing to read, particularly when you think about the age of Emma or Alice. But, what is unthinkable now, might have happened to a lot of people during that era. After all, art is only a reflection of the society. And that is the beautiful aspect of the genre.

The life in the asylum is not something that everyone would want to read. If those kind of content triggers you, please don't go for this book.


I don't have much knowledge about the jazz scene , nor do I come from a background that is familiar with the racism prevalent in the West during the early 20th century. However, discrimination whether it be race or religion or caste, that I am not unfamiliar with.



It pains me to see that the fight is still not over and the world still is learning not to discriminate or hate at a much slower pace than desired. Also, the mention of the pandemic brings out fresh wounds now. Again a trigger warning if you are looking for an escape read.








Conclusion










Overall , Muskrat Ramble is a journey back in time and a chance to remember how far we have come. And yet, it gives this odd feeling of history repeating itself. If you were invested in the Sparrow Alone, you might not want to miss this and see how Hannah's life turned out.


Muskrat Ramble continues the extraordinary journey of Hannah's life and how she was willing to redeem her own mistakes.

‘Muskrat Ramble’ is the continuation of the story about Hannah Owens Barrington in the first book, ‘A Sparrow Alone’. You can read my thoughts on book 1 here. It picks up her story in 1913 after the school she teaches African American children, closes in Kansas. She moves with her “daughter,” Alice, to New Orleans. She hopes to re-connect with her birth daughter, Emma and to find a job.

She does get to re-connect with Emma, who is now 13 years old. Note, Emma does not know that Hannah is her mother. Emma aspires to be a Jazz singer and is friends with Kid Ory the jazz trombonist.

Hannah also finds a variety of jobs including working in a cigar factory and seamstress work for an opera house.

The backdrop of the book is the Jazz Age in all it’s glory and pitfalls, especially racism. I love the part Kid Ory plays in the story as he was a real-life jazz performer. There were also references to Louis Armstrong. I especially love the Jazz age part of the story, it was like a character, itself.

I also loved how Hannah evolved as she aged. I would love to write more about that but don’t want to risk spoilers.

If you are an historical fiction lover, like myself, you should read ‘Muskrat Ramble’. Be sure to read ‘A Sparrow Alone’ first. This is a rich historical two book series that is well developed and researched. The character come alive in a way that you feel you are there, seeing their lives unfold first hand. These are unforgettable characters that I will not forget!

I have harboured a love for New Orleans for many years now but this work of historical fiction let me fall in love with that amazing city even more. This story spanned a century or so and covered so much of what the south experienced during that era, from the introduction and growth of the jazz scene to the rise of segregation during the Jim Crowe era. This book has so much to offer, a truly impressive read with strong leads and unforgettable storylines. It's a book I will revisit again in the future and I certainly won't forget it in a hurry. It's a five star read for me.

A captivating read, jam-packed with wonderful details!

This is almost a saga of one woman's life, mainly in the deep south and encompassing everything and everyone she cares about. Set during and after WWI, this story includes all that affected Americans during this period; the emergence of the popularity of music new to the population, the crippling poverty and the terrible differences with race, sanctioned by the legislation of the day and having a horrific effect on many.

I was invited to read and review this novel and convinced it was one I really wouldn't want to miss. Even though this is a sequel (to A Sparrow Alone), it is an excellent standalone read and one I thoroughly enjoyed. Quite a heart-wrenching read in places, it clearly demonstrates the awful reality of racism during this period alongside the abundance of love and friendships. It's quite difficult to give a flavour of this one without revealing all but please, take my word for it, this is a terrific read. However, I would say that, left to my own devices I would never have read this novel; neither the cover nor the blurb do it justice and a little attention to both would broaden appeal considerably. I'm happy to have read this one and give it 4*.

