Jazz is perhaps Morrison’s most unique and elusive novel. Nearly five years after winning the Pulitzer for Beloved and a year before she received the Nobel Prize, Jazz was published in 1992. The novel solidified Morrison’s reputation as a writer whose daring has no bounds. In this story, she offers readers a maze of narratives that branch out, but always remain connected like a tree. Alternating between the country and the city and between the past and the present, Jazz tells the story of Joe and Violet, a married couple trying to earn their living in New York City during the first quarter of the 20th century. A love affair and its fatal consequences mark the center of this torrid story that expands so far beyond its base of focus that it brings in an array of characters and themes that only the brilliance of Toni Morrison could hold together. What fuels jealousy and forgiveness? How does passion change one’s course of life? How does the past make us more or less human? Without ever using the word “jazz” within the novel, Morrison’s narrative is a harmonizing literary achievement, reminiscent of the raw textures of a jazz ensemble.

A narrative story where passion, love and time push the story forward. This novel was very thought out and keeps you guessing till the very end. Some parts of the book is written like poetry where you want to read the line over and over again. A great works of literature by a great writer.

"Later, and little by little, feelings, like sea trash expelled on a beach - strange and recognizable, stark and murky - returned."

from "Jazz" by Toni Morrison

Sometimes, one sentence is all you need.