A long awaited dazzling collection of short fiction from one of Canada's most accomplished poets.
These incandescent stories in Crow Jazz come from tree level, the corvid community, where sex and death are celebrated with mirth and compassion. They have clever crow energy, selecting beak sized twitter-bits from life on earth below, with an eye to the bigger picture. Highly inventive; children, families, crows, and the old, bewitch and astonish the imagination. Improvisation, syncopation; all the jazz words come into word play. “Mud Pies”, “The Child City,” “Darling Boy,” The Tea Party,” “Lucy Laughed,” “Elusive Beauty, Virginia Sat Down,” are a few of the twenty-plus polished tales in Linda Roger’s quirky and clever short fiction collection. A wild breath of fresh air for literary Canada.
"In the early stories of Crow Jazz, a fierce laughing girl-child falls for birds and words, discovers sex, plays tricks, sees through hypocrisy, takes revenge, loves the natural world. That sensibility appears often in Linda Rogers' varied characters, in stories often presenting a strong mix of pain and comedy, such as "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "Shock Therapy." On every page, Rogers' imagery shines like a crow's glossy wing.”–Cynthia Flood, author of What Can You Do
"Fuelled by a poet's sensorium and word mischief, Crow Jazz is a jostling ride that, story after story, is funny, angry, wise, and wild. It's a perfect title."