My thanks to the author for my copy of her novel; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

Mim Eichmann’s Muskrat Ramble is an historic novel centered around Hannah Barrington, who finds herself in places where jazz and blues play prominent roles in local music culture, influencing her life and lives of a few other characters. Although a significant number of musicians are mentioned, such as King Oliver, Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton, Louis Armstrong, and Mutt Carey, Bix Biederbecke, Sissieretta Jones, Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith, Eichmann gives only Edward “Kid” Ory a major role, also borrowing the name of one of his best-known tunes for her title. Eichmann alters performers’ professional timelines somewhat but admits to doing so to serve Hannah’s story. Music history is one of the books strengths.

A sequel to Eichmann’s A Sparrow Alone (2020), which I have not read, Muskrat Ramble can easily be read on its own because it gradually fills in relevant fragments of Hannah’s Colorado past. It opens in 1913 as Hannah has lost her teaching job in a black Kansas City school. Much to her daughter Alice’s dismay, financially-strapped Hannah decides the two of them will move to New Orleans where she hopes to find work but will also be near Emma Jackson, her favorite former student from the Kansas City school and Emma’s mother Zuma. whom Hannah had known in Colorado. Months earlier, Zuma and Emma accompanied their employers to a decaying family plantation near New Orleans.

Readers who love melodrama should enjoy Muskrat Ramble. To my mind, Eichmann has overdone it—has piled personal and sociological issue upon issue, tragedy upon tragedy, bad decision upon bad decision. Filed with children born out of wedlock, desertions, concealed identities, murderers, prostitution, a hurricane and resultant flood, devasting fires, segregation and Jim Crow, World War I, the Spanish flu pandemic, prohibition, the Great Depression, and more, and ending with Roe v. Wade, the book sometimes comes across as preachy, with one character or another hitting readers over the head with the message rather than the author dramatizing the message. I sometimes found myself wishing Eichmann had chosen to tell the story through multiple points of view. For example, Alice, Emma, and even Zuma could have been given a chance to be the central focus. Bringing Emma’s time with Sissieretta Jones more to life through Emma’s point of view could have better conveyed the point of racism than does mere summary. I did, however, like the sharp-tongued elderly Hannah of the last chapter.

The detailed descriptions of clothing and other irrelevant items, piling sentences with adjective after adjective, bothered this career-long English teacher, who tried to teach her students to stick to relevant details. Frankly, I got tired of the word “diaphanous.” Fortunately, however, the story will grab many readers and propel them forward through the decades of Hannah’s life. Possibly, some of the extraneous description will be weeded out by better editing between distribution of advance reader copies and publication date.

Eichmann opens each chapter with an appropriate quotation, either from an historic figure or, rather surprisingly, from one of her fictional characters. For instance, the first chapter opens with a quotation attributed to Hannah Owens Barrington, the central character. Readers come across the same words part way through chapter 12, and the idea reappears in shorter form at chapter’s end. We can conclude that these words are a central message to help us understand Muskrat Ramble: “One’s life is not at all like a book I reasoned. Things are never fully resolved, never fully wrapped up in nice tidy little stacks and neatly placed in the corner awaiting our leisurely perusal and analysis. We simply do our best to glue together the often shredded pages of our fragmented chapters and arrange them in some kind of meaningful sequence.” In the final chapter, Eichmann does provide a satisfying, touching conclusion.

A long-time artistic director/choreographer for a Chicago-based ballet theater. a folk musician, and lyricist and composer for two award-winning children’s cds. Eichmann creative background no doubt drew her to music research and the writing of Muskrat Ramble.

Thanks to NetGalley, Living Springs Publishers, and Mim Eichmann for the advance reader copy.

"We simply do our best to glue together the often shredded pages of our fragmented chapters and arrange them in some kind of meaningful sequence..." This quote perfectly sums up "Muskrat Ramble" by Mim Eichmann. Though this historical fiction novel is technically the sequel to "A Sparrow Alone," it can definitely be read as a stand-alone book.

