Journey into American Past to Understand American Present, 11 Nov 2008
In her latest novel Toni Morrison takes us back to the late 17th century America. The plot gives her an opportunity to present America in the making, there is no US yet, there are colonies, each somewhat different in their culture, religion or attitude to slavery. Morrison adroitly shapes the plot in such a way as to give the reader at least an impression of the variety that once was America, sending her characters on distant voyages. The differences are the most clearly visible in the opposition between Maryland and New York yet the choice of character also helps Morrison to stress the diversity of American roots.
And yet "A Mercy" is not just a historical novel. The setting is important but Morrison seems much more interested in her characters. This concentration is reflected in the form of the book - we get to know about the events from the characters in a series of monologues which culminate in the final monologue of Florens' mother which ties some of the book's loose ends and answers some of its haunting questions.
Each of the monologues comes from a completely different character - a slave, a native American, a Dutch etc. - this variety is almost incredible but serves to add a depth to the book, broadens the view the reader gets.
As usual in Morrison's fiction the characters are mostly women. As a result the book to some degree fails as a HIStory book, it is much more of a HERstory book, offering the reader a selection of points of view usually missing in more traditional history writing both fictional and scholarly.
In short: another great book from a Nobel-prize winning novelist.

"I don't think God knows who we are. I think He would like us, if He knew us, but I don't think He knows about us.", 11 Nov 2008
(4.5 stars) Continuing themes that she has been developing since the start of her career, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison creates an intense and involving philosophical, Biblical, and feminist novel set in the Atlantic colonies between 1682 and 1690. Her impressionistic story traces slavery from its early roots, using unique voices--African, Native American, and white--while moving back and forth in time. The primary speaker is Florens, a 16-year-old African slave, who tells the reader at the outset that this is a confession, "full of curiosities," and that she has committed a bloody, once-in-a-lifetime crime. In a flashback to 1682, we learn that when Florens was only eight years old, her mother suggested to the Maryland planter who owned the family, that Florens be given to New York farmer Jacob Vaark to settle a debt. Florens never understands why she was abandoned by her mother.

Florens lives and works for the next eight years on Vaark's rural New York farm. Lina, a Native American, who works with her, tells in a parallel narrative how she became one of a handful of survivors of a plague that killed her tribe. Vaark's wife Rebekkah describes leaving England for New York to be married to a man she has never seen. The deaths of their subsequent children are devastating, and Vaark is hoping that eight-year-old Florens will help alleviate Rebekkah's loneliness. Vaark, himself an orphan and poorhouse survivor, describes his journeys from New York to Maryland and Virginia, commenting on the role of religion in the culture of the different colonies, along with their attitudes toward slavery.

All these characters are bereft of their roots, struggling to survive in an alien environment filled with danger and disease. When smallpox threatens Rebekkah's life in 1692, Florens, now sixteen, is sent to find a black freedman who has some knowledge of herbal medicines. Her journey is dangerous and ultimately proves to be the turning point in her life.

Morrison examines the roots of racism going back to slavery's earliest days, providing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time, and showing how all the women are victimized. They are "of and for men," people who "never shape the world, The world shapes us." As the women journey toward self-enlightenment, Morrison describes their progress in often Biblical cadences, and by the end of this novel, the reader understands what "a mercy" really means. An intense and thought-provoking look at various forms of slavery from their beginnings, this short novel has an epic scope, one which admirers of Morrison will celebrate for its intense thematic development, even as they may somewhat regret its sacrifice of fully developed characters. Mary Whipple

Sula
Beloved (Vintage Classics)
Jazz
Song of Solomon
Love
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination

In the troubled years following the Civil War, the spirit of a murdered child haunts the Ohio home of a former slave. This angry, destructive ghost breaks mirrors, leaves its fingerprints in cake icing, and generally makes life difficult for Sethe and her family; nevertheless, the woman finds the haunting oddly comforting for the spirit is that of her own dead baby, never named, thought of only as Beloved.

A dead child, a runaway slave, a terrible secret--these are the central concerns of Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning Beloved. Morrison, a Nobel laureate, has written many fine novels, including Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, and Paradise--but Beloved is arguably her best. To modern readers, antebellum slavery is a subject so familiar that it is almost impossible to render its horrors in a way that seems neither clichéd nor melodramatic. Rapes, beatings, murders, and mutilations are recounted here, but they belong to characters so precisely drawn that the tragedy remains individual, terrifying to us because it is terrifying to the sufferer. And Morrison is master of the telling detail: in the bit, for example, a punishing piece of headgear used to discipline recalcitrant slaves, she manages to encapsulate all of slavery's many cruelties into one apt symbol--a device that deprives its wearer of speech. "Days after it was taken out, goose fat was rubbed on the corners of the mouth but nothing to soothe the tongue or take the wildness out of the eye." Most importantly, the language here, while often lyrical, is never overheated. Even as she recalls the cruelties visited upon her while a slave, Sethe is evocative without being overemotional: "Add my husband to it, watching, above me in the loft--hiding close by--the one place he thought no one would look for him, looking down on what I couldn't look at at all. And not stopping them--looking and letting it happen.... And if he was that broken then, then he is also and certainly dead now." Even the supernatural is treated as an ordinary fact of life: "Not a house in the country ain't packed to its rafters with some dead Negro's grief. We lucky this ghost is a baby," comments Sethe's mother-in-law.

