Jazz: Toni Morrison

Sometimes you have to read a really good book to realize that everything else you have been reading is crap. Jazz did that for me. Not that the other books I've been reading were not good reads (occasionally), but in my mind they don't hold the place of literature like Toni Morrison's books do. The diction in Jazz, just like the critics say, sounds like music and one can get lost in the music and even forget the tragic lives the words are about. As soon as I put down the book I felt not only that I wanted to, but also that I should pick it up and read it again. The story is twisted about so that information vital to truly understanding earlier episodes is only revealed later. This is true especially in the last few chapters of Jazz when the Idiosyncrasies of the narrator start to come out. Nonetheless the narrator remained for me a mystery, one that I'm not sure can be deciphered. I found the cycle of tragedy in Jazz to be somewhat similar to Beloved, the only other Toni Morrison book I've read, but the last few chapters, I think turn this notion around and taunt expectation.
Really though, Jazz made me want to go back to school and have a classroom to sort out its intricacies. I haven't felt that need in my pleasure reading for a while. Must be a good book.