Fifty-year-old Joe Trace shoots his eighteen-year-old girlfriend dead, and Joe's wife, Violet, bum-rushes her corpse at the funeral and tries to cut her face. Imagine if skirts today were two feet shorter than skirts a decade ago. Hemlines alone rose two feet in the span of a decade. The Jazz Age was the sexiest, most provocative era since the toga parties of Ancient Rome, and people of the time were super shocked.
Because what Morrison does in Jazz is to give a sense of both the scandal of jazz music and its historical context. No offense, Shmooper, but until you read Jazz and wander down the seductive streets of Harlem circa 1926 with Toni Morrison as your guide, your Jazz Age education is totally lacking.
Maybe you've even seen the Ken Burns documentary. Maybe you think you know the Jazz Age: You've been to a couple of Great Gatsby-themed parties, you wore a sweet pair of two-toned shoes or some long pearls, and you've listened to a couple of old Louis Armstrong songs.
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