Beloved is a dense, complex novel that yields up its secrets one by one. As Morrison takes us deeper into Sethe's history and her memories, the horrifying circumstances of her baby's death start to make terrible sense. And as past meets present in the shape of a mysterious young woman about the same age as Sethe's daughter would have been, the narrative builds inexorably to its powerful, painful conclusion. Beloved may well be the defining novel of slavery in America, the one that all others will be measured by. --Alix Wilber

Journey into American Past to Understand American Present, 11 Nov 2008
In her latest novel Toni Morrison takes us back to the late 17th century America. The plot gives her an opportunity to present America in the making, there is no US yet, there are colonies, each somewhat different in their culture, religion or attitude to slavery. Morrison adroitly shapes the plot in such a way as to give the reader at least an impression of the variety that once was America, sending her characters on distant voyages. The differences are the most clearly visible in the opposition between Maryland and New York yet the choice of character also helps Morrison to stress the diversity of American roots.
And yet "A Mercy" is not just a historical novel. The setting is important but Morrison seems much more interested in her characters. This concentration is reflected in the form of the book - we get to know about the events from the characters in a series of monologues which culminate in the final monologue of Florens' mother which ties some of the book's loose ends and answers some of its haunting questions.
Each of the monologues comes from a completely different character - a slave, a native American, a Dutch etc. - this variety is almost incredible but serves to add a depth to the book, broadens the view the reader gets.
As usual in Morrison's fiction the characters are mostly women. As a result the book to some degree fails as a HIStory book, it is much more of a HERstory book, offering the reader a selection of points of view usually missing in more traditional history writing both fictional and scholarly.
In short: another great book from a Nobel-prize winning novelist.

"I don't think God knows who we are. I think He would like us, if He knew us, but I don't think He knows about us.", 11 Nov 2008
(4.5 stars) Continuing themes that she has been developing since the start of her career, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison creates an intense and involving philosophical, Biblical, and feminist novel set in the Atlantic colonies between 1682 and 1690. Her impressionistic story traces slavery from its early roots, using unique voices--African, Native American, and white--while moving back and forth in time. The primary speaker is Florens, a 16-year-old African slave, who tells the reader at the outset that this is a confession, "full of curiosities," and that she has committed a bloody, once-in-a-lifetime crime. In a flashback to 1682, we learn that when Florens was only eight years old, her mother suggested to the Maryland planter who owned the family, that Florens be given to New York farmer Jacob Vaark to settle a debt. Florens never understands why she was abandoned by her mother.

Florens lives and works for the next eight years on Vaark's rural New York farm. Lina, a Native American, who works with her, tells in a parallel narrative how she became one of a handful of survivors of a plague that killed her tribe. Vaark's wife Rebekkah describes leaving England for New York to be married to a man she has never seen. The deaths of their subsequent children are devastating, and Vaark is hoping that eight-year-old Florens will help alleviate Rebekkah's loneliness. Vaark, himself an orphan and poorhouse survivor, describes his journeys from New York to Maryland and Virginia, commenting on the role of religion in the culture of the different colonies, along with their attitudes toward slavery.

All these characters are bereft of their roots, struggling to survive in an alien environment filled with danger and disease. When smallpox threatens Rebekkah's life in 1692, Florens, now sixteen, is sent to find a black freedman who has some knowledge of herbal medicines. Her journey is dangerous and ultimately proves to be the turning point in her life.

Morrison examines the roots of racism going back to slavery's earliest days, providing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time, and showing how all the women are victimized. They are "of and for men," people who "never shape the world, The world shapes us." As the women journey toward self-enlightenment, Morrison describes their progress in often Biblical cadences, and by the end of this novel, the reader understands what "a mercy" really means. An intense and thought-provoking look at various forms of slavery from their beginnings, this short novel has an epic scope, one which admirers of Morrison will celebrate for its intense thematic development, even as they may somewhat regret its sacrifice of fully developed characters. Mary Whipple

Sula
Beloved (Vintage Classics)
Jazz
Song of Solomon
Love
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination



Haunting, profoundly brilliant--an honor to read it., 20 Oct 2008
Beloved is a masterpiece. Beautifully written--deeply moving and deeply disturbing. I have never read a novel that I found touched my heart the way this did.
It is a unique story. A kind of ghost story but far more than that. It is a haunting of the heart, the soul--the being.
It will haunt me for the rest of my life.

NOT A GREAT TITLE FOR A REVIEW BUT 'BRILLIANT' WILL SUFFICE, 14 Aug 2008
Engaging, involving, powerful business. Stays with you long after the last drop has been drained from the glass.

Very complicated read, 26 May 2008
My daughter saw the film to this and said it was a good story so i thought i'd try the book. After reading the book reviews i thought i wouudn't mind a challenge, well i made it to pg 133 and just couldn't go anymore. It is very descriptive and Toni Morrison seemed to go off into another dimension and it became quite tedious, sorry folks, but for those who made it to the end, well done, my imagination was stretched to the limit, had to have a long lie down for a week after this ordeal.

"That woman is crazy, [but] ain't we all?", 15 Sep 2007
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of 1988, Toni Morrison frees herself from the bonds of traditional narrative and establishes an independent style, just as her characters have freed themselves from the horrors of slavery and escaped from Kentucky to Ohio. Revealing the story of Sethe and her family as they survive the brutality of the farm, only to encounter torments even more punishing than whippings after they escape, Morrison presents scenes in a seemingly random order, each scene revealing some aspect of life for Sethe, her boys, her dead baby Beloved, and the new baby Denver, both in the past and in the present. Moving back and forth, around, and inside out through Sethe's recollections, she gradually reveals Sethe's story to the reader, its horror increasing as the reader makes the connections which turn disconnected scenes into a powerful and harrowing chronology.

