Axeman's Jazz

by Tracy Daugherty

A stunning tour de force, Tracy Daugherty’s fourth novel explores the volatility of race, class, and economics as they affect three generations of a Houston, Texas, family, and traces the rise and decline of an inner city neighborhood from the point of view of a prodigal daughter. Twenty-something Telisha Washington returns after many years to the decaying Houston neighborhood where she was born, to renew old ties and come to terms with her family’s enigmatic heritage. The product of a racially mixed union, she has spent her life straddling received definitions of race, class, gender, and culture. Her personal odyssey is centered inside a black neighborhood’s convulsions, where violence, poverty, and the politics of gentrification take their toll. An unflinching meditation on family, race, sex, and love, as well as a dissection of public and private identity, Axeman’s Jazz is a stark, but loving, portrait of contemporary urban America.

Genres: Fiction

240 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2003

Reviews

[Art · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thin characters. The author works in stereotypes, which might be useful in driving home a point (ex: Do The Right Thing) but here just made me irritated. Perhaps I was not in the right space for this book -- I had just finished Disgrace by J.M. Coatzee, which deals with race issues in a much more subtle and nuanced way. This book, like a sledgehammer. And unfortunatley, that didn't work for me.

I liked the colorful descriptions of Houston, and some of the historical stuff. More of that would have been nice.