Last Night at the Blue Angel: A Novel

Written by Rebecca Rotert

Narrated by Andrus Nichols and Caitlin Davies

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s Chicago jazz scene, a highly ambitious and stylish literary debut that combines the atmosphere and period detail of Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility with the emotional depth and drama of The Memory Keeper's Daughter, about a talented but troubled singer, her precocious ten-year-old daughter, and their heartbreaking relationship.

It is the early 1960s, and Chicago is a city of uneasy tensions—segregation, sexual experimentation, free love, the Cold War—but it is also home to one of the country’s most vibrant jazz scenes. Naomi Hill, a singer at the Blue Angel club, has been poised on the brink of stardom for nearly ten years. Finally, her big break arrives—the cover of Look magazine. But success has come at enormous personal cost. Beautiful and magnetic, Naomi is a fiercely ambitious yet extremely self-destructive woman whose charms are irresistible and dangerous for those around her. No one knows this better than Sophia, her clever ten-year-old daughter.

For Sophia, Naomi is the center of her universe. As the only child of a single, unconventional mother, growing up in an adult world, Sophia has seen things beyond her years and her understanding. Unsettled by her uncertain home life, she harbors the terrible fear that the world could end at any moment, and compulsively keeps a running list of practical objects she will need to reinvent once nuclear catastrophe strikes. Her one constant is Jim, the photographer who is her best friend, surrogate father, and protector. But Jim is deeply in love with Naomi—a situation that adds to Sophia’s anxiety.

Told from the alternating perspectives of Sophia and Naomi, their powerful and wrenching story unfolds in layers, revealing Sophia’s struggle for her mother’s love with Naomi’s desperate journey to stardom and the colorful cadre of close friends who shaped her along the way.

Sophisticated yet poignant, Last Night at the Blue Angel is an unforgettable tale about what happens when our passion for the life we want is at sharp odds with the life we have. It is a story ripe with surprising twists and revelations, and an ending that is bound to break your heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Jul 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780062332189

Rebecca Rotert

Rebecca Rotert received an M.A. in literature from Hollins College, where she was the recipient of the Academy of American Poets prize. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and other publications. She's also an experienced singer and songwriter, who has performed with several bands, and a teacher with the Nebraska Writers Collective. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska. This is her first novel.

Reviews for Last Night at the Blue Angel

[Aifa Santos · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

The mother is immoral and everyone doesn't care like she's exceptional. She mostly sleeps with everyone, a mess, mostly care about herself. Her daughter sees everything and they're all acting up like it is normal. I swear her mother needs professional help?

[vivienner_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A very accomplished first novel by Rotert. It details the life of jazz singer Naomi, still hoping for a breakthrough, and her eleven-year-old daughter Sophia. The narrator shifts from mother to daughter, both characters very well drawn, especially the vulnerable Sophia who is intensely loyal but mostly ignored. The values and culture of Chicago's jazz era in the sixties came to life.

[kara.shamy · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As a fan of literary historical fiction, Rebecca Rotert's Last Night at the Blue Angel caught my eye when it was released in hardcover. However, I didn't happen to read it as a new release, so I was happy to be reminded of the work's existence -- and very lucky to receive a free copy for review, to boot from the Library Thing Early Reviewer Program -- upon the release of the paperback edition earlier this year. Given the critical acclaim the book received, the particular focus of the narrative on two primary characters' (mother and daughter pair Naomi and Sophie) psychological experiences of events, and the exciting time and place (1960's Chicago), I expected author Rebecca Rotert's narrative to actually capture my imagination fully. It was a rewarding read on the whole; Rotert succeeded in creating multi-dimensional characters that interested this reader from start to finish. The two personalities have real depth and compel interesting events to occur and thus carry the storyline organically -- rather than being buffeted about by plot elements of greater scale and significance. That said, I've read a lot of excellent literary historical fiction; luckily for readers like me it's a talent-crowded field. When I invest my energy in a work, I want to read a writer who crafts characters who not only engage my interest but whose stories become part of my life experience -- whose personas and fates stay impressed on my memory in valuable ways for long after I finish the novel. Rotert failed to meet this standard for me, but it wasn't for lack of trying. She certainly employed literary devices to achieve this effect for her readers. Most notably, the novel switches from first-person perspective between the two protagonists, and their words are represented in italics -- an unusual choice, which in my experience had the effect of reminding me over and over of the particular personal nature of the narrative voice. This device didn't create a greater fascination in my mind or an illusion of greater intimacy between the personalities on the page and myself as reader. I was just aware of the effort Rotert was making to close that gap. Perhaps one reason this technique didn't help engage me very closely and lastingly with the characters and the novel as a whole is that the narrative technique lent itself to easy-to-read, light prose consisting of short, to the point statements. This made the novel a very quick read, and while this may indeed make the book very appealing to some readers, it may have barred my immersion in Rotert's narrative. I'd like to read this author again and see her go deeper and immerse us more deeply in her living craft. It's a well-written, interesting novel, and I recommend it to readers who will not be disappointed with anything less than those commendable qualities.

