num_pages: 208
description: The two haunting, poetic novellas that comprise The Bass Saxophone brilliantly evoke the comedy and sadness of life under the Nazi and Soviet dictatorships. They are prefaced by a remarkable memoir of Skvorecky's jazz-obsessed youth. Jazz is a symbol of freedom in both these novellas.In Emoke , which is set in the shadow of the Communist regime, jazz becomes the means by which a jaded young man plots the seduction of a mysterious girl enmeshed in superstition and the occult. Spurned, but fascinated, he is drawn into her tortured existence until catapulted into the final bitter comedy.In The Bass Saxophone a young Czechoslovakian student living under the rule of the Nazis is lured by his love of jazz - the "forbidden music" - into secretly and dangerously playing in a German band, with bizarre and unexpected results.Written with the lyrical intensity of a great jazz performance, these two extraordinary novellas are among Skvorecky's finest works.
language: English
title: The Bass Saxophone
titlecomplete: The Bass Saxophone
genres: 20th Century, War, Literature, Novels, Music, Short Stories, Czech Literature, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Jazz
ratings_count: 354
places: Czechoslovakia
publisher: Knopf