Jazz
1992 • 258 pages

Ratings15

Average rating4

15

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. This passionate, profound story of love and obsession brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep realities of black urban life.

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Series

Series

2 primary books3 released books

Beloved Trilogy

Beloved Trilogy is a 3-book series with 2 primary works first released in 1987 with contributions by Toni Morrison and Patricia Potter.

Beloved
Paradise
Jazz

Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

January 1, 2014

The name of the book is Jazz and yet I was wholly unprepared for the lyricism of Morrison's writing. As usual, her characters are flawed, complex individuals, but there's an ambiguity and circularity to this novel that isn't present in Sula or Song of Solomon.

October 10, 2023

Good but not as good as some of Morrison's other work. I was less invested in this than Beloved or The Bluest Eye.

September 11, 2022