Chapter 4 White Ethnographies: Luke Sutherland’s Jelly Roll
Journal: Edinburgh University Press eBooks
Year: 2020

Like Trumpet, Luke Sutherland's Jelly Roll (1998) is about jazz, but where Joss Moody moves to England 'for work', Sutherland's novel is claustrophobically focused on Scotland as a territory on the eve of devolution. In this frame, 'jelly roll' has its own colloquial significance. It evokes a nostalgic sign of urban Scottish childhood, echoing the kitsch 'Jeely Piece' song, a Scots faux-folk number from the 1960s about parents dropping sandwiches from the open windows of new high-rise housing bl