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Jazz Moon
In a lyrical, captivating debut set against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance and glittering Jazz Age Paris, Joe Okonkwo creates an evocative story of emotional and artistic awakening.
On a sweltering summer night in 1925, beauties in beaded dresses mingle with hepcats in dapper suits on the streets of Harlem. The air is thick with reefer smoke, and jazz pours out of speakeasy doorways. Ben Charles and his devoted wife, Angeline, are among the locals crammed into a basement club to hear jazz and drink bootleg liquor. For aspiring poet Ben, the swirling, heady rhythms are a revelation. So is Baby Back Johnston, an ambitious trumpet player who flashes a devilish grin and blasts jazz dynamite from his horn. Ben finds himself drawn to the trumpeter—and to Paris where Baby Back says everything is happening.
In Paris, jazz and champagne flow eternally, and blacks are welcomed as exotic celebrities, especially those from Harlem. It’s an easy life that quickly leaves Ben adrift and alone, craving solace through anonymous dalliances in the city’s decadent underground scene. From chic Parisian cafés to seedy opium dens, his odyssey will bring new love, trials, and heartache, even as echoes from the past urge him to decide where true fulfillment and inspiration lie.
On a sweltering summer night in 1925, beauties in beaded dresses mingle with hepcats in dapper suits on the streets of Harlem. The air is thick with reefer smoke, and jazz pours out of speakeasy doorways. Ben Charles and his devoted wife, Angeline, are among the locals crammed into a basement club to hear jazz and drink bootleg liquor. For aspiring poet Ben, the swirling, heady rhythms are a revelation. So is Baby Back Johnston, an ambitious trumpet player who flashes a devilish grin and blasts jazz dynamite from his horn. Ben finds himself drawn to the trumpeter—and to Paris where Baby Back says everything is happening.
In Paris, jazz and champagne flow eternally, and blacks are welcomed as exotic celebrities, especially those from Harlem. It’s an easy life that quickly leaves Ben adrift and alone, craving solace through anonymous dalliances in the city’s decadent underground scene. From chic Parisian cafés to seedy opium dens, his odyssey will bring new love, trials, and heartache, even as echoes from the past urge him to decide where true fulfillment and inspiration lie.
368 pages, Paperback
First published May 31, 2016
16 people are currently reading
1231 people want to read
About the author
Joe Okonkwo
8 books69 followersJoe’s debut novel
Jazz Moon
won the Publishing Triangle's prestigious Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl, has called Jazz Moon “A passionate, alive, and original novel about love, race, and jazz in 1920s Harlem and Paris — a moving story of traveling far to find oneself.”
Joe's short stories have appeared in Newtown Literary, Global City Review, The Piltdown Review, The New Engagement, Storychord, Shotgun Honey, Love Stories from Africa, Best Gay Stories 2015, and Strength. His short story “Cleo” earned a Pushcart Prize nomination.
Joe served as prose editor for Newtown Literary, a journal dedicated to nurturing writers from Queens, New York. He edited Best Gay Stories 2017. Joe has led creative writing workshops at Gotham Writers' Workshop, Newtown Literary/Queens Library, and the Bronx Council on the Arts. He has served on the planning committee for the Provincetown Book Festival.
Joe's story collection, Kiss the Scars on the Back of my Neck , was published by Amble Press. It has been been lauded by noted author William J. Mann who calls Kiss the Scars “A remarkable examination of the human condition.”
He is represented by the Baldi Literary Agency and is currently at work on a new novel called King Gladys.
Joe Okonkwo lives and writes in Queens, New York City.
#KissTheScars
#JazzMoonNovel
Joe's short stories have appeared in Newtown Literary, Global City Review, The Piltdown Review, The New Engagement, Storychord, Shotgun Honey, Love Stories from Africa, Best Gay Stories 2015, and Strength. His short story “Cleo” earned a Pushcart Prize nomination.
Joe served as prose editor for Newtown Literary, a journal dedicated to nurturing writers from Queens, New York. He edited Best Gay Stories 2017. Joe has led creative writing workshops at Gotham Writers' Workshop, Newtown Literary/Queens Library, and the Bronx Council on the Arts. He has served on the planning committee for the Provincetown Book Festival.
Joe's story collection, Kiss the Scars on the Back of my Neck , was published by Amble Press. It has been been lauded by noted author William J. Mann who calls Kiss the Scars “A remarkable examination of the human condition.”
He is represented by the Baldi Literary Agency and is currently at work on a new novel called King Gladys.
Joe Okonkwo lives and writes in Queens, New York City.
#KissTheScars
#JazzMoonNovel
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews
July 27, 2019
"Love could fill, but not make whole; it could cushion loneliness, not cure it. What it did was broaden your circumference of concern beyond yourself to encompass another person. Even if – when – that person caused you grief."
Ben Charles is a young, gay black man, who doesn’t quite fit in with what society expects of him.
This was quite an evocative, often painfully sad story of his journey to find his place in the world, and more importantly to find love.
The book is wonderfully lyrical in capturing the tone of the jazz clubs in both Harlem & Paris in the 1920s. I could easily imagine being there, as the writing transported me to that time and place.
Filled with dreams, regrets, longing, jealousy, what ifs, hopes for the future…
I’m very interested to read what Mr. Okonkwo’s future works have to offer.
April 18, 2017
Browsing Pintirest I was immediately drawn to this cover! 1920's, Jazz, Harlem, Paris, what's not to love? After reading a couple of reviews I thought..."not my typical read." I got a sample thinking there would be no way I would like it but I was hooked! Mr. Okonkwo gave me a sense of place whether it be Dogwood, GA, Harlem or Paris, France he took me there. I enjoyed the songs and poems that were within the novel. Reading is a journey we take and this novel has the ability to make you more open minded and see things from a different point of view. I love to challenge myself in my reading choices and this novel fulfilled that purpose. I look forward to more from this author.
Update: 04/18/17
I want to add there were a few parts of the book that made me very uncomfortable, sexual in nature. I feel the story and insight gained were much bigger.
Update: 04/18/17
I want to add there were a few parts of the book that made me very uncomfortable, sexual in nature. I feel the story and insight gained were much bigger.
March 27, 2017
This is Mr Okonkwo's debut as an author - so I can't say anything but bravo...... His writing sent me immediately to Baldwin's Harlem and Baldwin's Paris and Baldwin's people. His spirit seems to permeate this book but in the meantime this book also has it's own spirit.
