The Magic Keys winningly evokes the coming to maturity of one of the great characters in contemporary American literature: Scooter, the central protagonist of Albert Murray' s highly acclaimed autobiographical novels Train Whistle Guitar, The Spyglass Tree, and The Seven League Boots.Growing up brilliant and curious in Alabama, Scooter was told he was destined for greatness. Now newly married and a graduate student in humanities at New York University, he goes about discovering just what he is destined to be great at. Anchored by Eunice, his "Mrs. Me," Scooter makes the rounds of Manhattan' s libraries, jazz hangouts, galleries, skyscrapers, and endlessly fascinating streets, meeting the people who will help him find his way: dapper Taft Edison, who is setting their down-home dialect onto the pages of his novel-in-progress; Joe States, a drummer who brings old expectations to Scooter's new life; and Jewel Templeton, no longer his girl but still a...

By "our premier writer about jazz and the blues...and a fictional tale spinner in the grand Southern tradition" (Washington Post Book World), The Spyglass Tree is a deeply affecting novel of elegant, lyrical reminiscence and profound sophistication about a young black man's advent into the world of academia--an imaginary Alabama college--in the 1930s.Admist the excitement of the world of ideas and adventures with new friends, Scooter sallies into "the territory of the blues," where recollection becomes legend. Here he learns to deal with the vicissitudes of life--the complexities of family ties and camaraderie, his sexuality, pride of excellence in school, the darker realities of history and human passion--through confrontation and improvisation, and with style and courage."[The Spyglass Tree] strikes a perfect balance between the black folk tradition and Faulknerian rumination....One reads this very fine novel for the glissando effect of...