Celebrating Black History Month at the VCU Libraries Reviewed by
Robert Johnson, Education Services Librarian Toni Morrison's
Jazz begins in 1926, when a salesman shoots and kills his
teenage lover. At the girl's funeral, the man's wife attacks her
corpse. The ensuing pages skirt between past, present, and
future as the drama reveals itself. Not only is Toni Morrison's
novel Jazz a gripping story of love and betrayal, but it also
functions as an album of jazz music. It isn't just that Morrison
captures the spirit of jazz music, or that she traces the
history of the music as it moved from the country to the city
(which she does), but Morrison's novel is structured like a
piece of music. Characters function as instruments, and sections
as songs. In particular, it compares nicely to John Coltrane's A
Love Supreme, for the differences as much as the similarities.
Coltrane's album revolves around spiritual revelation and praise
and is almost entirely music, while Morrison's album centers on
sex and the secular wor