Blues Trilogy

Les Martel brings Louisiana-style ass-kicking to Hollywood.

Three generations of a Louisiana Creole family have struggled amidst blues music, religious conflict, lust, lynching, murder, voodoo, and racism. Now as they come of age, the grandchildren of Martha Broussard find they must carve their own paths through a rapidly changing world.

Ann Martel becomes the doctor her grandfather hoped her brother would become. Disappointed in love, she finds contentment and happiness with an older woman-partner. Meanwhile, her brother, Les Martel, defies all who challenge the man he desires to be. He protests racial intimidation in Estilette, takes on an abusive lover in Chicago, fights a Paul Bunyan-sized giant in the backwoods of Bemidji, kicks the ass of a contemptible womanizer in Nashville, and gives comeuppance to a backstabber in Hollywood. He soon discovers that Hollywood is not the place he thought it would be - the values were not his values, the truth is not his truth, trust is deception, honesty is weakness, and “loyalty” is an unknown word.

Bodacious Blues, the remarkable finale to Whitney LeBlanc’s compelling, blues-filled trilogy, completes this proud family’s saga in the 1980s. Amidst a milieu of religious controversy, sexual cross-identification, changing values, and racial exploitation, the message is loud and clear: Coming of age as adults was not as easy as they thought.