Theses and Dissertations Collection

In these four novel chapters, excerpted from a larger work, Grant Cooper is a young jazz musician living in a small Pennsylvania town. Grant is tired. He’s tired of his bandmate, immature folk-rocker Ben Campbell. He’s tired of his job. He’s tired of his feeling stuck.

Meanwhile, Grant's girlfriend Jules is a successful jazz pianist living in New York City. As the novel opens, Grant braces himself to perform at a local venue with Ben and their band, the Duke Street Kings while simultaneously preparing for a rare weekend visit from Jules. To complicate things, the sphinxlike Wayne Shorter has chosen to join Jules on her visit.

This excerpt follows Grant through an atypical Friday as his relationship with Jules and his friendship with Ben twist and fracture, and as he works to get out from under the shadow of their success and into the eye of Wayne.