num_pages: 229
description: 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 passionate, profound story of love and obsession brings us back and forth in time, as a narrative is assembled from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep realities of black urban life.
language: English
title: Jazz
titlecomplete: Jazz
characters: Dorcas, Violet "Violent" Trace, Joe Trace
genres: American, Historical Fiction, Historical, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Race, African American, Classics, Fiction
ratings_count: 30472
places: Virginia, Harlem, New York City, New York
series: Beloved Trilogy
publisher: Knopf