[castlelass · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Set in Chicago in the 1960s, this novel tells the story of jazz singer Naomi and her ten-year-old daughter, Sophia. It is told in alternating perspectives of mother and daughter. We learn Naomi’s turbulent backstory, and how she arrived in Chicago. Performing at the Blue Angel, Naomi is looking for her big break. The author provides details and descriptions that place the reader back into the time period and jazz scene. The dramatic tension is provided by the differences in what Sophia wants (home, friends, and a family environment) and what her mother wants (success in her career). I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed Sophia’s story. It is tenderly told. She is attached to one of her mother’s boyfriends and wants him for a father, but her mother’s actions put her into contact with her birth father. He means well but she just does not feel what her mother wants her to feel. I did not care as much for the mother’s story. Even though we are supposed to feel her pain, I found it difficult to warm up to her. Topics include identity, sexual freedoms, religion, racial issues, and mother-daughter relationships.

[beth.clarke · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5. The ending was exceptional. The rest of it was good.

[rglossne · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This moving debut novel is about the the many ways we love, the many forms that family can take, and the powerful effects that loss has on our lives. Naomi, a talented undiscovered jazz singer, and her ten year old daughter Sophia, live in Chicago in the 1960s, but Naomi's story is revealed in flashbacks that she narrates. Naomi struggles with society's limitations, as does Sophia in her turn. Issues of race, the war in Vietnam, gender and sexual identity are all explored.The characters are unforgettable, the writing excellent, the story moving. This would be an excellent book club choice.

[mamashepp · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Just beautiful writing and damn did I cry!

[dallenbaugh_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I was quite impressed by this first novel by author Rebecca Rotert. The story involves the singer Naomi Hill and her daughter Sophia as they alternate telling their stories, first of Naomi's childhood and her struggle to win fame as a jazz singer and then of her daughter's struggle to find her place in her mother's world where everything is constantly changing. The one exception to their chaotic lives is the constant presence of Jim, a passionate photographer of both old buildings and of Naomi. He loves Naomi and is willing to accept her as she is, but more importantly he loves Sophia and gives her the stability and attention that her mother can only achieve on occasion. The other two important characters to both Naomi and Sophia are Sister Eye and her sibling Rita. The book explores different kinds of love, the ways women can be torn between having a career or having the conventional life of husband and family, and by how we survive loss of all different kinds. This book kept me interested the whole way through.

[melaniehope · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book and it was between 3 and 4 stars. It started off slowly but then gains momentum. The story takes place in the 1960s in Chicago. Naomi is focused more on gaining stardom than on raising her daughter Sophia. Sophia is more the adult in this book struggling to have a normal family life. The only good influences are her mom's friend, Jim and Sister Eye and Rita.The book goes back and forth as seen by Sophia and Naomi. With Naomi, we got back to the 1950s and learned more about how she grew up and what motivated her to leave home for the big city.This was a well written book that was a poignant look at the relationship between 11 year old Sophia and her mother. I received a complimentary copy via Librarything.com

[librarian1204 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoy books where the MC is a young person. I like the perspective and the freshness provided by youth. Last Night at the Blue Angel, was an excellent example of this. Sophia is ten, in 1965 and lives in a hotel in Chicago with her mother, Naomi, a singer at the Blue Angel, a less than top of the line Jazz club. Sophia's life is full of adults from Jim, the photographer, who obviously adores her mother, to a seamstress and a nun who are her mother's friends,The present day story is told by Sophia. Naomi, tells the back story of how their present life came to be. Naomi is a very flawed mother figure, exposing Sophia to adult situations that reveal mom's inability to know who she wants in her life. The one constant, Jim, is always there, to pick up the pieces and attempt to give Sophia as normal a life as possible. Chicago, the architecture of the city, segregation in schools and neighborhoods, the way of life in the 1960s all add the perfect backdrop to the story.Very well written, this is a first novel, that demands a follow up. Read as a selection from LibraryThing.

