Jazz Summary

At the heart of the narrative is a strained love triangle involving Violet, Joe, and Dorcas. Violet and Joe, a discontented married pair, share an apartment in Harlem when Joe becomes smitten with Dorcas, a girl of just seventeen. Their affair commences during a sales visit to Dorcas's aunt's place and lasts from October 1925 till the onset of 1926. Unbeknownst to Violet and Alice Manfred, Dorcas's aunt, Joe would meet Dorcas in a vacant apartment borrowed from Malvonne, their upstairs neighbor. Dorcas, however, grows weary of Joe's attentions and starts seeing younger men. When Joe confronts her, she expresses her disdain and urges him to stop bothering her. Despite her harsh words, Joe is unable to forget her, and when he finds her at a party with another man, Acton, he fatally shoots her. Following her death, their affair is revealed, and Violet, in a fit of grief, disfigures Dorcas's face at her funeral. Subsequently, Violet and Alice, bound by their shared loss, start visiting each other, while Joe mourns Dorcas. Eventually, Joe and Violet manage to mend their relationship, thanks in part to their newfound friendship with Felice, Dorcas's best friend.

As the story of the love triangle unfolds, the narrator delves into the past, painting a vivid picture of the characters' origins and their interconnected lives that date back to the late 19th century. Violet hails from a poverty-stricken family in Virginia, her mother committed suicide following Violet's father's abandonment, leaving her with her grandmother, True Belle. Joe, an orphan, was raised by a foster family in Virginia. He longed to know his birth mother and even thought he found her in Wild, a local homeless woman, but was left with more questions than answers. Joe and Violet crossed paths in a town named Palestine while working the fields and later relocated to Harlem, referred to as "the City" throughout the narrative.

In addition to Joe and Violet's story, the narrator weaves in the tales of secondary characters like Vera Louise Gray and her son Golden Gray, shedding light on the interconnectedness of their lives and experiences. Golden Gray, the biracial son of Vera Louise, a white woman, and Henry LesTroy, a Black slave, was raised by his mother and True Belle. Upon learning the truth about his parentage, Golden Gray decided to confront his father, leading him to cross paths with Wild, who was heavily pregnant with Joe at the time. Following the birth of Joe, Golden Gray decided to stay with Wild in the woods, completely isolated from society. The narrative frequently revisits these stories from Harlem and Virginia, providing further depth through flashbacks and digressions.