Okonkwo wrote a book about choices and consequences. Choices re what notes to play, what words to write, what to choose when life presents you with crossroads. Always what to choose and how to live with those choices. He presents difficult choices and he does not give answers but then it would be presumptious to say without hindsight that one is absolutely sure of the way forward.
The strength of this book lies not in giving an ending but in presenting us with imperfect Ben, seeing him discovering who he is, trying to find a way forward for himself, making mistakes and living with the consequences. The writing has a great sense of time, place and situation, be it violent rural Georgia or loving in Harlem or jazzy Paris. Capably catching the nuances of the differences in being a black American in say Georgia or in New York or in Paris.
Special mention to Angeline.
I am not a great one for poetry and sometimes when there are bits of poetry in a book I tend to skim. But not this time, I read each poem as it came along and I even highlighted.
Fits into slot 5 of my reading challenge - a book by a person of colour
29th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalist
Okonkwo wrote a book about choices and consequences. Choices re what notes to play, what words to write, what to choose when life presents you with crossroads. Always what to choose and how to live with those choices. He presents difficult choices and he does not give answers but then it would be presumptious to say without hindsight that one is absolutely sure of the way forward.
The strength of this book lies not in giving an ending but in presenting us with imperfect Ben, seeing him discovering who he is, trying to find a way forward for himself, making mistakes and living with the consequences. The writing has a great sense of time, place and situation, be it violent rural Georgia or loving in Harlem or jazzy Paris. Capably catching the nuances of the differences in being a black American in say Georgia or in New York or in Paris.
Special mention to Angeline.
I am not a great one for poetry and sometimes when there are bits of poetry in a book I tend to skim. But not this time, I read each poem as it came along and I even highlighted.
Shatter the hourglass.
The sand tumbles out,
The grains minute, sharp-edged,
As many-pointed as a snowflake.
What now?
Sweep up the sand?
Try, but some will remain,
Elusive and uncatchable.
Glue the shards of glass,
But they will cut you.
Fairy tales lie:
Magic words cannot undo destruction.
Regret is no elixir.
Steps of Montmartre Paris
Fits into slot 5 of my reading challenge - a book by a person of colour
29th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalist
July 29, 2016
A fine book of 1920s Paris, with glimpses of brilliance in its writing. But the hero is not anyone I would root for, so poor are his choices and so badly does he treat those who love him, and -- I cannot believe I am saying this -- I didn't care for the poetry inserted rather gratuitously, I thought, into the narrative. It only interrupted the flow without adding to the story. Yet I will look forward to the next book by this author.
Read
February 11, 2017Lyrically written tale of a gay African American poet in the 1920's who must deal with both homophobia and racism in the American South and Harlem. He also encounters racist and homophobic individuals in Paris which was not as free of prejudice as it pretended to be. The protagonist evolves as a poet and as a human being. He begins by writing doggerel, but eventually becomes a published poet who gives readings. There are a few really excellent samples of his poetry included in the novel. I also enjoyed the jazz element which ran through the novel.
Yet the road to love and happiness for this gay man did not run smooth, and there were many mistakes in judgment along the way.
My only criticism of this first novel is a minor one. I think the author doesn't understand art as well as poetry and music. There was an artist character whose work was supposed to be a combination of impressionism and cubism, yet there were no cubist elements in the description of his work. It seems likely that Okonkwo may not know the definition of cubism.
Yet the road to love and happiness for this gay man did not run smooth, and there were many mistakes in judgment along the way.
My only criticism of this first novel is a minor one. I think the author doesn't understand art as well as poetry and music. There was an artist character whose work was supposed to be a combination of impressionism and cubism, yet there were no cubist elements in the description of his work. It seems likely that Okonkwo may not know the definition of cubism.
April 28, 2016
Jazz Moon by Joe Okonkwo will make readers question everything they read and feel. Nothing like a novel about jazz that brings out the poetic side to everyone especially the characters. A debut novel that brings, to life, the action, drama, and passion of 1925. Times where everything beckoned and called to those who hearts wanted more. Inside this title, readers will get a glimpse into a poet's lifestyle. He has a devoted wife but is angry with her...he soon find himself attracted to another who brings out the heat of raw animalistic desire deep within his blood. A stirring unlike any other. Paris is a place where art, passion, and desire come in abundance and that's where both Ben and his new lover find themselves. Joe Okonkwo brings readers the best world of fiction readers will find. Race, jazz, and travel are deep topics easily explored within this exciting well-written plot. Overall, I highly recommend this new novel, Jazz Moon, to readers everywhere.
Danielle Urban
AAMBC Reviewer
Danielle Urban
AAMBC Reviewer
July 3, 2016
JAZZ MOON
I read to be a better writer. I read to be a better person. I read to better understand the human condition, and to understand history. I read to better open my mind, expand my imagination, and to go on a journey past my own life’s experience.
And all of the above reasons why I read are fulfilled in Joe Okonkwo’s stunning debut novel, Jazz Moon. I shed tears, laughed, was even enraged at times, and was deeply heartened by Okonkwo’s emotionally satisfying prose; it’s as if my head, heart, and soul was being conducted by a confident bandleader as I moved through the pages.
Set in the late-1920s, Jazz Moon follows the life of a poet named Ben, from his late-teens to his early twenties, and with flashbacks to his childhood. It is a historical novel, love story, coming-of-age narrative that explores black life, and gay life along with Ben’s struggles during the Harlem Renaissance, and Paris. Ultimately, it explores how art is love, and love is art.
Okonkwo’s prose is both poetic and succinct; he wastes no words, which gives the narrative the musicality of a jazz composition. As well, Okonkwo composes a highly easy to visualize world--from protagonist Ben’s time in Harlem, his journey to Paris, and even in the seamless flashbacks to his childhood in the South.
While reading Jazz Moon I was reminded of some other dynamic writers: Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Gustav Flaubert, Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, and even Gertrude Stein. Also, just like my past experiences with reading the works of those mentioned above, the further I was drawn into Jazz Moon’s world, I found myself casting every single character with famous actors. The reader and writer inside is so impressed with how vivid, true-to-life, and dimensional Okonkwo’s characters are, and how expertly crafted their story arcs are fulfilled by novel’s end.
In short, read Jazz Moon. I’m convinced that over the years, I’ll read it again and again, because I’m also certain that it will become a classic work of literature. Also, it serves as an important study of the struggles of Black life, Gay life, and the intersections of both during the late-1920s Harlem Renaissance.
