Jazz (1992)

While not as straightforward as her other works, Jazz — Morrison's follow-up to Beloved, which is comprised of vignettes from one troubled couple's life set against the backdrop of 1920s Harlem — is eminently readable, thanks in large part to Morrison's masterful command of world-building. It's difficult not to be drawn into the brutal and dizzying world of the two young lovers at the center of Morrison's tale.

Joe Trace, a middle-aged door-to-door salesman of Cleopatra beauty goods, shoots his adolescent girlfriend to death in the winter of 1926 when everyone everywhere sees nothing but bright things ahead. Violet, Joe's wife, assaults the girl's body at the burial. This passionate, profound story of love and obsession transports back and forth in time as a narrative is pieced together from the emotions, hopes, fears, and deep truths of black urban existence.

Link to read: goodreads.com/book/show/37398.Jazz