Set against the backdrop of the Jazz Age, World War I, the Great Depression, and Jim Crow, this book follows Hannah as she and her daughter Alice move from Kansas City to New Orleans so that Hannah can find work and be closer to one of her former students, a young black girl named Emma. Hannah experiences many challenges but is able to rise to the occasion each time, desperately trying to create a better life for herself, Alice, and Emma. There are many twists and turns to Hanna's story, and it isn't always easy to read.

"Muskrat Ramble" is meticulously researched. It is educational, as well as entertaining. It is not a simple story, packed full of events and details, but it is an absolute joy to read. I found it to be compulsively readable and, even though it is a lengthy book, I finished it in just a few hours because I just could not put it down. I especially love novels with strong female characters and this one had several that fit that bill.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for the privilege of reading this wonderful novel. I will certainly read "A Sparrow Alone" too!

Muskrat Ramble is the sequel to A Sparrow Alone, which I haven’t read but it didn’t matter as the author basically rehashed the highlights throughout this book. This is a very interesting story about a woman, Hannah, who follows her friend. Zuma and her daughter, Emma to New Orleans from Colorado before WWI. This is the height of Jim Crow and Hannah, who is white, doesn’t know how to navigate the rules between races. In NOLA, she gets introduced to jazz through her friend Zuma and her daughter Emma.

Look, there is a lot of twists in this story line that I don’t want to ruin. I really enjoyed being introduced to a part of history and culture, the NOLA jazz scene, that I didn’t know about. Many of the musicians of the era make appearances in the novel. Race and discrimination are prominent throughout the story, as are WWI, the influenza epidemic, the depression, and vaudeville and how African-American performers made a living and were treated during the beginning of the 20th century.

The story starts right from the first pages and never lets up. Even though I know what happened in the first book, I now want to go back and read it.

Thank you NetGalley, the publishers, and the author for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This story is a sequel to Sparrow Alone, I read Muskrat Ramble as a stand-alone and it does fine on its own merit. I am planning to circle back and read Sparrow Alone to capture some of Hanna’s previous years. The New Orleans Creole Jazz scene was quite intriguing, something I was unfamiliar with. Kid Ory, Louie Armstrong, Jelly Roll and several other larger than life jazz singers make appearances or have major contributing roles.

Hanna, a widow along with her daughter relocate to New Orleans after she unexpectedly finds herself without a job. One of Hanna’s former students, Emma and her mother also a close friend live in New Orleans as well.

Emma has a beautiful voice and Kid Ory becomes her mentor in the jazz scene. He tries to assist her in navigating a singing career at a time when so few options are available to female black singers. Kid Ory is a major supporting character, he is endearing and the reader finds him quite charming. While he’s a womanizer and opportunist, he is mostly honest and upfront about his alternative relationships and approach to life, that is with the exception of his wife.

The story touches on many issues as it spans five decades, race and discrimination are front and center, the Spanish Flu, WWI, politics. It’s all here in a beautifully crafted story. I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 only because at some points the writing bogged down and seemed to drag out. I highly recommend this adventurous historical novel.

This complex and compelling historical novel provides the reader a crash course in the history of New Orleans jazz, but also a painful lesson in racial injustice in this country.

I found the storyline a bit confusing at times because I had not read the author’s previous novel which set the stage for this book. I admired the narrator/ heroine immensely: she was almost unbelievably self-reliant and intrepid. But, for someone who had endured multitudes of personal set-backs, she seemed to have the residency of a super- heroine.

I admired Mim Eichmann’s effort to educate her readers on so many subjects ranging from social injustice to medical history. At times, the depth of detail was a bit daunting, but the novel had both heart and heft and, while the journey through it was painful, it definitely had merit.

NetGalley provided me a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a candid review.

Mim Eichmann has written a good historical fiction about the jazz age in New Orleans.

The story is told from the POV of Hannah Owens Barrington. She is a widow; she is a mother. After losing her job teaching in Kansas City MO, she and her daughter move to NO. A former student, Emma, lives there with her mother.

