41 pages • 1 hour read
Half-Blood Blues
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Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4 Summary
Back in 1992 Berlin, Chip and Sid are on their way to visit Hiero in Poland. As they pass the remains of the old Berlin Wall, Chip apologizes again for what he said, and Sid tells him, “you got to make it right” (193). At the airport Sid learns that Chip hasn’t told Hiero that they’re coming; he wonders how Hiero will respond to his arrival, perhaps angrily.
Upon arriving in Stettin, Poland, they catch a ride on an old Soviet transport bus. The route leads out of the city into the countryside, and the other passengers get off one by one. Sid and Chip reminisce about their boyhood days in Baltimore, including Chip’s first performance on stage.
Back then, 13-year-old Sid followed Chip into a club owned by Panther Brownstone. Chip and Brownstone performed a set together, to tremendous applause. Sid, meanwhile, felt that he had “found what [his] life was meant for” in the club’s laidback atmosphere (201). Brownstone offered Chip a regular gig in the club, until he discovered that Chip was too young to perform there legally. However, he called over two young ladies, telling them to “take care of” Sid and Chip (203).
Hoping to impress the women, Sid bought drinks. Just as he was returning to the table, however, one of them led him into a back room. She kissed him and, almost before he realized what was happening, performed oral sex. Shocked, Sid asked if she was a whore and, offended, she told him to pay. He ran away, then doubled back to find Chip, who was mildly injured in his parallel flight. They laughed it off.
On the bus, Sid and Chip wonder why Hiero chose to settle in Poland. Sid also considers certain revelations from the documentary about Hiero, including the fact that his father was a Senegalese soldier working for the French government, not a high-ranking Cameroonian, as he liked to tell people.
They stop to eat. Sid and Chip are now the only remaining passengers. On an impulse, Sid returns to the bus, then finds and reads Hiero’s letter to Chip. He realizes that Hiero only asked for Chip to visit, not mentioning him at all. Upset, Sid confronts Chip, who insists that Hiero will be happy to see him. Sid is not so sure.
Part 4 Analysis
Sid and Chip’s journey takes on symbolic significance as they pass relics of the old days that are now all but unrecognizable, including remains of the wall that once separated communist East Berlin from capitalist West Berlin from 1961 until it was demolished in 1989; the intervening years have changed the city, just as each of them has changed. Later, a long bus ride that takes them deep into rural Poland reveals to them a people—and a country—scarred by a difficult past: After mounting a decrepit bus of Soviet manufacture, Sid and Chip perceive “others huddled in the chill with us, pale and grim and avoiding eye contact. […] Their faces blurred and indistinct” (197).
Sid and Chip’s parallel trip down memory lane adds meaningful nuance to both characters. Out of the blue, Chip decides that Hiero must have named “Half-Blood Blues” with reference to Delilah, suggesting the song to be as much a love song as a political message. Sid and Chip’s ensuing recollection of their first brush with the so-called “jazz life” conflates their then-burgeoning musicality with the discovery of newfound sexual appetites, which serves as a metaphor for their love of jazz. Chip’s decision to devote his life to jazz, as well as Sid’s determination to ensure his prospects as a jazz musician, whatever the cost, make more sense in this light.
Edugyan continues to gradually reveal more about Hiero, as Sid processes the information presented in the documentary, including an account of Hiero’s parentage that contradicts the one he received from Hiero. Although Sid assumes that Hiero knowingly lied about his father, it’s possible that he was simply repeating information given to him by his mother or others, who wanted to avoid admitting his father to be a Senegalese soldier, as such unions were heavily frowned upon.
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