Below, I’ve posted a link to a feature that appeared on Lambda Literary’s website, and includes a sample read of Jazz Moon. When you read the sample pages, Joe Okonkwo’s remarkable prose speaks for itself.
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/feature...
I read to be a better writer. I read to be a better person. I read to better understand the human condition, and to understand history. I read to better open my mind, expand my imagination, and to go on a journey past my own life’s experience.
And all of the above reasons why I read are fulfilled in Joe Okonkwo’s stunning debut novel, Jazz Moon. I shed tears, laughed, was even enraged at times, and was deeply heartened by Okonkwo’s emotionally satisfying prose; it’s as if my head, heart, and soul was being conducted by a confident bandleader as I moved through the pages.
Set in the late-1920s, Jazz Moon follows the life of a poet named Ben, from his late-teens to his early twenties, and with flashbacks to his childhood. It is a historical novel, love story, coming-of-age narrative that explores black life, and gay life along with Ben’s struggles during the Harlem Renaissance, and Paris. Ultimately, it explores how art is love, and love is art.
Okonkwo’s prose is both poetic and succinct; he wastes no words, which gives the narrative the musicality of a jazz composition. As well, Okonkwo composes a highly easy to visualize world--from protagonist Ben’s time in Harlem, his journey to Paris, and even in the seamless flashbacks to his childhood in the South.
While reading Jazz Moon I was reminded of some other dynamic writers: Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Gustav Flaubert, Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, and even Gertrude Stein. Also, just like my past experiences with reading the works of those mentioned above, the further I was drawn into Jazz Moon’s world, I found myself casting every single character with famous actors. The reader and writer inside is so impressed with how vivid, true-to-life, and dimensional Okonkwo’s characters are, and how expertly crafted their story arcs are fulfilled by novel’s end.
In short, read Jazz Moon. I’m convinced that over the years, I’ll read it again and again, because I’m also certain that it will become a classic work of literature. Also, it serves as an important study of the struggles of Black life, Gay life, and the intersections of both during the late-1920s Harlem Renaissance.
Below, I’ve posted a link to a feature that appeared on Lambda Literary’s website, and includes a sample read of Jazz Moon. When you read the sample pages, Joe Okonkwo’s remarkable prose speaks for itself.
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/feature...
June 12, 2018
There are books you read at certain points of your life that talk to your heart; this is one of those.
I like to read the Lambda Literary finalists to keep up with what is happening on the gay-fiction scene, which is seriously under-represented in both public libraries and in bookshops (I have seldom ever seen any Lambda titles in Exclusive Books in South Africa, for example.)
Occasionally the Lambda finalists are meh, like the oh-so-politically-and-culturally correct God in Pink by Nasim Hamir, to this year’s best novel, the enigmatic-but-cold After the Blue Hour by John Rechy.
Then you get Okonkwo’s jazz-soaked triumph, which blazes a trail of stardust and love across the reader’s heart. At first I thought this was a simple love story, between Ben and Angeline in Harlem. Then jazz enters the picture, and Babyback. And then Paris, in all her multi-hued and seedy, spangled glamour.
So, this then is a multivalent story that takes in as much horror as it does love, from the gruesome lynching of Babyback’s uncle, the stench of his burning body that seems to seep through these pages, to the terrible wrongs that the lovers inflict on each other, stemming from the deepest recesses of their own buried psychoses.
And then there is the music, the polyphonic jazz that reflects the intertwined nature of this tale in as joyous and sinuous a form as the musical notes themselves fill the smoke- and reefer-filled air. Against it all, of course, is the Grande Dame herself, Paris, from the haughty grandeur of Sacré-Cœur to the seediness of her opium dens and speakeasies.
Magnificent. And then there is that transcendent ending, which transforms the jazz theme of love spiralling through the novel’s rarefied atmosphere into a trumpet solo that suspends belief in the earthbound gravitas and folly of human nature.
I like to read the Lambda Literary finalists to keep up with what is happening on the gay-fiction scene, which is seriously under-represented in both public libraries and in bookshops (I have seldom ever seen any Lambda titles in Exclusive Books in South Africa, for example.)
Occasionally the Lambda finalists are meh, like the oh-so-politically-and-culturally correct God in Pink by Nasim Hamir, to this year’s best novel, the enigmatic-but-cold After the Blue Hour by John Rechy.
Then you get Okonkwo’s jazz-soaked triumph, which blazes a trail of stardust and love across the reader’s heart. At first I thought this was a simple love story, between Ben and Angeline in Harlem. Then jazz enters the picture, and Babyback. And then Paris, in all her multi-hued and seedy, spangled glamour.
So, this then is a multivalent story that takes in as much horror as it does love, from the gruesome lynching of Babyback’s uncle, the stench of his burning body that seems to seep through these pages, to the terrible wrongs that the lovers inflict on each other, stemming from the deepest recesses of their own buried psychoses.
And then there is the music, the polyphonic jazz that reflects the intertwined nature of this tale in as joyous and sinuous a form as the musical notes themselves fill the smoke- and reefer-filled air. Against it all, of course, is the Grande Dame herself, Paris, from the haughty grandeur of Sacré-Cœur to the seediness of her opium dens and speakeasies.
Magnificent. And then there is that transcendent ending, which transforms the jazz theme of love spiralling through the novel’s rarefied atmosphere into a trumpet solo that suspends belief in the earthbound gravitas and folly of human nature.
August 13, 2018
I read this as the subject matter was part of the good reads summer reading challenge.
It was a love story and an LGBTQ book.
It was well written.
It was a love story and an LGBTQ book.
It was well written.
May 21, 2016
Okonkwo created such a complex, compelling character with Ben. This young man had a difficult childhood, a decent life he gives up to take a chance on a life where he can be more himself and ultimately ends up in a place he hadn't planned on (at least that's my interpretation). At the same time, all the settings become characters of their own. Ben's childhood (which we get through stories he tells) is very different from Harlem which is different than the sailing to Paris which is different from Paris. Each place adds to the story, and makes Ben evolve his personality.
You can read the complete review at http://www.jeffandwill.com/2016/05/21...
NOTE: I received a free ebook for an honest review for "Jeff & Will's Big Gay Fiction Podcast."
You can read the complete review at http://www.jeffandwill.com/2016/05/21...
NOTE: I received a free ebook for an honest review for "Jeff & Will's Big Gay Fiction Podcast."