Emma has a BIG voice. She is 13 but aspires to be a singer. An opera singer takes Emma under her wing. Many jazz greats of the era are included: Kid Ory, Louis Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton. She does become a professional but her life is far from sweetness and light.

Kid Ory takes Emma under his wing too. He calls Emma La Petite Musquette. He writes The Muskrat Ramble in her honor.

Hannah's life is fleshed out as well. Needing a job, she works at a cigar factory until the tobacco dust does her in. She then finds a job refurbishing opera gowns for use in England. Her relationship with Alice AND Emma changes drastically..

The backdrop of these vignettes is 1913 New Orleans. As the stories progress, we experience WWI, a hurricane, the Spanish flu epidemic and the effects of war. The book spans the years 1913 to the 1960's. .

A worthy historical fiction.with MANY touches of surprise and suspense.

4 stars

A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by the author, Mim Eichmann, asking if I'd be interested in reading and reviewing her sequel to ‘A Sparrow Alone’ titled ‘Muskrat Ramble.’ Knowing how much I love historical fiction and love to learn as I read, I appreciate the effort Eichmann went to get a hold of me. Muskrat Ramble was a spectacular novel and worth putting on your radar come March 23, 2021.

This novel begins with Hannah Barrington, an engaging protagonist, welcoming readers into her life as she revisits pivotal moments in her life. Hannah doesn’t hold back; readers gain insight into mistakes made and opportunities missed. Hoping for a better life without racial prejudice, Hannah escapes from Missouri and heads for New Orleans. Unfortunately, she’s not able to regain employment as a teacher and instead accepts a seamstress position in the costume department of the Opera House. While visiting a friend, she meets Edward (Kid) Ory, a black trombone player and Creole jazz pioneer. For the next few decades Ory is an influential part of Hannah’s life. It’s at this point that readers will link the book’s title with Ory and the learn origins of the famous tune, Muskrat Ramble. Readers will also be made aware of the unfair treatment of black musicians.

Eichmann has spanned the decades, stitching Hannah’s experiences together with incredible detail. It’s easy to see why this author couldn’t let go of Hannah’s story and was moved to work on this sequel. Meticulous research has enabled Eichmann to inform readers about the birth of jazz, home front life during WW1 and its effects on the economy, the Spanish Flu, the plight of women, and the Jim Crow era featuring the struggles the people of colour endured. The in-depth information is a necessary background for the creation of the vivid picture Eichmann paints of life for women spanning the decades. I love to learn as I read and was shocked at the insight into Encephalitis Lethargica and intrigued at the information presented on the different genres of music. Although an ambitious time frame to condense in a poignant novel, Eichmann successfully highlights her characters against spectacular backdrops and heart-wrenching conditions and manages to tie Hannah’s story together in an unforgettable tale.

Thank you for encouraging me to read your recent masterpiece, Mim. It was an absorbing read and the educator in me is delighted at the bibliography, offering me plenty of reading material.

Thank you to Living Springs Publishers and NetGalley for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Muskrat Ramble by Mim Eichmann is not just historical fiction. It’s an incredibly detailed account of real events and people and how they might have had an effect on fictional characters.

The novel is the sequel to A Sparrow Alone but will stand alone. The author has outdone herself with research into the early Jazz era, social mores, and most importantly, the plight of women and people of color. All these issues are woven into a saga spanning decades.

The main character, Hannah Barrington, takes us on an intimate journey through her life as she interacts with prominent personalities from the period. She holds back nothing in telling her tale, including the many mistakes she feels she has made.

We travel with her to New Orleans as Jazz is born, to Chicago in the time of Capone, and eventually back to Colorado, where her story began. Along the way, we meet fabulous characters, real and fictional.

Thank goodness the author gives us a bibliography at the end because the book left me with a desire to know more about many of the storylines, from encephalitis lethargica to the criminal treatment of the mentally ill.

Fans of historical fiction, jazz, all the way to Creole cooking should find something to love about this book.

