Jazz (novel)

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Jazz
Jazz (novel).jpg
First edition cover
Author Toni Morrison
Language English
Genre Historical novel
Publisher Alfred A. Knopf Inc.
Publication date
1992
Publication place United States
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages229
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.

Contents

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

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

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References

  1. "Toni Morrison", The Nobel Prize, Press release, October 7, 1993.