We are almost halfway through the book and nothing noteworthy has really happened.

Wait, we're halfway through and she hasn't even started her freaking jazz career yet?!

Williams keeps playing the piano and we get her eyes 'prickling' with tears again.

Oh god quit being such a crybaby.

"...from spirituals and field hollers, and from the chants of our African ancestors."

Again with this ridiculously vague statement.

Now that there was no more slavery

LOL, yeah right. I'm not going to get into it, but this is painfully naïve and oversimplified.

(Hmm, is Mama going to be like Chiara and go through William's personal belongs like Chiara did to Annina?)

We get more talk about how horrible alcohol is

Bet you anything the eeevil mama will steal the money and blow it on booze.

Fuck you all the way for implying that the only way to make are is for the artist to be suffering (fun fact: we artists work best when we're not fucking fighting for our emotional or physical wellbeing), double fuck you for comparing it to slavery and insinuating slavery was therefore a good and useful thing. For the sake of art. Fuck you fuck you fuck you.

Joining in on the FUCK YOU right here.
I've mentioned it several times on this comm before, but I suffered from at least two years of crushing depression and anxiety with PTSD on top of that. Guess what - during those two years my writing completely went to shit. NOT A COINCIDENCE. The anxiety meant I couldn't concentrate and the depression meant I had no energy or faith in my ability to tell a halfway decent story any more. After all, writing comes from the spirit but depression kills your spirit stone dead.
Kelly can go to hell, and doubly so for the slavery apologia bullshit.

(she prefers her ham hocks and collard greens)

On account of bein' one of them coloured folk, no doubt.

For some reason the Ghost Dog shows up that night, and for some reason Williams wants to talk to Nanny about it. Nanny refuses to tell her more about the Ghost Dog, so Williams resolves to find more info on her own.

Nobody cares about the damn dog! This is turning into the equivalent of that stupid mask from Vivaldi's Muse, isn't it?

The next day when he comes over to hear her play piano, she's feeling down for some reason.

Because this loser is always riding the doom and gloom train. Give it a rest already!

He scrunched his eyes like Grandpa used to do.
Oh yeah, we're also getting comparisons of Max to Grandpa, so now it's not only an underage incestuous relationship, there's father-figure issues mixed in there as well.

ARGH

"But...I don't see how a girl can play like that."

There have been female musicians since the dawn of humanity, you fucking idiot.

They go back and forth with Max laying the flattery on his 12-year-old cousin about how pretty she is

Somebody put this creep on a watchlist right now.

They all arrive. But not Mama. They wait and wait. And Mama never shows up.

Probably because she's drunk again boohoo alcohol bad etc.

No surprise, Mama had been drinking, and she wakes up the next day hung over.

I'm psychic.

Williams is hurt by their teasing, but! she does not cry until after school is out. She runs home, collapses on her bed, and then starts crying.

I'm right, aren't I? She really does cry at least once every chapter. You'd think she'd have developed some stoicism by now, considering.

I was tired of the kids at school calling me Scary Mary.

Dude, I WISH the kids at my school had called me something that badass, instead of the things they actually called me.

Yes, we get it. Drinking bad. Mama bad. Nobody loves Williams. Music good. There, I just told the whole story. You're welcome.

Oh good, now we don't have to read the rest of it.

Jazz Girl Chapters 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26

...why would you do this to me.

I'm hangry so I'mma head over to my parents' place and have some Christmas food (no collard greens or chitlins but we do have ham!). See y'all later!

Mmm, ham. We had that for Christmas too! I should have asked if I could take some of the leftovers home.