As the novel opens, Sethe and Denver have lived in #124, a house in Ohio, for eighteen years, refusing to socialize and enjoying no company. When Paul D. Garner, one of the Sweet Home men and a friend of her long-missing husband, arrives on her doorstep and moves in, Sethe slowly reveals her long-buried nightmares, and the two share their stories of the events leading up to their escape. Most haunting to Sethe is the death of her young daughter Beloved, shortly after the escape from the farm, though the reader does not know for many pages the shocking manner of her death. When a ghostly figure who calls herself Beloved arrives at #124, shortly after Paul D., Morrison creates mystery and a heart-stoppingly tense atmosphere, when Beloved, too, moves in. As Beloved gradually takes over the household and seems to demand and then possess Sethe's soul, the sorrow which has burdened Sethe seems close to breaking her.

The sadism of some slave-owners, the devices used to torture, and the desperate measures some slaves took to protect themselves and their loved ones come fully alive here, the horrors growing as the reader gradually discovers the real source of Sethe's torment. By forcing the reader to make the connections, instead of spelling out details in a traditional narrative, Morrison strengthens the impact of the novel and its brutal revelations. Symbols of water, rain, snow, and ice connect the disparate scenes, and the use of shadows and the ghostly character of Beloved keep the reader on tenterhooks until the action is eventually resolved. A powerful, atmospheric, and shocking novel, Beloved is also a searing indictment of slavery and the damage it has done to the fabric of life, damage that cannot be repaired until it is fully recognized through novels such as this. Mary Whipple

A powerful and heartfelt indictment of the monstrousness and stupidity of the slave trade, 08 Jun 2007
Toni Morrison's powerful and heartfelt indictment of the monstrousness and stupidity of the slave trade, where individuals were forced to commit atrocious acts as mechanisms for survival, does not make easy reading. It is by necessity raw and uncompromising as she shifts between the past and present of individuals whose lives have been battered and bludgeoned beyond recall. This book again demonstrates how much more effective novels can be than dry historical texts at recapturing periods and events in the past. The principal character is Sethe who some twenty years previously had murdered her baby daughter Beloved to prevent her from being sold into slavery. The story is concerned with the return of the spirit child and her desire for retribution against her mother who continues to love her in spite of all.
I wonder though if this novel was not the definitive word on the subject as the twentieth century threw up events that surpassed in scale and in evil intent - the pathological obsession with the total industrial annihilation of a segment of humanity rather than the ruthless desire for a limitless supply of expendable free labour - even the transatlantic slave trade. Ultimately, the starkness of the narrative, the supernatural element, and the somewhat abstract portrayal of the central characters acted as impediments to believability, and consequently some of the sympathy was lost. A great work, though.

Journey into American Past to Understand American Present, 11 Nov 2008
In her latest novel Toni Morrison takes us back to the late 17th century America. The plot gives her an opportunity to present America in the making, there is no US yet, there are colonies, each somewhat different in their culture, religion or attitude to slavery. Morrison adroitly shapes the plot in such a way as to give the reader at least an impression of the variety that once was America, sending her characters on distant voyages. The differences are the most clearly visible in the opposition between Maryland and New York yet the choice of character also helps Morrison to stress the diversity of American roots.
And yet "A Mercy" is not just a historical novel. The setting is important but Morrison seems much more interested in her characters. This concentration is reflected in the form of the book - we get to know about the events from the characters in a series of monologues which culminate in the final monologue of Florens' mother which ties some of the book's loose ends and answers some of its haunting questions.
Each of the monologues comes from a completely different character - a slave, a native American, a Dutch etc. - this variety is almost incredible but serves to add a depth to the book, broadens the view the reader gets.
As usual in Morrison's fiction the characters are mostly women. As a result the book to some degree fails as a HIStory book, it is much more of a HERstory book, offering the reader a selection of points of view usually missing in more traditional history writing both fictional and scholarly.
In short: another great book from a Nobel-prize winning novelist.

"I don't think God knows who we are. I think He would like us, if He knew us, but I don't think He knows about us.", 11 Nov 2008
(4.5 stars) Continuing themes that she has been developing since the start of her career, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison creates an intense and involving philosophical, Biblical, and feminist novel set in the Atlantic colonies between 1682 and 1690. Her impressionistic story traces slavery from its early roots, using unique voices--African, Native American, and white--while moving back and forth in time. The primary speaker is Florens, a 16-year-old African slave, who tells the reader at the outset that this is a confession, "full of curiosities," and that she has committed a bloody, once-in-a-lifetime crime. In a flashback to 1682, we learn that when Florens was only eight years old, her mother suggested to the Maryland planter who owned the family, that Florens be given to New York farmer Jacob Vaark to settle a debt. Florens never understands why she was abandoned by her mother.

Florens lives and works for the next eight years on Vaark's rural New York farm. Lina, a Native American, who works with her, tells in a parallel narrative how she became one of a handful of survivors of a plague that killed her tribe. Vaark's wife Rebekkah describes leaving England for New York to be married to a man she has never seen. The deaths of their subsequent children are devastating, and Vaark is hoping that eight-year-old Florens will help alleviate Rebekkah's loneliness. Vaark, himself an orphan and poorhouse survivor, describes his journeys from New York to Maryland and Virginia, commenting on the role of religion in the culture of the different colonies, along with their attitudes toward slavery.

All these characters are bereft of their roots, struggling to survive in an alien environment filled with danger and disease. When smallpox threatens Rebekkah's life in 1692, Florens, now sixteen, is sent to find a black freedman who has some knowledge of herbal medicines. Her journey is dangerous and ultimately proves to be the turning point in her life.