[kdabra4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this one a lot (compliments of LibraryThing). It is 1965 in Chicago--segregation, the Cold War, and razing of some old Chicago buildings all play a part. A single mother, the talented Naomi, sings at The Blue Angel nightclub to support herself and her 10 year old daughter Sophia. Sophia is said to look like Howdy Doody, and yearns for the day when she will be as beautiful and popular as Naomi. Everyone loves Naomi, yet she cannot settle on who to love back. There are many affairs with men and women alike; but Naomi removes herself from any real emotions, even as someone from her past appears in her audience one night and "complicates" things.Naomi's best friend Jim from early days in Chicago is the closest thing to a dad that Sophia has ever had; but Naomi doesn't grasp the importance or the meaning of their relationship. Jim is a photographer and focuses his camera on deteriorating architecture he feels should be salvaged, and on Naomi, landing her a cover on Look magazine.The story is told in alternating POV by Sophia in 1965 and Naomi in 1955, when she first came to Chicago with an ex-nun on her arm and Sophia in her womb. It is easy to understand and empathise with little Sophia. Naomi takes much longer to get to know, but I found nothing about her to like. By the end I found her quite appalling. What Sophia says about her in the opening of her first chapter sums it up:"Mother is a singer. I live in her dark margin."

[aimless22 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A stunning debut about a mother, Naomi, and daughter, Sophia, and their lives before the mother is discovered as a new singing sensation. The book is well-organized, Parts, titled with old jazz song titles, are divided into chapter groups. Each group is a first-person narration by either 10-year-old Sophia in 1965 or Naomi, in the early nineteen fifties. One glaring error nearer the end of the book has Naomi giving tickets for her "last show" to Elizabeth's family at Sophia's birthday party BUT the next day is when she finds out that her last show will be in three weeks. The characters are well defined. Naomi is a free spirit who sleeps with whoever is there, with the exception of Jim, who is always there. Naomi needs the attention, the love of her audience. She doesn't know herself without that interaction.Sophia struggles through her lonely life with only one friend her age, Elizabeth - the first negro girl allowed at her parochial school. Sophia wants to understand how things work, physical and mental things.The two females seem opposite - Naomi is very childlike in her interactions with those around her. Sophia prepares for the aftermath of nuclear war and listens in on adult conversations around her, making intelligent suppositions.Naomi's backstory, told in her chapters, is frought with loneliness and experimentation. Her current story is told more from Sophia's point of view.Naomi's closest friends are Rita, a cross-dressing man and his sister Idalia, a former nun. Also, there's Jim. Jim is a photographer who has been friends with Naoimi for a very long time and wishes for more, but will settle for friendship and fathering Sophia.The prologue tells the reader about Naomi's big performance soon after being featured on the cover of Look magazine. The novel fills in all the gaps between that day and the day Naomi left her poor home in Soldier, Kansas.

[quiltinfun06 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book was a complete surprise. I was curious enough to request it but thought it might not be much. The writing is very well-done and the subject was very interesting. There was surprise, intrigue and mystery. I highly recommend everyone give it a try. This book will not disappoint.

[felliot-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“Last Night at the Blue Angel” is a poignant and unforgettable story about what happens when our passion for the life we want is at sharp odds with the life we have.” - from the book jacketThe phrase “a powerful new voice” is without a doubt the most overused hyperbole in publishing today. But when applied to Rebecca Rotert's Last Night at the Blue Angel it is an understatement. It is the story of Naomi, a jazz singer on the brink of stardom who can't escape her self-destructive past. It is also the story of Sophia, Naomi's daughter who counts as her family a large and unconventional group that surrounds her with love. At the same time, it is the story of 1960's Chicago as it transitions through the Cold War, Vietnam, segregation and racism, and most importantly, the jazz scene.The story is told alternately by Naomi and Sophia but it is all the characters (even Chicago) that will stay with you. As in any life, there are ups and downs, successes and catastrophic events (no spoilers here) that inform and define both of their lives. Rebecca Rotert has done an amazing job of creating a cast of characters, especially Sophia, that you will want to root for and wish that they were your own extended family.

[romonko · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I cannot believe that this book is a debut novel for Rebecca Rotert. This book will lift you up, and then suddenly cast you down. It will rip out your insides and then calmly place them back in. My heart broke over and over for ten year old Sophia. There is a mind-numbing sadness at times in this book, but then in the next chapter something warm and wonderful happens, and hope soars again. This so exactly portrays the emotions that Sophia's mother Naomi experiences in her never-ending search for stardom and fame. The time is 1960's Chicago and the backdrop is a hot and sultry jazz club called The Blue Angel. The story is told in the first person from two viewpoints - little precocious Sophia and her talented but perplexing mother Naomi. The writing is smooth and poetic and it carries the reader along formidably to the very tragic ending. The cost that unrelenting ambition has on people close to the person with the ambition is calamitous and it spares no one in its wake. This is a heartbreaker of a book, bur so wonderfully written that it almost becomes a part of you as you read it. I highly recommend it.

