Trumpet
Fiction by Jackie Kay
Copyright 1998, 278 pages, $23
Pantheon Books
ISBN 0-375-40509-7 (hardbound)
Capsule:
A conspiracy. A loving relationship. A celebrity father and a
wayward son. Death as an arbiter. All these elements weave
together to form the story of a famous male jazz trumpeter who
wasn't, in body, a man.
Full review
Trumpet is a first novel by English/Scottish poet Jackie Kay, based on the real story of American band leader Billy Tipton, documented in the book Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton. Tipton, biologically a woman, successfully lived as a married man and professional musician for years.
Kay brings new elements to the story: it's now set in England and Scotland, the male/female is renowned jazz trumpeter Joss Moody and he is half black. Joss and his loving wife (who is white) adopt a half-black son.
The author, herself black, brings her considerable poetic sensibilities to the story.
It's unusual for a novel to be told from so many points of view: at first primarily from that of Joss's newly widowed wife, Millie (Joss is revealed to the public to be a woman only upon his death). Subsequently Trumpet also offers the points of view of the adopted son who roils in the shadow of his father, the recorder of the death certificate, the undertaker, a scandal-book writer who forms an alliance with the son, Joss's mother, and more.
The novel begins with Millie's loss of a happy and long relationship with Joss and the continuing disrespect and rebellion of her son. The author explains that people close to Joss might've guessed about him, but he was such an accomplished musician, and so happy as a male, that they supported his chosen identity. On the other hand, there was the continual subterfuge of his wife binding his breasts daily, of his not being able to go for swims and his not being able to undress in front of his son. Ultimately, Joss dies because he's unwilling to expose himself to a doctor.
Midway in the book the author takes on the subject of dying and the world of old people. Upon medical death, the soul doesn't a the body, it lingers. First of all, the bereaved have to be able to say good-by and let go. In this story, the undertaker gently talks to Joss's soul and helps it depart.
In the mostly happy ending, the son stops being a brat. Maybe his father had to die to give him a life.
Trumpet evokes the jazz scene abroad, the culture of Scotland, and being black in the British Isles. Kay has created unique, believable and memorable characters, especially the wife/mother. Above all, though, is the mythical Joss Moody, who rose above limitations of race and gender. Could he have attained the same greatness as a woman?
(Reviewer: Valory Gravois) (Copyright ©1999 by Alchemist/Light Publishing)
Where
this book can be purchased
Return
to list of reviews
Return
to home page