Morrison examines the roots of racism going back to slavery's earliest days, providing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time, and showing how all the women are victimized. They are "of and for men," people who "never shape the world, The world shapes us." As the women journey toward self-enlightenment, Morrison describes their progress in often Biblical cadences, and by the end of this novel, the reader understands what "a mercy" really means. An intense and thought-provoking look at various forms of slavery from their beginnings, this short novel has an epic scope, one which admirers of Morrison will celebrate for its intense thematic development, even as they may somewhat regret its sacrifice of fully developed characters. Mary Whipple

Sula
Beloved (Vintage Classics)
Jazz
Song of Solomon
Love
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination



Haunting, profoundly brilliant--an honor to read it., 20 Oct 2008
Beloved is a masterpiece. Beautifully written--deeply moving and deeply disturbing. I have never read a novel that I found touched my heart the way this did.
It is a unique story. A kind of ghost story but far more than that. It is a haunting of the heart, the soul--the being.
It will haunt me for the rest of my life.

NOT A GREAT TITLE FOR A REVIEW BUT 'BRILLIANT' WILL SUFFICE, 14 Aug 2008
Engaging, involving, powerful business. Stays with you long after the last drop has been drained from the glass.

Very complicated read, 26 May 2008
My daughter saw the film to this and said it was a good story so i thought i'd try the book. After reading the book reviews i thought i wouudn't mind a challenge, well i made it to pg 133 and just couldn't go anymore. It is very descriptive and Toni Morrison seemed to go off into another dimension and it became quite tedious, sorry folks, but for those who made it to the end, well done, my imagination was stretched to the limit, had to have a long lie down for a week after this ordeal.

"That woman is crazy, [but] ain't we all?", 15 Sep 2007
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of 1988, Toni Morrison frees herself from the bonds of traditional narrative and establishes an independent style, just as her characters have freed themselves from the horrors of slavery and escaped from Kentucky to Ohio. Revealing the story of Sethe and her family as they survive the brutality of the farm, only to encounter torments even more punishing than whippings after they escape, Morrison presents scenes in a seemingly random order, each scene revealing some aspect of life for Sethe, her boys, her dead baby Beloved, and the new baby Denver, both in the past and in the present. Moving back and forth, around, and inside out through Sethe's recollections, she gradually reveals Sethe's story to the reader, its horror increasing as the reader makes the connections which turn disconnected scenes into a powerful and harrowing chronology.

As the novel opens, Sethe and Denver have lived in #124, a house in Ohio, for eighteen years, refusing to socialize and enjoying no company. When Paul D. Garner, one of the Sweet Home men and a friend of her long-missing husband, arrives on her doorstep and moves in, Sethe slowly reveals her long-buried nightmares, and the two share their stories of the events leading up to their escape. Most haunting to Sethe is the death of her young daughter Beloved, shortly after the escape from the farm, though the reader does not know for many pages the shocking manner of her death. When a ghostly figure who calls herself Beloved arrives at #124, shortly after Paul D., Morrison creates mystery and a heart-stoppingly tense atmosphere, when Beloved, too, moves in. As Beloved gradually takes over the household and seems to demand and then possess Sethe's soul, the sorrow which has burdened Sethe seems close to breaking her.

The sadism of some slave-owners, the devices used to torture, and the desperate measures some slaves took to protect themselves and their loved ones come fully alive here, the horrors growing as the reader gradually discovers the real source of Sethe's torment. By forcing the reader to make the connections, instead of spelling out details in a traditional narrative, Morrison strengthens the impact of the novel and its brutal revelations. Symbols of water, rain, snow, and ice connect the disparate scenes, and the use of shadows and the ghostly character of Beloved keep the reader on tenterhooks until the action is eventually resolved. A powerful, atmospheric, and shocking novel, Beloved is also a searing indictment of slavery and the damage it has done to the fabric of life, damage that cannot be repaired until it is fully recognized through novels such as this. Mary Whipple

A powerful and heartfelt indictment of the monstrousness and stupidity of the slave trade, 08 Jun 2007
Toni Morrison's powerful and heartfelt indictment of the monstrousness and stupidity of the slave trade, where individuals were forced to commit atrocious acts as mechanisms for survival, does not make easy reading. It is by necessity raw and uncompromising as she shifts between the past and present of individuals whose lives have been battered and bludgeoned beyond recall. This book again demonstrates how much more effective novels can be than dry historical texts at recapturing periods and events in the past. The principal character is Sethe who some twenty years previously had murdered her baby daughter Beloved to prevent her from being sold into slavery. The story is concerned with the return of the spirit child and her desire for retribution against her mother who continues to love her in spite of all.
I wonder though if this novel was not the definitive word on the subject as the twentieth century threw up events that surpassed in scale and in evil intent - the pathological obsession with the total industrial annihilation of a segment of humanity rather than the ruthless desire for a limitless supply of expendable free labour - even the transatlantic slave trade. Ultimately, the starkness of the narrative, the supernatural element, and the somewhat abstract portrayal of the central characters acted as impediments to believability, and consequently some of the sympathy was lost. A great work, though.


The Bluest Eye, 02 Oct 2008
Filled with striking imagery which makes up for the sometimes fragmented narrative. A sad tale which for me evoked a time and a place vividly. Perhaps a little overly 'literary' in places, I thought this was worth reading.