May 27, 2016
"Perhaps it wasn't that people changed, but that they revealed themselves; that fertile ambitions bloomed and clamored to be harvested."
See reviews first on my blog
In this story we follow Ben from 1925 to 1928. We see his marriage take shape, and what made them get married in the first place. We see him try to figure out how to deal with “this thing” as he calls it, and how it affects every part of his life, and how he tries to do the right thing but ends up not doing so well at. We also get to see him explore different relationships and trying new things. We get to learn about his childhood which was rather depressing because of how his parents ended up treating him due to how much they had lost before and they were afraid to show love to him because of it.
This story really started to get interesting to me as his relationship with the trumpeter started to really become a relationship and not just flirting, and how Baby Back showed him the world that he was a part of and that he didn’t have to hide what he really was. But I’m not going to lie, I never fully trusted Baby Back, I didn’t figure out why till much later in the book when his true colors started showing. And boy did he become unlikable at that point. But he wasn’t the only one at fault in the relationship, Ben made many mistakes as well. They weren’t good together, but that relationship helped, Ben embrace who he truly was and to accept it.
“While a romantic may have embraced the expedience, he distrusted such effortlessness. It was too easy. He had parachuted into every relationship he’d had, without looking, without seeing, without bother to. Like shooting yourself from a cannon without considering what thorns you might land in. He distrusted love; its sugar promises; the way it commenced with a swelter, but then dissipated, far too quickly, to a lukewarm muddle."
The only part of this whole book that I didn’t like was when Ben went and started sleeping with anyone willing it seemed. It just made me feel so bad for him, because he was worth more than that, and the fact that he felt like that was the way to go broke my heart a little.
The cast of characters in this book were perfect as well, it made it feel more real and my favorite one was Glo who was a singer in Paris and told Ben exactly how it was and how he was worth more than how he was being treated. I also like Sebastian and how he helped Ben get back a little bit of who he was before Baby Back. I liked how they worked as a team and were happy together.
"Falling in love. As if love was some awful pit and the inevitable direction was down. Why not rise in love instead of fall? And even that was inaccurate because love didn't do either. It unfolded, like a story. It had plot lines and plot points and points of view; was populated with supporting roles like Glo and colorful auxiliary characters like Cafe Valentin's patrons and band. Their story unfolded with drama.."
I also enjoyed the poetry and some of the songs that were in each chapter.
I went into this book, not knowing much at all, besides the fact that it was about Jazz and set in the 1920’s which I have been wanting to read more of recently. I’m glad I didn’t know much about this book, because I might not have picked it up and read it.
This book took me on a journey of seeing things from a different point of view, and seeing love in a different way as well. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened to ben next and if he would be happy.
Overall I would highly recommend this book if you want to see how a man struggling to figure out who he is and see his journey through that exploration.
I received this book via netgalley and Kensington Books in exchange for my honest review. Thank you.
See reviews first on my blog
In this story we follow Ben from 1925 to 1928. We see his marriage take shape, and what made them get married in the first place. We see him try to figure out how to deal with “this thing” as he calls it, and how it affects every part of his life, and how he tries to do the right thing but ends up not doing so well at. We also get to see him explore different relationships and trying new things. We get to learn about his childhood which was rather depressing because of how his parents ended up treating him due to how much they had lost before and they were afraid to show love to him because of it.
This story really started to get interesting to me as his relationship with the trumpeter started to really become a relationship and not just flirting, and how Baby Back showed him the world that he was a part of and that he didn’t have to hide what he really was. But I’m not going to lie, I never fully trusted Baby Back, I didn’t figure out why till much later in the book when his true colors started showing. And boy did he become unlikable at that point. But he wasn’t the only one at fault in the relationship, Ben made many mistakes as well. They weren’t good together, but that relationship helped, Ben embrace who he truly was and to accept it.
“While a romantic may have embraced the expedience, he distrusted such effortlessness. It was too easy. He had parachuted into every relationship he’d had, without looking, without seeing, without bother to. Like shooting yourself from a cannon without considering what thorns you might land in. He distrusted love; its sugar promises; the way it commenced with a swelter, but then dissipated, far too quickly, to a lukewarm muddle."
The only part of this whole book that I didn’t like was when Ben went and started sleeping with anyone willing it seemed. It just made me feel so bad for him, because he was worth more than that, and the fact that he felt like that was the way to go broke my heart a little.
The cast of characters in this book were perfect as well, it made it feel more real and my favorite one was Glo who was a singer in Paris and told Ben exactly how it was and how he was worth more than how he was being treated. I also like Sebastian and how he helped Ben get back a little bit of who he was before Baby Back. I liked how they worked as a team and were happy together.
"Falling in love. As if love was some awful pit and the inevitable direction was down. Why not rise in love instead of fall? And even that was inaccurate because love didn't do either. It unfolded, like a story. It had plot lines and plot points and points of view; was populated with supporting roles like Glo and colorful auxiliary characters like Cafe Valentin's patrons and band. Their story unfolded with drama.."
I also enjoyed the poetry and some of the songs that were in each chapter.
I went into this book, not knowing much at all, besides the fact that it was about Jazz and set in the 1920’s which I have been wanting to read more of recently. I’m glad I didn’t know much about this book, because I might not have picked it up and read it.
This book took me on a journey of seeing things from a different point of view, and seeing love in a different way as well. I couldn’t wait to find out what happened to ben next and if he would be happy.
Overall I would highly recommend this book if you want to see how a man struggling to figure out who he is and see his journey through that exploration.
I received this book via netgalley and Kensington Books in exchange for my honest review. Thank you.
June 17, 2017
It was an interesting subject, something that demanded sympathy by virtue of what it was, but it didn't translate all that well because of who the main character was. I mean, he's selfish. Several times he's supposed to have an epiphany of how he uses and throws people with no regard to their emotions, but two seconds later he's doing the same thing again to another person. He's also gay and black in the Jazz era, and that's supposed to add additional complications to his life, and technically I understood that I'm supposed to sympathize. But I just spent the entire time feeling utterly miserable for the people he came across. I'm aware that this is my limitation, that I couldn't see past the character's unlikability, which I normally am okay with provided that the book/plot is compelling enough. But I don't care for poetry, and I read this in audio form, and I couldn't skip past any of the poetry/songs that I normally would have in book form. It's added to my general grousing about this book.
But Sean Crisden's voice is excellent.
But Sean Crisden's voice is excellent.
