Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for the Real James Brown

Accounts of James Brown's life (1933–2006) have been told many times, in many versions. He has been represented and misrepresented. Yet, there is always room for more. Memoirist (The Color of Water) and novelist (The Good Lord Bird) McBride deftly includes his own life experiences, while digging deep into sources and places that surrounded the Godfather of Soul. Stories are conveyed with care and humor, depicting folks with warm hearts, including musicians in his band, his first wife and other family members, best friend, longtime manager, the funeral director of the home where his body lay, and "adopted son" Rev. Al Sharpton. South Carolina and Georgia, where the singer was born and raised respectively, come across as integral characters. Included is information about the entanglements that are tying up his estate, as is the heartbreaking message that the Soul Brother No. 1 was in many ways quite lonely.