Interesting but incomplete, 11 Apr 2008
The Bluest Eye is about race relations and, as such, can never be completely understandable to a non-American such as me. It revolves around a simple and very sad story of rape, incest and the victimisation of a little girl in 1940s America. It is told from the point of view of blacks - this was before the term African-American - and partly in another child's voice. The little girl thinks herself ugly and envies the looks of blue-eyed whites. That a black child could consider herself physically inferior was a real shock to me, and for considering this only the book is worth reading. One wonders how much this has changed in the last four decades.

There is a broader subject, however, which is the psychological impact and destructive power of models of beauty, especially feminine beauty. This, unfortunately, is only alluded to and could have been addressed in far more depth. The book also lacks the victim's own voice. Because it is told in chronological disorder and from different protagonists' angles, the story tends to be less strongly felt. At times it almost reads like a documentary. Perhaps this is for the best, since some scenes might have been unbearable if told by the central character herself. Still, while interesting and often revealing, this book too often gave me the impression of being unfinished.


The Bluest Eyes, 24 Oct 2007
This was my first introduction to Toni Morrison many years ago. I re-read it after unpacking from a house move. It remains a beautifully written, evocative and gently powerful text. I remembered why I am still 'hooked' on her writing.

Fragmentary but beautiful, 03 Jan 2007
More a collection of mini-stories than a fully developed narrative, The Bluest Eye looks at the different factors involved in a young girl's becoming pregnant by her father, from her stay with friends to the histories of her parents and their relationship. It is sensitively told without judgement, and you get a feel for the tragedies of all the characters concerned.

One of her earlier works, this isn't the best book if you want to discover Toni Morrison, but it is beautifully written as always, and a fascinating insight into her early development. Most useful here is a postscript by Morrison where she identifies her intentions and some of the weaknesses in the book.

The Bluest Eyes, 12 Jul 2005
A moving and well written story. Structured through different points of view to suck the reader right into the heart of the story. The dialogue flows easily and doesn't alienate the reader who lacks prior knowledge of the culture or linguistic style.

Journey into American Past to Understand American Present, 11 Nov 2008
In her latest novel Toni Morrison takes us back to the late 17th century America. The plot gives her an opportunity to present America in the making, there is no US yet, there are colonies, each somewhat different in their culture, religion or attitude to slavery. Morrison adroitly shapes the plot in such a way as to give the reader at least an impression of the variety that once was America, sending her characters on distant voyages. The differences are the most clearly visible in the opposition between Maryland and New York yet the choice of character also helps Morrison to stress the diversity of American roots.
And yet "A Mercy" is not just a historical novel. The setting is important but Morrison seems much more interested in her characters. This concentration is reflected in the form of the book - we get to know about the events from the characters in a series of monologues which culminate in the final monologue of Florens' mother which ties some of the book's loose ends and answers some of its haunting questions.
Each of the monologues comes from a completely different character - a slave, a native American, a Dutch etc. - this variety is almost incredible but serves to add a depth to the book, broadens the view the reader gets.
As usual in Morrison's fiction the characters are mostly women. As a result the book to some degree fails as a HIStory book, it is much more of a HERstory book, offering the reader a selection of points of view usually missing in more traditional history writing both fictional and scholarly.
In short: another great book from a Nobel-prize winning novelist.

"I don't think God knows who we are. I think He would like us, if He knew us, but I don't think He knows about us.", 11 Nov 2008
(4.5 stars) Continuing themes that she has been developing since the start of her career, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison creates an intense and involving philosophical, Biblical, and feminist novel set in the Atlantic colonies between 1682 and 1690. Her impressionistic story traces slavery from its early roots, using unique voices--African, Native American, and white--while moving back and forth in time. The primary speaker is Florens, a 16-year-old African slave, who tells the reader at the outset that this is a confession, "full of curiosities," and that she has committed a bloody, once-in-a-lifetime crime. In a flashback to 1682, we learn that when Florens was only eight years old, her mother suggested to the Maryland planter who owned the family, that Florens be given to New York farmer Jacob Vaark to settle a debt. Florens never understands why she was abandoned by her mother.

Florens lives and works for the next eight years on Vaark's rural New York farm. Lina, a Native American, who works with her, tells in a parallel narrative how she became one of a handful of survivors of a plague that killed her tribe. Vaark's wife Rebekkah describes leaving England for New York to be married to a man she has never seen. The deaths of their subsequent children are devastating, and Vaark is hoping that eight-year-old Florens will help alleviate Rebekkah's loneliness. Vaark, himself an orphan and poorhouse survivor, describes his journeys from New York to Maryland and Virginia, commenting on the role of religion in the culture of the different colonies, along with their attitudes toward slavery.

All these characters are bereft of their roots, struggling to survive in an alien environment filled with danger and disease. When smallpox threatens Rebekkah's life in 1692, Florens, now sixteen, is sent to find a black freedman who has some knowledge of herbal medicines. Her journey is dangerous and ultimately proves to be the turning point in her life.

Morrison examines the roots of racism going back to slavery's earliest days, providing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time, and showing how all the women are victimized. They are "of and for men," people who "never shape the world, The world shapes us." As the women journey toward self-enlightenment, Morrison describes their progress in often Biblical cadences, and by the end of this novel, the reader understands what "a mercy" really means. An intense and thought-provoking look at various forms of slavery from their beginnings, this short novel has an epic scope, one which admirers of Morrison will celebrate for its intense thematic development, even as they may somewhat regret its sacrifice of fully developed characters. Mary Whipple

Sula
Beloved (Vintage Classics)
Jazz
Song of Solomon
Love
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination



Haunting, profoundly brilliant--an honor to read it., 20 Oct 2008
Beloved is a masterpiece. Beautifully written--deeply moving and deeply disturbing. I have never read a novel that I found touched my heart the way this did.
It is a unique story. A kind of ghost story but far more than that. It is a haunting of the heart, the soul--the being.
It will haunt me for the rest of my life.