August 24, 2016
I just finished reading JAZZ MOON by Joe Okonkwo, a student who was in my graduate Children's Writing and Literature class last year, and I was totally blown away-far over the moon. This captivating first novel explores the artistic, sexual and cultural awakening of a young poet, Ben Charles, who moves to the rhythm of jazz, first in Harlem, and finally in Paris, France. In the liberated Parisian society, Ben, alienated and alone, discovers who he is amidst the city's underground scene, where jazz and blues sing their terrifically evocative and sometimes sad song. From the trendy cafes to the seedy opium dens-and all the liquor and smoke in between, Ben has to learn the difference between forbidden lust and love. The diction is versatile, romantic, loving and passionate, and will inspire any lover of the music of language. A must read!
August 20, 2017
This is a book full of truth and beauty.
January 8, 2020
This book is beautiful. Exquisite use of language that flows and soars like jazz itself. It doesn't hide from the darkness or the complexity of the characters and relationships at its heart, but it manages to still find the hope, strength and loveliness that runs through all of the ups and downs of the story.
May 29, 2021
gorgeous debut. i'm not a big one for poetry but i really liked the stuff in here that the main character writes ;_; maybe it's just because of where i am personally right now the musings on love got me
cws for massive amounts of period-typical racism and homophobia inc freely-thrown slurs and a l*nching scene (in backstory), drug use, abuse from a partner
cws for massive amounts of period-typical racism and homophobia inc freely-thrown slurs and a l*nching scene (in backstory), drug use, abuse from a partner
November 29, 2018
Beautiful writing and story,the poems were a really nice plus. I loved it.
May 23, 2016
“It was raining cats and jazz.” From its first sentence, readers will know that Jazz Moon was written by a lover of words and music–someone who hears the music in the vowels, consonants and syllables of language and can weave them into poetry. Ben, the protagonist of Joe Okonkwo’s Jazz Moon has one constant love and that is poetry. It saves him again and again.
Ben Marcus Charles writes poetry in the mornings before heading off to his work as a waiter at a downtown hotel. His wife, Angeline, fixes hair. They love each other, perhaps not with the passion she might hope for, but enough to be happy enough, except for this thing that haunts Ben. And what is this thing? Ben is attracted to men. His first love was a man and one night, while he and Angeline are out enjoying the night life in Jazz Age Harlem they meet a man who brings up all those long-buried desires and dreams.
This is Ben’s story, of his search for love and for happiness though Ben thought that “happiness was more aspiration than destination.” He follows his love, the jazz trumpeter Baby Back Johnson, to Paris where “they love us over there,” as Baby Back assures him. And they do, with a fetishizing paternalism that is exemplified by the welcoming ship’s captain on their way to Paris who says, “The European must embrace the primitive sensuality that comes naturally to the African. That is essential to reinvigorating a white race that is becoming, quite frankly, boring.” Of course, fetishization is another facet of racism, but compared to lynchings and Jim Crow, it feels like love.
Ben’s life in Paris and his search for love are complicated by ambition, jealousy, success and failure. He finds friends, lovers, and a home in Paris, but can he find what he needs?
Paris is a powerful presence in Jazz Moon and Okonkwo describes it in dizzying detail as “a painter’s palette streaked with colors: brilliant, moody, audacious, tantalizing, inviting, alienating. Reds and blacks and pinks and that milky gray that belonged both to the Paris sky and the pearls entwining a rich socialite’s neck.” It makes the cover art so perfect for this book. There’s a chapter where Ben is feeling the colors of Paris that is luminous. I read it twice, just for its beautiful prose.
Jazz Moon can break your heart. There is a poem that Ben writes that can tear you apart with its pain. I very much enjoyed this novel though people who take offense at explicit sexuality, particularly explicit gay sexuality will be unhappy. For the rest of us, it’s a lovely novel of love and self-discovery. There are a few times when it verge toward melodrama, when we are just far in Ben’s head when he’s wallowing and he does wallow. He is the kind of character that you just want to wake up, but that’s the point of the story, isn’t it, the slow awakening of Ben Marcus Charles.
Jazz Moon will be released May 31st by Kensington Books.
I was provided an e-galley by the publisher via NetGalley
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpres...
Ben Marcus Charles writes poetry in the mornings before heading off to his work as a waiter at a downtown hotel. His wife, Angeline, fixes hair. They love each other, perhaps not with the passion she might hope for, but enough to be happy enough, except for this thing that haunts Ben. And what is this thing? Ben is attracted to men. His first love was a man and one night, while he and Angeline are out enjoying the night life in Jazz Age Harlem they meet a man who brings up all those long-buried desires and dreams.
This is Ben’s story, of his search for love and for happiness though Ben thought that “happiness was more aspiration than destination.” He follows his love, the jazz trumpeter Baby Back Johnson, to Paris where “they love us over there,” as Baby Back assures him. And they do, with a fetishizing paternalism that is exemplified by the welcoming ship’s captain on their way to Paris who says, “The European must embrace the primitive sensuality that comes naturally to the African. That is essential to reinvigorating a white race that is becoming, quite frankly, boring.” Of course, fetishization is another facet of racism, but compared to lynchings and Jim Crow, it feels like love.
Ben’s life in Paris and his search for love are complicated by ambition, jealousy, success and failure. He finds friends, lovers, and a home in Paris, but can he find what he needs?
Paris is a powerful presence in Jazz Moon and Okonkwo describes it in dizzying detail as “a painter’s palette streaked with colors: brilliant, moody, audacious, tantalizing, inviting, alienating. Reds and blacks and pinks and that milky gray that belonged both to the Paris sky and the pearls entwining a rich socialite’s neck.” It makes the cover art so perfect for this book. There’s a chapter where Ben is feeling the colors of Paris that is luminous. I read it twice, just for its beautiful prose.
Jazz Moon can break your heart. There is a poem that Ben writes that can tear you apart with its pain. I very much enjoyed this novel though people who take offense at explicit sexuality, particularly explicit gay sexuality will be unhappy. For the rest of us, it’s a lovely novel of love and self-discovery. There are a few times when it verge toward melodrama, when we are just far in Ben’s head when he’s wallowing and he does wallow. He is the kind of character that you just want to wake up, but that’s the point of the story, isn’t it, the slow awakening of Ben Marcus Charles.
Jazz Moon will be released May 31st by Kensington Books.
I was provided an e-galley by the publisher via NetGalley
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpres...
