I recently so effusively praised Beem Weeks’s
Jazz Baby historical novel to a group of already-appreciating fans that several challenged me to list five simple reasons I keep it handy for occasional reference and reread. Okay, sure: 5) SETTING: The authenticity and vividness of Prohibition-era south from rural Mississippi to the Storyville underbelly of New Orleans is so true and fascinating that I’m grateful for the chance to experience so personally. The world of gangsters and speakeasies and flappers and hooch-mongers feels Disney-depicted in movies; it’s scary and dangerous and wondrous in
Jazz Baby. 4) STORY: Coming of age? Check—but nowadays when burgeoning teens revel in declaring their most intimate personas through social media, Emily can’t help but step back and wonder, then dare venture into real situations that challenge her to overcome obstacles even as thriving yields to surviving. 3) THEME: Thirteen is too young to face losing everything and everybody, especially in an era with no societal support. It’s easy to armchair advise her—until the choices aren’t so easy, and we must admit she’ll need to figure out who she is before anything can make sense. Especially notable is the unflinching exploration of her budding sensuality, a daring exploration that nowadays might be celebrated, but which then and there might well get her killed. Emily’s story deftly pinpoints that elusive intersection between creative ambition and intimate indulgence, an algorithm that few of us so keenly observe, let alone understand. 2) CHARACTER: Weeks has created one of those rare characters who is elusive yet indelible. The more we understand her, the deeper we explore her complexities, the more we wonder and marvel. That her transition is accelerated by the whims of circumstance and fate makes it all the more exhilarating to ride with her. Several astute readers have cited comparisons, nearly all agreeing she is another Holden Caulfield or Huck Finn navigating an adult world where the youngster increasingly fails to fit. 1) VOICE: Ah, the narrative voice, the element that pushes
Jazz Baby into my skybox list of best-bests: Emily narrates her own story in the first person, and we can hear her, a faceted-but-simple Mississippi girl who lets us intrude on her thoughts, not just speaking the way a girl of her station would, but showing us how she thinks. Her quirky diction and syntax, the wry observations, those heartfelt expressions of emotion—these render Emily so alive that she lingers in our thoughts well beyond the last page of her story. Not since the first-person narratives of Barbara Kingsolver have I so admired a writer finessing the voice of a youngster brave enough to speak her mind. With only one novel so far, but lots of short stories at
https://www.freshinkgroup.com,
http://www.readwave.com/beem.weeks/, and other sites, Weeks is an emerging writer who with
Jazz Baby has already arrived. Five quick points don’t do this novel justice. I envy any readers who get to experience it for the first time, while I eagerly look forward to Weeks’s next.* * * Stephen Geez, Editor, Fresh Ink Group;Author of
Papala Skies, What Sara Saw, and more;Creator of GeezWriter How-to.