NOT A GREAT TITLE FOR A REVIEW BUT 'BRILLIANT' WILL SUFFICE, 14 Aug 2008
Engaging, involving, powerful business. Stays with you long after the last drop has been drained from the glass.

Very complicated read, 26 May 2008
My daughter saw the film to this and said it was a good story so i thought i'd try the book. After reading the book reviews i thought i wouudn't mind a challenge, well i made it to pg 133 and just couldn't go anymore. It is very descriptive and Toni Morrison seemed to go off into another dimension and it became quite tedious, sorry folks, but for those who made it to the end, well done, my imagination was stretched to the limit, had to have a long lie down for a week after this ordeal.

"That woman is crazy, [but] ain't we all?", 15 Sep 2007
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of 1988, Toni Morrison frees herself from the bonds of traditional narrative and establishes an independent style, just as her characters have freed themselves from the horrors of slavery and escaped from Kentucky to Ohio. Revealing the story of Sethe and her family as they survive the brutality of the farm, only to encounter torments even more punishing than whippings after they escape, Morrison presents scenes in a seemingly random order, each scene revealing some aspect of life for Sethe, her boys, her dead baby Beloved, and the new baby Denver, both in the past and in the present. Moving back and forth, around, and inside out through Sethe's recollections, she gradually reveals Sethe's story to the reader, its horror increasing as the reader makes the connections which turn disconnected scenes into a powerful and harrowing chronology.

As the novel opens, Sethe and Denver have lived in #124, a house in Ohio, for eighteen years, refusing to socialize and enjoying no company. When Paul D. Garner, one of the Sweet Home men and a friend of her long-missing husband, arrives on her doorstep and moves in, Sethe slowly reveals her long-buried nightmares, and the two share their stories of the events leading up to their escape. Most haunting to Sethe is the death of her young daughter Beloved, shortly after the escape from the farm, though the reader does not know for many pages the shocking manner of her death. When a ghostly figure who calls herself Beloved arrives at #124, shortly after Paul D., Morrison creates mystery and a heart-stoppingly tense atmosphere, when Beloved, too, moves in. As Beloved gradually takes over the household and seems to demand and then possess Sethe's soul, the sorrow which has burdened Sethe seems close to breaking her.

The sadism of some slave-owners, the devices used to torture, and the desperate measures some slaves took to protect themselves and their loved ones come fully alive here, the horrors growing as the reader gradually discovers the real source of Sethe's torment. By forcing the reader to make the connections, instead of spelling out details in a traditional narrative, Morrison strengthens the impact of the novel and its brutal revelations. Symbols of water, rain, snow, and ice connect the disparate scenes, and the use of shadows and the ghostly character of Beloved keep the reader on tenterhooks until the action is eventually resolved. A powerful, atmospheric, and shocking novel, Beloved is also a searing indictment of slavery and the damage it has done to the fabric of life, damage that cannot be repaired until it is fully recognized through novels such as this. Mary Whipple

A powerful and heartfelt indictment of the monstrousness and stupidity of the slave trade, 08 Jun 2007
Toni Morrison's powerful and heartfelt indictment of the monstrousness and stupidity of the slave trade, where individuals were forced to commit atrocious acts as mechanisms for survival, does not make easy reading. It is by necessity raw and uncompromising as she shifts between the past and present of individuals whose lives have been battered and bludgeoned beyond recall. This book again demonstrates how much more effective novels can be than dry historical texts at recapturing periods and events in the past. The principal character is Sethe who some twenty years previously had murdered her baby daughter Beloved to prevent her from being sold into slavery. The story is concerned with the return of the spirit child and her desire for retribution against her mother who continues to love her in spite of all.
I wonder though if this novel was not the definitive word on the subject as the twentieth century threw up events that surpassed in scale and in evil intent - the pathological obsession with the total industrial annihilation of a segment of humanity rather than the ruthless desire for a limitless supply of expendable free labour - even the transatlantic slave trade. Ultimately, the starkness of the narrative, the supernatural element, and the somewhat abstract portrayal of the central characters acted as impediments to believability, and consequently some of the sympathy was lost. A great work, though.


The Bluest Eye, 02 Oct 2008
Filled with striking imagery which makes up for the sometimes fragmented narrative. A sad tale which for me evoked a time and a place vividly. Perhaps a little overly 'literary' in places, I thought this was worth reading.

Interesting but incomplete, 11 Apr 2008
The Bluest Eye is about race relations and, as such, can never be completely understandable to a non-American such as me. It revolves around a simple and very sad story of rape, incest and the victimisation of a little girl in 1940s America. It is told from the point of view of blacks - this was before the term African-American - and partly in another child's voice. The little girl thinks herself ugly and envies the looks of blue-eyed whites. That a black child could consider herself physically inferior was a real shock to me, and for considering this only the book is worth reading. One wonders how much this has changed in the last four decades.

There is a broader subject, however, which is the psychological impact and destructive power of models of beauty, especially feminine beauty. This, unfortunately, is only alluded to and could have been addressed in far more depth. The book also lacks the victim's own voice. Because it is told in chronological disorder and from different protagonists' angles, the story tends to be less strongly felt. At times it almost reads like a documentary. Perhaps this is for the best, since some scenes might have been unbearable if told by the central character herself. Still, while interesting and often revealing, this book too often gave me the impression of being unfinished.


