Jazz: A Novel (Vintage International)
From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner, a passionate, profound story of love and obsession based on the hopes, fears, and deep realities of Black urban life. With a foreword by the author.
“As rich in themes and poetic images as her Pulitzer Prize–winning Beloved.... Morrison conjures up the hand of slavery on Harlem’s jazz generation. The more you listen, the more you crave to hear.” —Glamour
In the winter of 1926, when everybody everywhere sees nothing but good things ahead, Joe Trace, middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty products, shoots his teenage lover to death. At the funeral, Joe’s wife, Violet, attacks the girl’s corpse.
“Transforms a familiar refrain of jilted love into a bold, sustaining time of self-knowledge and discovery. Its rhythms are infectious.” —People
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Community Reviews
This book suffers from the handicap of having to stand alongside Toni Morrisson's other novels - I've read Beloved, Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Sula. Jazz is not as good as any of those. It still has her ability to create vivid and realistic characters, highly symbolic dreamlike imagery and scenes, poetic imaginative frenzy, etc. But it is very loose in its overall construction.
The book's title suggests it would be about music, but while there are several passages that talk about music, the main narrative really doesn't have much to do with jazz at all.
In some respects, you could argue the narrative structure has jazz elements - at least I've read some commentary to that effect - but I just don't see it. If anything, out of what I've read this is probably her most experimental prose - lots of leaping between viewpoint characters through free indirect discourse and stream of consciousness and without always providing easy markers that such a leap has happened. And that suggests jazz, but that's really it. And it doesn't connect to the themes. And it's honestly not done that well - at least not compared to Woolf or Faulkner or Joyce. Read To The Lighthouse or Absalom Absalom. The form really serves a function and creates a real feeling of purpose. Here it felt disruptive in parts and aimless in others.
The characters are still great, but as with Solomon and Sula the book takes several pretty large diversions and expects you to indulge it, and ultimately those diversions turn out interesting, but while you are reading them you often have very little idea what's going on or why the main plot is being abandoned.
The last chapter feels like a post-hoc quick attempt to bring the idea of music back into things, but too little and too late.
Basically it feels like an experiment that didn't get near enough revision, didn't stay focused, and is nonetheless enjoyable to read because of the sheer talent and brilliance of the author.
The book's title suggests it would be about music, but while there are several passages that talk about music, the main narrative really doesn't have much to do with jazz at all.
In some respects, you could argue the narrative structure has jazz elements - at least I've read some commentary to that effect - but I just don't see it. If anything, out of what I've read this is probably her most experimental prose - lots of leaping between viewpoint characters through free indirect discourse and stream of consciousness and without always providing easy markers that such a leap has happened. And that suggests jazz, but that's really it. And it doesn't connect to the themes. And it's honestly not done that well - at least not compared to Woolf or Faulkner or Joyce. Read To The Lighthouse or Absalom Absalom. The form really serves a function and creates a real feeling of purpose. Here it felt disruptive in parts and aimless in others.
The characters are still great, but as with Solomon and Sula the book takes several pretty large diversions and expects you to indulge it, and ultimately those diversions turn out interesting, but while you are reading them you often have very little idea what's going on or why the main plot is being abandoned.
The last chapter feels like a post-hoc quick attempt to bring the idea of music back into things, but too little and too late.
Basically it feels like an experiment that didn't get near enough revision, didn't stay focused, and is nonetheless enjoyable to read because of the sheer talent and brilliance of the author.
I really liked it, but at first, I felt like it started kind of slow. But, Toni Morrison tells a story in a different way with each novel, and I really liked the way that she wrote this one. I especially loved when the characters started talking directly TO you. Like when Joe Trace began to talk about his past, it was like he was giving a testimony or something. Overall, this was such a wonderful read, and it had a really warm ending too. Also, I really like the way that she wrote Doris’ part towards the end, where it’s Doris’ perspective of the party when Joe shot her and everything. The way that part was written definitely reminds me of Beloved.
I will not give this a rating because I feel like my experience with this was my fault completely. I think I missed some key points and misunderstand some things so I was confused for the majority of this. I will be rereading this at some point in the future because I did enjoy the parts where I gave up trying to understand and just tried to enjoy myself.
Wow. While I often struggled to know who was narrating each section, the book has a wonderful dreamlike, improvisation. Toni Morrison has a perceptive way with language - allowing it fluidity and grace while preserving its urgency. The juxtaposition of ideas brings the familiar into a new-found light. "...laughter is serious. More complicated, more serious than tears." The interpretation of the myriad ways to be black during the reconstruction and the years following that - into the 20's and 30's was enlightening to me. I just wish I understood the end!
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