From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner, a passionate, profound story of love and obsession that brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, 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. This novel “transforms a familiar refrain of jilted love into a bold, sustaining time of self-knowledge and discovery. Its rhythms are infectious” (People)."The author conjures up worlds with complete authority and makes no secret of her angst at the injustices dealt to Black women.” —The New York Times Book Review.
The Sexy Nerd's Review. . .
I’m sort of on the fence with this novel which shocks me somewhat. I wasn’t even aware that this novel is part of a trilogy. In fact, this story is the second installment after Beloved, which I absolutely loved. After having read this, I’m not sure if I want to read the third novel in the series, but I may go back at some point.
A man in his mid-fifties named Joe Trace is a door-to-door salesman selling beauty products to the women in his community. Of course, being around all those different women, a situation is bound to happen, right? Well. . .on one such outing, he went to visit with one of his neighbors and the young lady who answered the door couldn’t possibly know that she would eventually end up in an entanglement with the aging Joe Trace. Heck! Joe wasn’t even looking for anything in particular—just out trying to sell his products. So, what was it about this young lady that had him so shook?
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Could it have been the absence of his wife’s presence, Violet Trace? Violet, as of late, was extremely distant toward her husband and Joe was disturbed as to why? Violet was what we call a kitchen beautician and/or an on-call beautician when need be. She and Joe had been married for years trying to make a way in Harlem. She was sort of going out of her mind and ignoring her wifely duties and therefore Joe was lonely and missing his intimacy with her began seeking it in other places. Hmmph, isn’t that typical?
The questions Joe should have been asking himself was why Violet stopped seeing him and what was deeply troubling her spirit, but instead he roamed the streets and stumbled across this light-skinned, not-so-cute, pimply face eighteen-year-old who captured his heart among other things. All he wanted to do was be with this young lady. Who was she? The woman he came to sell products to called out “Dorcas” and he was delighted to make her acquaintance. Dorcas was meant to be his and that’s exactly what he did.
One fateful evening, while out partying, Dorcas finds herself shot and lying on the floor of the woman’s apartment who was throwing the party. All the partygoers were freaking out because this young girl was shot, and they were trying to figure out what to do. Dorcas advised she’d be fine and asked to go to sleep. Unfortunately, she never woke up.
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Dorcas’s aunt was grief-stricken and couldn’t understand why anyone would kill her niece at the tender age of eighteen. She hadn’t yet lived. Violet Trace was on a mission. She knew Dorcas was having an affair with her husband and she also knew that her husband killed his young lover, but why? Violet went to the funeral home and tried to cut Dorcas’s face while she laid in the casket and the mourners jumped in to stop Violet from her chaotic outburst. From that point on, she earned the nickname Violent. The story begins to twist and turn into other avenues that connect Dorcas, Violet and Joe forever.
I was sold when I read the synopsis, but when I read the story, it fell flat for me. It wasn’t as exciting as Beloved. It was weird like Beloved, but just lacked something that I can’t quite put my finger on, but the story rubbed me the wrong way. It could be that the explanation of why Joe did what he did didn’t quite make much sense to me. I’m not sure if anyone else felt that way but it was weird. Perhaps now you understand why I’m on that dreaded fence. I’m a huge Toni Morrison fan, but this one just didn’t do it for me.
The Sexy Nerd gives Jazz three stars. Overall, this was written in true Morrison fashion as poetic as it comes. She paints quite a vivid picture of the times in the early 1900s and Jazz, for some, can have multiple meanings depending on the reader. It symbolized chaos, but that’s the way I read it. I’d be interested to know how you feel. Until next time, Nerds, you know how we do!
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