[brendajanefrank · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a deeply moving story of love, sexuality, music, coming of age and Chicago. It is a stunning work for a first novel by talented Rotert.When I struggle to finish a mediocre book, because I hate to be a quitter, I keep checking on how many pages are left. With “Last Night at the Blue Angel” I kept checking on the number of pages remaining because I didn’t want it to end.I found this novel tremendously engaging. Rotert creates vivid images of the nightclub scene in Chicago in the 60's. To some degree, “Last Night at the Blue Angel” is historical fiction. The primary setting is Chicago in 1965, with the beginnings of desegregation and the destruction of treasures of American architecture stirring interest in historic preservation.Yes, the lifestyle and parenting of protagonist Jazz singer Naomi Hill can be shocking at first, but given the circumstances, it becomes understandable. Her daughter, Sophia, raised in hotels and backstage, with lesbians, transvestites, and nuns, yes, nuns, is a bright, inquisitive, self-reliant, sensitive, caring, affectionate girl. Roles are generally reversed, with 10-year-old Sophia often mothering Naomi, who lives an unstable and disruptive life involving liberal alcohol use.Normally, I shy away from stories concerning difficult circumstances for young children or heartbreak. However, author Rotert blended love, happiness and adventure so well with the obstacles and struggles faced by the characters that I embraced it all as a rich narrative.

[janarose1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the story of Sophia and Naomi. Sophia watches her mother Naomi sing jazz at the Blue Angel nightclub. Ignored by her mother, Sophia tries desperately to win her attention and take care of the alcoholic, sexually free woman who just wants to strike it big. Alternating from Sophia to Naomi, the story shifts, showing us Naomi's childhood, and how she arrived at the jazz club.Overall, this was a well written engaging book. I loved how they went back and forth between the mother and daughter. It made the book vibrant and hard to put down. I absolutely hated that there were no quotation marks throughout the book. I found that highly annoying. Overall, a good book, one I enjoyed, despite the lack of quotation marks.

[whitreidtan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mothers and daughters can have all sorts of relationships. Some are close and loving while others are distant or estranged. Some mothers raise their children while other children are basically abandoned to raise themselves. And yet no matter what our relationship with our mothers, not knowing any other way of life, we assume our experience is the common one. We crave love, acceptance, attention, and acknowledgement from our mothers. In Rebecca Rotert's novel, Last Night at the Blue Angel, set in 1965 Chicago, Naomi, a single mother, sings in a rundown nightclub and strives for an ever elusive fame while her innocent but wise ten year old daughter, Sophia, aches for Naomi's attention as she tries to hold her talented but fragile mother together. The novel opens on the night that Naomi finally becomes famous but the spotlight of the narrative is very quickly and firmly on the precocious Sophia perched on her stool in the wings watching the mother she adores. Sophia worries about life after a nuclear bomb and she keeps lists of the necessary things that she will have to reinvent in the event of such a major disaster. Her world is not perfect but it is her world and she wants nothing more than to preserve it as it is. Since Naomi is too consumed with her career and self-involved to be a particularly attentive mother, Sophia is lucky to be surrounded by an extended family of her and Naomi's own making. Jim, a photographer documenting the ruins of old Chicago architecture before it is forever lost and in love with Naomi, helps Sophia manage her mother and acts as a steadying influence and surrogate father. Sister Eye is a teacher at Sophia's school who has known Naomi since before she left her small Kansas town, driven out by small minded prejudice. And it is with Sister Eye and Rita that Naomi lived while she found her footing, when she discovered she was pregnant with Sophia, and who are as much Sophia's family as if they shared blood. The novel eventually alternates between Sophia and Naomi's narration with Sophia telling the tale of the immediate past and Naomi filling in the even further past events that led her to flee Kansas. When Naomi tells her tale, it fills the gaps and explains things in Sophia's narrative in some unexpected ways. Even so, Sophia's narration is the stronger, more sympathetic one. Sophia is an appealing character, accepting and winsome, and her fierce love for her mother is poignant while her loyalty and love for the others in her life is overwhelming. Naomi has been battered by life far more than her daughter but some of that battering is a result of her own choices. Most of the relationships are well developed here but there are two incredibly important ones, with David and with Laura, that are underdeveloped and scant despite their significance to the story as a whole. The ending is bittersweet and gives a hint of how Sophia will face growing up to match the maturity she already possesses.The novel, like I imagine Naomi's voice, is sultry and full of longing for real beauty and for love and family. It is well written, telling a story that is both beautiful and tragic. Tackling prejudice, racism, sexuality, the terrible price of fame, and durability versus vulnerability, this novel is a slow, jazzy paean, heart-wrenching and languid.