Jazz

De: Toni Morrison

Narrado por: Toni Morrison

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

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Wonderful. . . . A brilliant, daring novel. . . . Every voice amazes.” —Chicago Tribune

“She may be the last classic American writer, squarely in the tradition of Poe, Melville, Twain and Faulkner.” —Newsweek

“[A] masterpiece. . . . She has moved from strength to strength until she has reached the distinction of being beyond comparison.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Thrillingly written . . . seductive. . . . Some of the finest lyric passages ever written in a modern novel.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“A compelling blend of heart and language. . . . Resounds with passion.” —The Boston Globe

“Marvelous. . . . Morrison is perhaps the finest novelist of our time.” —Vogue

“The author conjures up worlds with complete authority and makes no secret of her angst at the injustices dealt to black women.” —Edna O’Brien, The New York Times Book Review

“She captures that almost indistinguishable mixture of the anxiety and rapture of expectation—that state of desire where sin is just another word for appetite.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“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

“She is the best writer in America. Jazz, for sure; but also Mozart.” —John Leonard, National Public Radio

“A masterpiece. . . . A sensuous, haunting story of various kinds of passion. . . . Mesmerizing.” —Cosmopolitan

“Lyrically brooding. . . . One accepts the characters of Jazz as generalized figures moving rhythmically in the narrator’s mind.” —The New York Times

“Transforms a familiar refrain of jilted love into a bold, sustaining time of self-knowledge and discovery. Its rhythms are infectious.” —People

Lyrical reading by author

This book demands your attention as you listen. It is written, mimicking a 'jazz' syncopated style. I found the book easier to read, but the narration by Morrison brings it alive. I took off one star for the annoying 'bridge' jazz music between chapters, and sometimes during the reading. Unnecessary and jarring.

Wow

The pacing on revealing events that had only been alluded to works so well in this book. The perspective changes work very well and narrating was amazing.

Outrageous ! I’m pissed.

Why would you cut out so much and not mention that you’ve abridged it? Not mention that that although not a word in Toni Morrison’s work is unnecessary, there are so many missing here! Whose idea was that? Why? Did Toni Morrison agree to this outrage? The Nobel Prize and somebody thought it was too long. Really?
I will not return it because now Ms Morrison is gone and everything we have left of her is practically sacred.
I can listen and, since I’ve read it I can sort of backfill. But really. What a shame.

Jazz

I didnt care for the music. I wish it would have been just.the author's narration.

Beautiful lyrical prose

This book has amazingly beautiful lyrical prose, however I took a star away because the author kind of goes all over the place and it's hard to keep track of what and who the narrator is talking about or which person she's in because she switches it up a bit. Beautiful to listen to but too confusing to follow. And of course this was a Literature assignment that I have to write about now. I don't think it's going to be easy.