The Bluest Eyes, 24 Oct 2007
This was my first introduction to Toni Morrison many years ago. I re-read it after unpacking from a house move. It remains a beautifully written, evocative and gently powerful text. I remembered why I am still 'hooked' on her writing.

Fragmentary but beautiful, 03 Jan 2007
More a collection of mini-stories than a fully developed narrative, The Bluest Eye looks at the different factors involved in a young girl's becoming pregnant by her father, from her stay with friends to the histories of her parents and their relationship. It is sensitively told without judgement, and you get a feel for the tragedies of all the characters concerned.

One of her earlier works, this isn't the best book if you want to discover Toni Morrison, but it is beautifully written as always, and a fascinating insight into her early development. Most useful here is a postscript by Morrison where she identifies her intentions and some of the weaknesses in the book.

The Bluest Eyes, 12 Jul 2005
A moving and well written story. Structured through different points of view to suck the reader right into the heart of the story. The dialogue flows easily and doesn't alienate the reader who lacks prior knowledge of the culture or linguistic style.

That's the kick, 03 Oct 2008
I had to read this for A Level English and at first I found it almost impossible to get into. A lot of it tends to go over your head but as you keep reading and get to the end, something just clicks and at the last 3/4 of the last chapter, you honestly believe it's a masterpiece. Upon several rereadings of the book, I found I understood more of it and it's just wonderful. Especially the last paragraph.

Stay away from this over-rated stream of consciousness rubbish, 04 Aug 2008
I like an original and unique book as much as the next man, but this is just plain awful. I can't stand the way it is written, the characters names, the ridiculously dull story (which gets even worse when you have to endure the characters' past as well) and to top it off this has somehow won the nobel prize for literature. Clearly the people who voted had never actually bothered to read the book.
I have the unfortunate task of doing my english literature coursework on this next year but if you have the choice of not reading this, stay well away!
If you have to read a Morrison book, Beloved was marginally more readable, with Paul D the only remotely interesting character.

Spanning the Transition from Slavery to the Freedom of Jazz, 09 Jul 2004
For many African-Americans, the period from 1860 through 1930 was a particularly challenging one. The formal slavery of the South transitioned into a vulnerable rural economic existence, dependent on the weather and the price of crops. The promise of the city lured many to leave their homes, and adopt city life-styles that put new social pressures on them and their relationships. Jazz tells this story through the microcosm of one marriage, that of Joe and Violet Trace.

Unlike many books about marriage, this one is a love story. Although it bears no relationship to any romance novel you have ever read, it reveals the way that the need for love develops from within each of us and allows us to grasp its potential when we respond to the yearnings of those we care about.

Music was important in the lives of many people during those years. Churches and music halls vied for the attention of most people in the cities. Jazz was a new influence, bursting on the scene with a combination of extreme freedom and mutual respect for the other players. In this book, jazz is represented both as a symbol of freedom and as a source of base impulses that can lead people astray. Ms. Morrison also pays homage to jazz by building her narrative around the individual stories of those involved taken in solitary order, much like the solos in a jazz piece. The narratives all weave together, but you have to hear the whole piece to understand how. Be patient with what seem like digressions. They are really transitions into new perspectives, like when a horn does a riff before returning to the theme.

You also get the metaphor of jazz used in the relationship of the two Traces. They were originally in rhythm with each other, then fell out of rhythm, and then regained their ability to improvise together. It's very nicely done!

To me, the best part of the book was that Ms. Morrison does not permit her characters to fall back on misfortune, fate, and heredity as excuses for misbehavior. Clearly, those factors affect us, but we all have the potential to rise above them. We need only open our eyes and start responding to those closest to us. Then, we can build a better life together.

The family background of the two Traces is a rich tapestry as well of the social history of African-Americans during this period. Ms. Morrison's imagination is quite remarkable in the variety and vividness of these characters!

For those who are interested in understanding more about the roots of the Jazz Age, this book will also be very appealing.

After you have finished thinking about the lessons of Jazz, you should consider where you display the good characteristics of a jazz player . . . and where you do not.

Feel the rhythm around you!

Symphonic lyricism, 13 Nov 2002
As a child of fine artists and a classical and jazz musician, I had no idea or understanding as to why many of the churches- from the turn of the century to almost the present day in many areas- consistently referred to jazz as the devil's music, or dangerously secular, until after reading this book. Toni Morrison becomes the metaphor herself, along with her invented characters, as a story of love and passion, anger and rage, sorrow and grief, hunger and lonliness, acknowledgement, and quiet, earhty epiphany unfolds as uncontrollably as the tides,with all the simple complexity of a jazz riff- and with as much freedom from judgement. Toni Morrison's descriptive powers sweeping across the landscape of history and the landscape of the individual character's lives is frightening in its ability to overwhelm. She brings out the raw, triumphant humaness of each character with such lyricism and painful joy. The novel can at times feel like a giant denoument, yet its slowly building climaxes are what make it more than readable; they make it exciting, sublimely predictable and unpredictable simultameuosly. It almost makes one understand better why the story of Christ is called a "Passion"; passion, as exemplified in this novel, is not just a sexy or damaging thing, but also the way to come to know God.

There are small pars of the novel that are a bit too detailed in the rendering of lesser character's lives. Yet her rendering of the time period- Harlem in the 20's, and the community is incredible. This is more, or different, than a novel. It is an epic poem- an epic jazz poem that has you hearing the music as it mildly, painfully, poignantly and triumphantly ends. Toni will not let you down with this one.

great book, 27 Sep 2002
The book is rhythmically excellent, its narritive entwining the stories of the characters as effortlessy as Jazz music entwines chords.
Toni Morrisons voice trancends colour and creed and has become one of the greatest writers in America.
Each character and therefore, each story, is haunted by a tragic past, one which they must face and overcome before it overcomes them.
the book is haunting and remains with you even after you have finished reading.
what more can be said - simply eloquence.

