Jazz (novel)

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."

• Joe Trace, a door-to-door cosmetics salesman and the murderer of his young lover.
• Violet Trace, an unlicensed beautician. Violet is married to Joe. She is nicknamed "Violent" because she assaulted the corpse of Joe’s lover with a knife at the funeral.
• Dorcas, Joe's young lover, who is shot down at a party. Dorcas is inspired by a picture from The Harlem Book of the Dead (a collection of funeral photographs by James Van Der Zee).
• Alice Manfred, Dorcas's aunt and guardian. A conservative Christian ashamed by her niece's behavior. Alice enters into an unusual friendship with Violet.
• Felice, a friend of Dorcas who goes to the Trace household in search of answers.
• Golden Gray, a mixed-race man from the 19th century. Golden appears in both Joe's and Violet's histories.