The Jazz Palace - by Mary Morris (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award

Boomtown Chicago, 1920s--a world of gangsters, musicians, and clubs. Young Benny Lehrman, born into a Jewish hat-making family, is expected to take over his father's business, but his true passion is piano--especially jazz. After dark, he sneaks down to the South Side to hear the bands play.

One night he is asked to sit in with a group. His playing is first-rate. The trumpeter, a black man named Napoleon, becomes Benny's friend and musical collaborator. They are asked to play at a saloon Napoleon has christened The Jazz Palace. But Napoleon's main gig is at a mob establishment, which doesn't take kindly to their musicians freelancing . As Benny and Napoleon navigate the highs and the lows of the Jazz Age, a bond is forged between them that is as memorable as it is lasting. Morris brilliantly captures the dynamic atmosphere and dazzling music of an exceptional era.

Review Quotes

"Riveting. . . . As her tale unfolds, we know that we are in the hands of a master." --Christina Baker Kline, author of The Orphan Train

"The Jazz Palace understands what great things come from staying light on your feet. . . . The historical material itself seems to dance." --The Washington Post

"There is a reason I have always called Mary Morris my writing mentor: she taught me everything I know; and here is the living proof." --Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of The Storyteller

"Vibrant. . . . With brio, Morris creates music on the page." --The New York Times Book Review

"A bittersweet, deeply lyrical but eyes-wide-open look at Chicago before and during Prohibition." --Chicago Tribune

"In this incandescent tour-de-force, Mary Morris takes us on a riveting journey that soars and tugs on our heartstrings just as if it were music itself." --Dani Shapiro, author of Family History and Still Writing

"The Jazz Palace is a sweeping tribute, a jazz ode, by a wonderful writer to her native city." --Valerie Martin, author of Property and The Ghost of the Mary Celeste

"Haunting and dreamlike, there is no other word for this novel but masterpiece." --Caroline Leavitt, author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You

"Packed with so much love, heartbreak, endurance. . . . In The Jazz Palace, Mary Morris has written an exquisite love letter to her home town, Chicago. And yet the book transcends time and place." --Peter Orner, author of Love and Shame and Love

"A graceful and involving affirmation of the transcendent power of art." --Booklist (starred review)

"As fluid and nuanced as the music it celebrates, Morris's narrative brings physical details, the power of music, and the sweeping history of Chicago . . . to memorable life." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Mary Morris is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels A Mother's Love and House Arrest, as well as the travel memoir classic Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone. The recipient of the Rome Prize in literature and a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, she was raised in Chicago and now lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.

www.marymorris.net