Jazz by Toni Morrison

 

Title:  Jazz

Author:  Toni Morrison

Narrated by:  Toni Morrison

Publisher: Random House Audio

Length: Approximately 3 hours

Source: Purchased from Audible and checked out a physical copy of the book from Kewaunee Public Library

Do you have a favorite jazz song or musician?  I have always loved the classic songs by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.

In 1926, a middle-aged man named Joe murders his teenage girlfriend, Dorcas.  His wife, Violet, attacks the corpse at the funeral and stabs it across the face, earning her the nickname, “Violence.”  How did they end up in this situation?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I read Jazz by Toni Morrison this month for the Classics Buddy read hosted by @Dees.Reads.

·       The audiobook is read by the author, but it is abridged so I also had the physical book from the library to fill in the gaps.

·       I loved the jazzy music and sound effects in the audiobook and Toni Morrison reading her own work.

·       There is a great forward by Toni Morrison that sets up the book.  She was inspired by seeing an old picture of a pretty girl in a coffin and the description that went with the picture.  How creepy and interesting.

·       This is the second book in a series after Beloved.  Beloved centered on mother love and Jazz centers on couple love.  They are both set at different points in Black history, otherwise they are not related.

·       Jazz is a beautifully written book that flows like a jazz song.  Like jazz, the narrative does not flow the way you would expect it too, which made it hard to understand at times.

·       Just like when I recently read Beloved, I found using SparkNotes to be helpful after I read it to make sure I understood what I had read.

·       I am still confused though – why didn’t Joe go to jail for shooting Dorcas?

·       The setting for the book was mostly 1920s Harlem, but there are plenty of flashbacks to the past.

·       Violet and Joe’s marriage gets better after the shooting.  I guess they were finally about to talk through their problems, but I was disturbed about Joe.  He, a man in his fifties, was so upset that his teenage girlfriend had decided to date men her own age that he shot her.  I think Violet deserved a better man, but she also does bad by slashing Dorcas’s face at the funeral.  This was meant to represent her sadness as she wanted to be a mother, but her and Joe had decided not to have children and she realized she wanted to be a mother too late.  Violet learns she has to take control of her own life and happiness.

Overall, Jazz by Toni Morrison was an interesting novel written in a unique way.  I am glad I read this book.