July 6, 2016
A novel set in Harlem and Paris in the 1920s. Ben is a young black man, a poet and a waiter, who lives with his wife Angeline in New York City, though they're both originally from the small-town south. He struggles with what he calls this thing – eventually revealed to be his attraction to other men – a problem which kicks into overdrive when Ben meets the handsome trumpeter Baby Back Johnston. From there on out it's a matter of Ben figuring out who he is and who he loves, and the ensuing tangled mass of complicated relationships – not just with Baby Back and Angeline, but also Glo, a singer and Ben's close friend; Clifford, a rich, sophisticated black man with his own attraction to Baby Back; and Sebastian, a white painter.
The prose attempts to mimic the rhythms of poetry (many of Ben's poems are included in the text itself) and jazz, which sometimes works well, and... well, sometimes doesn't. For example:
The students smiled through their entire argument, then closed their topic with a chummy clinking of coffee cups. The Fitzgerald-endorsing student stood out. His tie askew. Longish hair falling in front of his eyes. A dash of scruff on his ruddy face.
Something in Ben’s pants smiled.
He went downstairs to use the lavatory, the basement dark and medieval-dungeon cool. The Fitzgerald boy was at the sink when Ben came out of the stall. They studied each other through the mirror’s reflection.
“Bonjour,” Fitzgerald said.
“Bonjour.”
Silence. Studying.
“I need to wash my hands,” Ben said.
“What were you doing in that stall to make them dirty?”
He stepped aside. Ben moved to the sink. As water poured over his hands, he felt a nice slap on his backside. Sharp and quick, the sound like a whip. Ben looked in the mirror, saw Fitzgerald at the stall cocking his head in its direction, renegade hair flailing. He went in, left the door ajar.
Ben finished at the sink and moved to exit. He looked back at the stall, felt the smile in his pants again. He hesitated, then hesitated some more, then walked toward the stall with purpose, then reversed course and left.
THE SMILE IN HIS PANTS. THIS IS THE WORST METAPHOR FOR SEXUAL ATTRACTION I THINK I HAVE EVER READ.
But even if the prose isn't always the greatest, I really did enjoy this book. It deals with racism and homophobia in very smart ways and in a setting that I loved, the characterizations are well-done and complex, and the ending is happy if a bit bittersweet. All around, it's a book that I'm very glad exists, and I wish there were more like it.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
The prose attempts to mimic the rhythms of poetry (many of Ben's poems are included in the text itself) and jazz, which sometimes works well, and... well, sometimes doesn't. For example:
The students smiled through their entire argument, then closed their topic with a chummy clinking of coffee cups. The Fitzgerald-endorsing student stood out. His tie askew. Longish hair falling in front of his eyes. A dash of scruff on his ruddy face.
Something in Ben’s pants smiled.
He went downstairs to use the lavatory, the basement dark and medieval-dungeon cool. The Fitzgerald boy was at the sink when Ben came out of the stall. They studied each other through the mirror’s reflection.
“Bonjour,” Fitzgerald said.
“Bonjour.”
Silence. Studying.
“I need to wash my hands,” Ben said.
“What were you doing in that stall to make them dirty?”
He stepped aside. Ben moved to the sink. As water poured over his hands, he felt a nice slap on his backside. Sharp and quick, the sound like a whip. Ben looked in the mirror, saw Fitzgerald at the stall cocking his head in its direction, renegade hair flailing. He went in, left the door ajar.
Ben finished at the sink and moved to exit. He looked back at the stall, felt the smile in his pants again. He hesitated, then hesitated some more, then walked toward the stall with purpose, then reversed course and left.
THE SMILE IN HIS PANTS. THIS IS THE WORST METAPHOR FOR SEXUAL ATTRACTION I THINK I HAVE EVER READ.
But even if the prose isn't always the greatest, I really did enjoy this book. It deals with racism and homophobia in very smart ways and in a setting that I loved, the characterizations are well-done and complex, and the ending is happy if a bit bittersweet. All around, it's a book that I'm very glad exists, and I wish there were more like it.
I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.
April 28, 2016
Jazz Moon by Joe Okonkwo will make readers question everything they read and feel. Nothing like a novel about jazz that brings out the poetic side to everyone especially the characters. A debut novel that brings, to life, the action, drama, and passion of 1925. Times where everything beckoned and called to those who hearts wanted more. Inside this title, readers will get a glimpse into a poet's lifestyle. He has a devoted wife but is angry with her...he soon find himself attracted to another who brings out the heat of raw animalistic desire deep within his blood. A stirring unlike any other. Paris is a place where art, passion, and desire come in abundance and that's where both Ben and his new lover find themselves. Joe Okonkwo brings readers the best world of fiction readers will find. Race, jazz, and travel are deep topics easily explored within this exciting well-written plot. Overall, I highly recommend this new novel, Jazz Moon, to readers everywhere.
July 15, 2016
Set in Harlem and Paris during the Jazz Age, this love story centers on Ben Charles, a young gay black man. He escaped to the big city from his rural Georgia home town. He was a rescuer: first befriending a young woman he met on the train to New York. They married -- to protect her reputation (she was pregnant by another man) and in his effort to deny his homosexuality. She became a successful hairdresser. He was a waiter, writing poetry on the side. Then he met trumpeter Baby Back Johnson and fell in love. Paris loved jazz and loved the idea of black musicians. Baby Back was offered a gig in Paris and Ben went with him. The men broke up and Ben took up with a white painter, Sebastian, and rescued him from drug addiction. In the end, the person Ben rescued was himself.
I liked this more than I thought I would. [I listened to the Tantor audio edition with wonderful narration by Sean Crisden.]
I liked this more than I thought I would. [I listened to the Tantor audio edition with wonderful narration by Sean Crisden.]
July 17, 2016
I picked this up without looking at it carefully. I love reading about the 20s, and especially that period in Paris and NY. Most of what I've read has focused on women, literary figures, or the period in general, so this came as quite a surprise, focusing instead on a gay African American man who moves from Harlem to Paris. The author paints a rich portrait of the time and provides a glimpse of a side of Paris in the 20s that certainly existed but has not often been presented. Against this rich backdrop is a timeless story of searching for love, dealing with the acceptance/rejection of family, and trying to find a fit in life. I was drawn into this tale, and captivated by the juxtaposition of the seamy side of the jazz age with the lavish, heady rhythms of the chic cafes and clubs. I look forward to more from this author.
