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Jazz

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Jazz

By: Toni Morrison
Narrated by: Toni Morrison
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About this listen

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

©2007 Toni Morrison (P)2015 Random House Audio African American Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

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Critic reviews

“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
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This is such a compelling listen and amazing to hear Morrison speak her mind words. Just be aware that this is not the complete book!

Brilliant but abridged

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I don't know how anyone could give this book less than 5 stars. I think the story is not an easy read always as it covers quite difficult topics. But It is a novel which, when read by its author, seems to speak to you in very personal tones. It feels as though she had invited you for tea and cake in the afternoon and is reading her transcript to you across a linen table cloth. A jazz record playing quietly in the corner and the warm heat wafting in through the drapes. Every part real and vivid as though you tread along the paths of each character as they tread. Really worth listening to. :)

An amazing journey!

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Beautiful writing I can’t deny, feisty and crude ideas into poetic images which makes it unique. Could not be captivated though and found the overall experience rather tedious. Glad it was short.

Glad it was only 2 hours long

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if you're hoping for the whole thing this is not it. random paragraphs and pages are omitted

great book great performance, was hoping for all of it though

not whole book

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They should say in the description that it is not the entire novel. Disappointing and unclear. No way to flag or dispute with audible.

Very abridged

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