Hannah moves to New Orleans in 1913 which is already buzzing with jazz. Shortly upon arriving in the city, she meets Kid Ory, a Creole jazz trombonist and bandleader.

Through her story we get to experience some social issues and some historical events. As this story spans through a few decades, it presents a rich spectrum of events. There are some readers who will certainly appreciate how much this story has to offer and in detail. However, I prefer more focused stories with a shorter span of time period as they tend to be sharper in its depiction.

I found the style of writing descriptive, which makes it difficult for me to connect with the main character and makes the pace slow.

I did enjoy getting to know Kid Ory, but I didn’t feel that jazzy atmosphere. It felt like it was lost within this complex story. Also, the writing is more of telling than showing. And I think that was the biggest part that didn’t make the feel of jazz come alive.

historical-fiction, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture, discrimination, dishonest-business-practices, dishonest-people, jazz, NOLA, caste-system*****

In spite of the characters in the story and the main thread of it, I found it to be sad and depressing with regard to the situation of the time for females both Black and white. Yes, it was worse for the Black but the white with little or no money weren't mush better off. The insight into the vaudevillians was no better. And denying literacy to a group of people just because of their skin color is too reminiscent of the same being done to non-landed people by the Church as well as the murder of those who translated the Bible into multiple languages.
The story is briefly introduced by the publisher's blurb, but I feel that this book needs to be read by everyone. It is deeply moving.
I requested and received a free temporary ebook copy from Living Springs Publishers/Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA) via NetGalley. Thank you!

I wish to thank NetGalley and the Publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I am sorry to say that this was a book I could not get into. I tried several times and it just did not capture my attention. There were a lot of French conversations that were untranslated and I found it tiresome trying to figure out what the characters were saying. Maybe if I had stayed with it to the end there would have been a point that made me happy to finish it, but I just did not get there. I feel the author was telling a story that would appeal to many, just not me.

An interesting book about the era when music was the heart of New Orleans. This book has the historical account of the great brass players like Louis Armstrong.
It has side stories of prohibition, Jim Crow laws, segregation and many other aspects of historical value.
It also has the story of a woman trying to find herself. She's caring for one white child, while not able to care for her own half black child. It's a story of family, friendships, and relationships. It is a story of strength and vitality.

The first book with Hannah was A Sparrow Alone and it, too, is excellent. I got an advanced copy of this book from the author and was so thrilled to have it continue with Hannah's life for the next several decades. It is believable and well written and is based on the history and people the the time it is set in. The author had to do much research to step into the time periods and capture the fashion, social mores, architecture, modes of transportation, caste system and politics of the eras. I felt like I was right there to share the joyful times, the heart wrenching disappointments and inequalities the characters experienced.

I definitely recommend both Mim Eichmann's books and look forward to more! (less)

Well-written book but to really enjoy the book, you probably have to already know a decent amount about jazz. I suspect the author comes from a musical background, or just really enjoys early 20th-century jazz, and the effort that goes into recreating the musical scene in Jim Crow era New Orleans is remarkable. There's an interesting twist around the middle of the book regarding the protagonist's seemingly genial husband, along with the protagonist's estranged daughter, but I think the payoff would have been better if it hadn't taken so long to get to it.

I;ve never read anything by Ms. Eichmann before, but I must say as a fan of historical fiction, I couldn't ask for a better novel. The jazz age is one of my favorite genres, and this book really hit the spot. I don't know if I read it or inhaled it since I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended. My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC inn exchange for an honest review.

I liked the way Mim wrote about Hannah Barrington and made each and every thought come from her in reference to New Orleans, Kansas City, Chicago, and California in talking about how blacks were treated as jazz musicians. It was eye opening as it could be and as a amateur musician playing alto, tenor, and bari saxophones and bassoon I never thought that black musicians would be treated that way. But in retrospect I can see that there would be that divide between people. People had it harder than we do now but there is still the divide that emanates between people of color and whites. Thank you Mim for making this more than anything I could come up with in this world. Tears at the end.