June 27, 2016
Joe Okonkwo’s gorgeous debut novel is rich in history and steeped in poetry. You’ll want to keep turning the pages as you walk alongside the compelling main character’s search for himself amid the sound of jazz and the smell of whiskey, "refer," and sex during the Harlem Renaissance. Set in in New York City and Paris in the 1920s, the book explores race and sexuality and ultimately the human condition. Some of my favorite lines include:
"Norman swirled the whiskey around in his glass. 'Happy?'
“Ben hated that question. Its pedestrian stab at courtesy; its intrusiveness. Happiness, like misery, was a private matter. He didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t know how.”
I highly recommend JAZZ MOON.
"Norman swirled the whiskey around in his glass. 'Happy?'
“Ben hated that question. Its pedestrian stab at courtesy; its intrusiveness. Happiness, like misery, was a private matter. He didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t know how.”
I highly recommend JAZZ MOON.
August 9, 2017
I really loved this book and thought it was magical, with beautiful writing and interesting characters who I couldn't quite figure out how I felt about - which is such a good thing to me in a novel. However, I don't think I liked the ending, and the whole last quarter of the book was not nearly as strong as the portion of it.
August 18, 2016
Excellent novel set in a romantic age of Black creativity, discovery & influence. I felt there were a few questions I would've loved to see answered towards the end; but otherwise it was a fantastic read that I'll highly recommend.
March 14, 2017
Historical fiction at its best! Great book Joe.....
Interview with the author: http://fivequestions.club/post/156836...
Interview with the author: http://fivequestions.club/post/156836...
August 5, 2017
Evocative historical novel that transports you back to the Jazz Age. Beautifully written with engaging characters and plot.
January 6, 2024
I was about to crack open Toni Morrison’s Jazz for the third time when I suddenly remembered a book that came out the same year I started reading for fun. I was on the lookout for gay books, where I discovered the Lambda literary award, and first saw this book, Jazz Moon by Joe Okonkwo, which is set in the same time period as Morrison’s Jazz, but centered around gay characters.
Not long after beginning the book, I remembered why I hadn’t pursued it sooner. Even in 2017, when my reading brain wasn’t as sharp as it is now, I wasn’t wowed by the prose. Something felt off, or bereft. The same is true years later. Jazz Moon seems to coast purely on the perceived strength of its own premise without any mind paid to style. For a book tied to a musical genre whose sonic traits are unmistakable, Jazz Moon is shockingly devoid of style.
As soon as Okonkwo described the love interest’s trumpet playing as “caressing those flats and sharps”, I knew I was in for a rocky ride. The characters are by-the-numbers flawed, individualized sets of traits that, for me, never coalesced into real full human beings in my mind. Okonkwo opts to tell and not show, which is frustrating, because jazz is so about the feeling as it is the composition. Even here, as the main character is appraising a friend’s painting, the descriptions are bland, evoking nothing in the reader as if we are viewing the art ourselves:
“The urge to critique sneaked up on him. He began finding flaws in the perspective; shadows and highlights that couldn’t logically exist where they’d been placed. Some pieces screamed for more color. Others had been oversaturated. A few would have benefited from a simpler touch, and in a handful Sebastien had needlessly held back.” (262)
And later:
“More than the beauty, Sebastien had captured the complexity of his subject. Ben looked into the pensive face of [the painting] and recognized the intelligence, the curiosity, the hunger, the restlessness. The multiple layers enriched the portrait with the kind of brio that is possible only when an artist loves his subject.” (268)
Okonkwo is describing, sort of, the paintings themselves, as well as the way the main character feels by looking at them. None of that feeling is transferred onto the reader – we’re just looking at someone looking at a painting while being told that the painting “captures complexity”, and that the artist “loves his subject”. Where is the detail?
Also, the main character is a poet. The poems he writes are not good.
The story is fine; it’s melodramatic, and for all the difficulty the characters have endured, none of it feels tangible. Mostly this has to do with the book needing to explain and explain and explain what every character is feeling and why. One egregious example involves a character withholding information about a family member, ostensibly for plot reasons, and then a few chapters later, the novel jumps back in time, in that character’s point of view, to explain who and what and why and how and everything in between. I felt annoyed; why didn’t the author trust me to put things together myself? It was frustrating.
In an attempt to be “real” and “gritty”, Jazz Moon instead becomes clumsy and bland. None of the music of the era rings in the prose. In a colorful, complicated, lively era of Black history, it’s a meager slice of vanilla sheet cake.
Not long after beginning the book, I remembered why I hadn’t pursued it sooner. Even in 2017, when my reading brain wasn’t as sharp as it is now, I wasn’t wowed by the prose. Something felt off, or bereft. The same is true years later. Jazz Moon seems to coast purely on the perceived strength of its own premise without any mind paid to style. For a book tied to a musical genre whose sonic traits are unmistakable, Jazz Moon is shockingly devoid of style.
As soon as Okonkwo described the love interest’s trumpet playing as “caressing those flats and sharps”, I knew I was in for a rocky ride. The characters are by-the-numbers flawed, individualized sets of traits that, for me, never coalesced into real full human beings in my mind. Okonkwo opts to tell and not show, which is frustrating, because jazz is so about the feeling as it is the composition. Even here, as the main character is appraising a friend’s painting, the descriptions are bland, evoking nothing in the reader as if we are viewing the art ourselves:
“The urge to critique sneaked up on him. He began finding flaws in the perspective; shadows and highlights that couldn’t logically exist where they’d been placed. Some pieces screamed for more color. Others had been oversaturated. A few would have benefited from a simpler touch, and in a handful Sebastien had needlessly held back.” (262)
And later:
“More than the beauty, Sebastien had captured the complexity of his subject. Ben looked into the pensive face of [the painting] and recognized the intelligence, the curiosity, the hunger, the restlessness. The multiple layers enriched the portrait with the kind of brio that is possible only when an artist loves his subject.” (268)
Okonkwo is describing, sort of, the paintings themselves, as well as the way the main character feels by looking at them. None of that feeling is transferred onto the reader – we’re just looking at someone looking at a painting while being told that the painting “captures complexity”, and that the artist “loves his subject”. Where is the detail?
Also, the main character is a poet. The poems he writes are not good.
The story is fine; it’s melodramatic, and for all the difficulty the characters have endured, none of it feels tangible. Mostly this has to do with the book needing to explain and explain and explain what every character is feeling and why. One egregious example involves a character withholding information about a family member, ostensibly for plot reasons, and then a few chapters later, the novel jumps back in time, in that character’s point of view, to explain who and what and why and how and everything in between. I felt annoyed; why didn’t the author trust me to put things together myself? It was frustrating.
