The Jazz Palace
A Novel
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3.4 • 9 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Acclaimed author Mary Morris returns to her Chicago roots in this sweeping novel that brilliantly captures the dynamic atmosphere and the dazzling music of the Jazz Age.
In the midst of boomtown Chicago, two Jewish families have suffered terrible blows. The Lehrmans, who run a small hat factory, lost their beloved son Harold in a blizzard. The Chimbrovas, who run a saloon, lost three of their boys on the SS Eastland when it sank in 1915. Each family holds out hope that one of their remaining children will rise to carry on the family business. But Benny Lehrman has no interest in making hats. His true passion is piano—especially jazz.
At night he sneaks down to the South Side, slipping into predominantly black clubs to hear jazz groups play. Along the way he meets a black trumpeter, a man named Napoleon who becomes Benny’s close friend and musical collaborator. Their adventures together take Benny far from the life he knew as a delivery boy. Pearl Chimbrova recognizes their talent and invites them to start playing at her family’s saloon, which Napoleon dubs “The Jazz Palace.”
Even as the novel charts the story of its characters, it also tells the tale of the city where they live. It is a world of gangsters, musicians, and clubs, in which black musicians are no freer than they were before the Civil War, white youths head down to the South Side to “slum,” and Al Capone and Louis Armstrong become legends. As The Jazz Palace steams through the 1920s, Benny, Pearl, and Napoleon forge a bond that is as memorable as it is lasting.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Morris's first novel since 2004 puts her many gifts to use in a story of creativity, music, resilience, and love in Prohibition-era Chicago. In 1915, Benny Lehrman and Pearl Chimbrova encounter each other as teenagers as the SS Eastland sinks before their eyes, with three of Pearl's brothers aboard. In the years that follow, Benny who feels dogged by tragedy grows up fascinated not by Lehrman's Caps, the factory he is expected to run some day, but by the nascent musical genre called "jass." Recognizing Benny's talent as pianist and composer, trumpeter Napoleon Hill takes Benny to play beside him at the Jazz Palace, the speakeasy Pearl has created to help take care of her siblings. Music helps all three prosper, but it can't protect them from the privations of the Depression, the violence of the mob, or the barriers of discrimination. Meanwhile, Pearl and Benny are drawn to each other, but Benny's self-doubt and Pearl's seductive younger sister, Opal, complicate their relationship. 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 (the author's hometown) to memorable life. Real events and figures weave seamlessly into the lives of three characters fighting to claim their authentic identities despite family, cultural, and inner resistance.
