Jan 7, 2009
Rufus Scott, a jazz drummer. Handsome, talented, and black, Rufus is the pivotal character in the novel, although he commits suicide at the end of the first chapter. He meets his girlfriend, Leona, a white woman from the South, while playing a gig. Their unstable relationship is torn apart by racial and other tensions between them. He beats her until his friend, Vivaldo Moore, intercedes. Rufus’ ensuing depression results in his suicide: He walks out onto the George Washington Bridge and jumps. Rufus’ struggle initiates the questions the novel explores,...
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