In an attempt to be “real” and “gritty”, Jazz Moon instead becomes clumsy and bland. None of the music of the era rings in the prose. In a colorful, complicated, lively era of Black history, it’s a meager slice of vanilla sheet cake.
May 31, 2018
This was a Pride Month Read for one of my book clubs and it was unexpected that at least the first quarter if not the first half of the book is pretty much just erotica. Be warned if you don't like sex scenes (most of my book club probably doesn't...)
I had assumed that this would be a historical fiction story but in the scheme of things there is little detailing the struggle of being black and gay in 1920s America and this pocket of "anything goes" that is depicted to us seems like a fantasy world. While it's clear that Ben is creating an accommodating lifestyle to appear to "fit into" society, there are few instances of the outright discrimination we know was happening simply for being black, not to mention for being "found out" as gay. Ben is protected at every turn and the related incidents of hatred do not happen to the characters personally which makes the situation seem remote and unusual (rather than the common occurrence history tells us was the case.)
While the most interesting character is right out of a stereotype catalog, Ben, the main character, is as flat as a cardboard box. Nothing happens to Ben that is of his own doing. From his initial interaction with a young lover, to his marriage, to his relocation to France, he is not the driver of the plot but someone who happens to be there as things move forward. Since we follow along with this character we really don't get to see the interesting side of Harlem and Paris (backstage at the clubs, opium dens, etc.) except where Ben timidly follows in order to further the plot. And when he finally engages in interesting behavior (one-night stands, running a club) we get several dozen versions of the same work routine and the "off hours" stuff is glossed over. Every time I had to read the details of the boyfriend dressing and leaving to do something interesting while leaving me stuck in a ship's cabin, or a boarding house room, or a club bar, with Ben having "feelings" I felt a little more hatred for Ben's passivity.
Ben is a poet so we get periodic verses and poems of his work, all of which are "love" related, none of which help set the scene so much as they reinforce his emotional state.
An entire "plot twist" at the last third of the book seems to be added merely to try to give some heft to the story line although not one thing comes of it (the book ends mid-irrelevant conversation...) which makes me think my overall disappointment is that the book doesn't know if it wants to be erotica, romance, or a novel but a focus on one genre might have helped it out a bit.
I had assumed that this would be a historical fiction story but in the scheme of things there is little detailing the struggle of being black and gay in 1920s America and this pocket of "anything goes" that is depicted to us seems like a fantasy world. While it's clear that Ben is creating an accommodating lifestyle to appear to "fit into" society, there are few instances of the outright discrimination we know was happening simply for being black, not to mention for being "found out" as gay. Ben is protected at every turn and the related incidents of hatred do not happen to the characters personally which makes the situation seem remote and unusual (rather than the common occurrence history tells us was the case.)
While the most interesting character is right out of a stereotype catalog, Ben, the main character, is as flat as a cardboard box. Nothing happens to Ben that is of his own doing. From his initial interaction with a young lover, to his marriage, to his relocation to France, he is not the driver of the plot but someone who happens to be there as things move forward. Since we follow along with this character we really don't get to see the interesting side of Harlem and Paris (backstage at the clubs, opium dens, etc.) except where Ben timidly follows in order to further the plot. And when he finally engages in interesting behavior (one-night stands, running a club) we get several dozen versions of the same work routine and the "off hours" stuff is glossed over. Every time I had to read the details of the boyfriend dressing and leaving to do something interesting while leaving me stuck in a ship's cabin, or a boarding house room, or a club bar, with Ben having "feelings" I felt a little more hatred for Ben's passivity.
Ben is a poet so we get periodic verses and poems of his work, all of which are "love" related, none of which help set the scene so much as they reinforce his emotional state.
An entire "plot twist" at the last third of the book seems to be added merely to try to give some heft to the story line although not one thing comes of it (the book ends mid-irrelevant conversation...) which makes me think my overall disappointment is that the book doesn't know if it wants to be erotica, romance, or a novel but a focus on one genre might have helped it out a bit.
September 12, 2021
*Jazz Moon* was such a delicious, sensual, even empowering read. And now I'm all ready to read more Joe Okonkwo.
For the first half of my adult life, *Their Eyes Were Watching God* was one of my favourite novels. And now *Jazz Moon*, which is set in a similar time period, but in the clubs of Harlem and Paris, sits next to Hurston's book in my mind.
*Jazz Moon*'s protagonist, Ben Charles, is the queer male equivalent of Janie Crawford. He doesn't understand his worth or his power at the start of the novel, and his journey through a series of lovers awakens those things, including his queer identity, in him. Even his biggest foil, a musician named Baby Back Johnston, reminded me of Janie's Tea Cake in more ways than just his name.
There were plenty of surprises throughout to make the novel feel original, and I learned a lot about what it might have been like to be queer during the Harlem Renaissance. I loved the use of poetry throughout the book; Ben's a poet, and the poems reflected his personal growth.
*Jazz Moon* has been around since 2016, but with the recent release of his queer story collection, this one fell on my radar. I was enchanted with the promise of a story merging so many of my literary interests. I'm so glad I found this book, and I recommend it for fans of Hurston and James Baldwin and Harlem Renassance poetry.
For the first half of my adult life, *Their Eyes Were Watching God* was one of my favourite novels. And now *Jazz Moon*, which is set in a similar time period, but in the clubs of Harlem and Paris, sits next to Hurston's book in my mind.
*Jazz Moon*'s protagonist, Ben Charles, is the queer male equivalent of Janie Crawford. He doesn't understand his worth or his power at the start of the novel, and his journey through a series of lovers awakens those things, including his queer identity, in him. Even his biggest foil, a musician named Baby Back Johnston, reminded me of Janie's Tea Cake in more ways than just his name.
There were plenty of surprises throughout to make the novel feel original, and I learned a lot about what it might have been like to be queer during the Harlem Renaissance. I loved the use of poetry throughout the book; Ben's a poet, and the poems reflected his personal growth.
*Jazz Moon* has been around since 2016, but with the recent release of his queer story collection, this one fell on my radar. I was enchanted with the promise of a story merging so many of my literary interests. I'm so glad I found this book, and I recommend it for fans of Hurston and James Baldwin and Harlem Renassance poetry.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 73 reviews