Trumpet by
Jackie Kay

Nominated by:

Jackie Kay's mesmerizing and powerfully moving first novel is about the extraordinary life and seeming dissolution of a family - about the boundaries of identity and the essential nature of love. At its centre is Joss Moody, a celebrated jazz trumpeter who created music that convinced everyone who heard it that thay knew the man who made it. But Joss's death has proved them all wrong: Joss Moody lived his life inside a stunning secret. His wife Millie knew about it. But their adopted son, Colman, now in his thirties, has just learned of it. With everything he understood about himself and his family thrown into question, Colman forms an uncomfortable alliance with a journalist intent on telling Joss's story her own way. Millie, grieving and besieged by the press, secludes herself in their home in a small Scottish village, sinking into the aching solace of memory. Their two brilliantly realised voices - one revisiting the past for comfort, the other for answers - are interwoven with the equally evocative voices of Joss's drummer, of the doctor who discovered Joss's secret, of the funeral director who hid it for the last time, of the registrar of death certificates, and of the journalist. Together they reveal the startling and poignant story of Joss and Millie: how a complex, dazzling lie became the foundation for a family, a life, and a rare, unshakable love. Starkly beautiful, emotionally charged, and wholly unexpected, Trumpet delves into the most intimate workings of the human heart and mind. It is a bravura performance and a triumphant debut.
Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh in 1961 and grew up in Glasgow. She has published three collections of poetry, the first of which, The Adoption Papers (Bloodaxe, 1991), won the Saltire and Forward Prizes. The second, Other Lovers (Bloodaxe, 1993), won the Somerset Maugham Award. Trumpet, her first novel, won the Author's Club First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize. She is currently working on a second, and a collection of short stories. She lives in Manchester with her son.

REVIEWS:

I picked this book up last September as I was curious as to the story. What I found was a very tender book full of emotion. The story that unfolds is very moving and the images that it conjures up are very powerful, especially the way in which the unravelling of the bandages is used at different stages. Firstly in the chapter where Joss reveals himself to Millie, the tension is immense as he slowly unravels the bandages with Millie wondering what horrible accident had befallen him at some stage and the the scene where the Doctor arrives. Millies distress is very sad and her search for peace from the world, she wants to be alone to mourn and does not find peace at there hideaway cottage as she is pursued by the writer looking to make the story into a sensational piece of writing. She is confident that she can do this having enlisted the help of Colman Moody adopted son of Joss and Millie, who is naturally angry and upset about the discovery that his father was really a woman. I think all of the characters appear very real and you get a real feel for what goes through their mind when they come into contact with the dead body or when they have to deal with one of the Moody's. How many of us know someone like Joss's mother who is visited by Colman? The characters are all very well protrayed and the observation of human beings in all their different guises is very well handled. I just love the book.
(email review received 08/05/00)

Here's what the members of the Reading Group based at our Raheny branch library think of Trumpet:

This is an unusual story. It opens with the death of famous mixed-race jazz trumpeter Joss Moody. Joss's wife Millie is heartbroken. Joss's adopted son's pain turns to anger when he discovers his father was a woman. His anger is exploited by Sophie Stone, an ambitious tabloid style journalist, who wants to write his sensational story. The story is told after Joss's death by several different characters, but mostly by Joss's wife and their son Colman. Millie escapes to their holiday home in Scotland to avoid the press. She tells the story of a very loving and happy marriage to Joss. It is the undertaker who tells Colman his father is a woman. Colman's anger and confusion takes him on a journey of self-discovery. The more Sophie Stone pushes him to find out about Joss's past life, the more he becomes aware of the love that was lavished on him by his parents. For Sophie Stone's sake, he meets Joss's mother, but the reader is never told what transpires, other than he goes alone, spends the afternoon and evening with her, and the story ends with him reconciling with Millie. I liked this book. I liked the way the author dealt with the secret of a famous man actually being a woman. In the end it didn't matter - Colman realised his father loved him, Millie loved him as a man. His band, though surprised still loved him. Somehow by not revealing to the reader how Joss changed identity and sex the author gave dignity to the book and its characters. The characters were well drawn. Colman was particularly good as the difficult child and adolescent who grows to love and appreciate his parents. Both Millie and Joss's mother are very warm loving characters. Even Sophie Stone, the journalist, while hard-bitten and desperate to get her story, can understand the pull of love. Joss's charismatic personality is the story. A story of a very loving woman or man who enriches the lives of his family, his friends and his fans.
(Member of Raheny Library Reading Group)

As I struggled with this novel I wondered how it got into the shortlist, or for that matter, the longlist. Then I noticed it had won the 1998 Guardian Fiction Prize so there must be something wrong with me. One of the reviewers quoted on the back of the book says "Trumpet is a love story..". what it does not say is that it owes something to the Mils and Boon genre. I gave up after about forty pages - at my age, life is too short to spend on this.
(Member of Raheny Library Reading Group)

The story of jazz trumpeter Joss Moody is a love story with a difference. Joss and Millie meet, fall in love and marry succeeding in covering up the fact that Joss is a woman. Their adoptive son Colman, must wait until his 'father' has died before learning the truth. The book is very well written. It is an account of a tender and loving marriage strengthened by a shared secret. Colman's initial reaction to the truth is understandable and his plans to allow a journalist to write the authentic story is revenge for shattered memories. His final decision to abandon this project is an acceptance of Joss and Millie as they chose to live their lives and an acknowledgement of their role as parents. The novel poses a few questions that this reader would like explained but it is nevertheless an absorbing read.
(Member of Raheny Library Reading Group)