![]() First edition cover | |
Author | Toni Morrison |
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Language | English |
Genre | Historical novel |
Publisher | Alfred A. Knopf Inc. |
Publication date | 1992 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 229 |
ISBN | 0-679-41167-4 |
Preceded by | Beloved |
Followed by | Paradise |
Jazz is a 1992 historical novel by Pulitzer and Nobel Prize-winning American author Toni Morrison. The majority of the narrative takes place in Harlem during the 1920s; however, as the pasts of the various characters are explored, the narrative extends back to the mid-19th-century American South.
The novel forms the second part of Morrison's Dantesque trilogy on African-American history, beginning with Beloved (1987) and ending with Paradise (1998).
Legacy
[edit]Jazz was Morrison’s most recently published work when she was awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature. In the novel, "Morrison uses a device which is akin to the way jazz itself is played… The result is a richly complex, sensuously conveyed image of the events, the characters and moods."[1]
The novel is referenced in S1 Ep5 of the NBC procedural show Found. The character of Felice is referred to as "one of Toni Morrison's most dynamic characters" and "curious [and] brilliant."
Characters
[edit]- Joe Trace, a door-to-door cosmetics salesman and the murderer of his young lover.
- Violet Trace, an unlicensed beautician. Violet is married to Joe. She is nicknamed "Violent" because she assaulted the corpse of Joe’s lover with a knife at the funeral.
- Dorcas, Joe's young lover, who is shot down at a party. Dorcas is inspired by a picture from The Harlem Book of the Dead (a collection of funeral photographs by James Van Der Zee).
- Alice Manfred, Dorcas' aunt and guardian. A conservative Christian ashamed by her niece's behavior. Alice enters into an unusual friendship with Violet.
- Felice, a friend of Dorcas' who goes to the Trace household in search of answers.
- Golden Gray, a mixed-race man from the 19th century. Golden appears in both Joe's and Violet's histories.
References
[edit]- ^ "Toni Morrison", The Nobel Prize, Press release, October 7, 1993.