The Most Addictive Books of the Last 25 Years
Here they are, in no particular order: the books we passed on to our closest friends,
fought over at book club, lugged with us on every move and think about still. You can
view the full list or start with...
31 of 34
Jazz
By Toni Morrison
256 pages;
Knopf Doubleday
Because we'd
read anything by Toni Morrison—but
this one was music on the page.
Jazz is set in motion by a
love triangle and a murder: Fifty-year old Joe Trace, who sells Cleopatra
beauty products, takes a teenage lover, and then kills her in a fit of passion
when she spurns him. Joe's wife, Violet, slashes the girl's face as she lies in
her casket. But Morrison gives us so much more than a story of love (or sex)
gone wrong, so much more than a story of forgiveness and healing. She gives us
the world of Harlem in the 1920s; she gives us memory, history, race and desire
entwined. The novel doesn't just evoke jazz; it is
jazz, of the finest and most vibrant kind.
— Dawn Raffel
Published 04/03/2015