In an effort to hide his southern, working class roots, Macon Dead, an upper-class northern black businessman, tries to insulate his family from the danger and despair of the rank and file blacks with whom he shares the neighbourhood. The plan leads his son, "Milkman"--a named he earned after his mother nursed him well past the proper age--onto a path exactly opposite the one his father had hoped. Milkman is driven into the arms of a violent, lower-class woman, into a clandestine circle of blacks who repay white violence in kind and into an awareness that he can fulfil his own potential by understanding the mistakes of his ancestors as they relate to his own.

Journey into American Past to Understand American Present, 11 Nov 2008
In her latest novel Toni Morrison takes us back to the late 17th century America. The plot gives her an opportunity to present America in the making, there is no US yet, there are colonies, each somewhat different in their culture, religion or attitude to slavery. Morrison adroitly shapes the plot in such a way as to give the reader at least an impression of the variety that once was America, sending her characters on distant voyages. The differences are the most clearly visible in the opposition between Maryland and New York yet the choice of character also helps Morrison to stress the diversity of American roots.
And yet "A Mercy" is not just a historical novel. The setting is important but Morrison seems much more interested in her characters. This concentration is reflected in the form of the book - we get to know about the events from the characters in a series of monologues which culminate in the final monologue of Florens' mother which ties some of the book's loose ends and answers some of its haunting questions.
Each of the monologues comes from a completely different character - a slave, a native American, a Dutch etc. - this variety is almost incredible but serves to add a depth to the book, broadens the view the reader gets.
As usual in Morrison's fiction the characters are mostly women. As a result the book to some degree fails as a HIStory book, it is much more of a HERstory book, offering the reader a selection of points of view usually missing in more traditional history writing both fictional and scholarly.
In short: another great book from a Nobel-prize winning novelist.

"I don't think God knows who we are. I think He would like us, if He knew us, but I don't think He knows about us.", 11 Nov 2008
(4.5 stars) Continuing themes that she has been developing since the start of her career, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison creates an intense and involving philosophical, Biblical, and feminist novel set in the Atlantic colonies between 1682 and 1690. Her impressionistic story traces slavery from its early roots, using unique voices--African, Native American, and white--while moving back and forth in time. The primary speaker is Florens, a 16-year-old African slave, who tells the reader at the outset that this is a confession, "full of curiosities," and that she has committed a bloody, once-in-a-lifetime crime. In a flashback to 1682, we learn that when Florens was only eight years old, her mother suggested to the Maryland planter who owned the family, that Florens be given to New York farmer Jacob Vaark to settle a debt. Florens never understands why she was abandoned by her mother.

Florens lives and works for the next eight years on Vaark's rural New York farm. Lina, a Native American, who works with her, tells in a parallel narrative how she became one of a handful of survivors of a plague that killed her tribe. Vaark's wife Rebekkah describes leaving England for New York to be married to a man she has never seen. The deaths of their subsequent children are devastating, and Vaark is hoping that eight-year-old Florens will help alleviate Rebekkah's loneliness. Vaark, himself an orphan and poorhouse survivor, describes his journeys from New York to Maryland and Virginia, commenting on the role of religion in the culture of the different colonies, along with their attitudes toward slavery.

All these characters are bereft of their roots, struggling to survive in an alien environment filled with danger and disease. When smallpox threatens Rebekkah's life in 1692, Florens, now sixteen, is sent to find a black freedman who has some knowledge of herbal medicines. Her journey is dangerous and ultimately proves to be the turning point in her life.

Morrison examines the roots of racism going back to slavery's earliest days, providing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time, and showing how all the women are victimized. They are "of and for men," people who "never shape the world, The world shapes us." As the women journey toward self-enlightenment, Morrison describes their progress in often Biblical cadences, and by the end of this novel, the reader understands what "a mercy" really means. An intense and thought-provoking look at various forms of slavery from their beginnings, this short novel has an epic scope, one which admirers of Morrison will celebrate for its intense thematic development, even as they may somewhat regret its sacrifice of fully developed characters. Mary Whipple

Sula
Beloved (Vintage Classics)
Jazz
Song of Solomon
Love
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination



Haunting, profoundly brilliant--an honor to read it., 20 Oct 2008
Beloved is a masterpiece. Beautifully written--deeply moving and deeply disturbing. I have never read a novel that I found touched my heart the way this did.
It is a unique story. A kind of ghost story but far more than that. It is a haunting of the heart, the soul--the being.
It will haunt me for the rest of my life.

NOT A GREAT TITLE FOR A REVIEW BUT 'BRILLIANT' WILL SUFFICE, 14 Aug 2008
Engaging, involving, powerful business. Stays with you long after the last drop has been drained from the glass.

Very complicated read, 26 May 2008
My daughter saw the film to this and said it was a good story so i thought i'd try the book. After reading the book reviews i thought i wouudn't mind a challenge, well i made it to pg 133 and just couldn't go anymore. It is very descriptive and Toni Morrison seemed to go off into another dimension and it became quite tedious, sorry folks, but for those who made it to the end, well done, my imagination was stretched to the limit, had to have a long lie down for a week after this ordeal.

"That woman is crazy, [but] ain't we all?", 15 Sep 2007
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of 1988, Toni Morrison frees herself from the bonds of traditional narrative and establishes an independent style, just as her characters have freed themselves from the horrors of slavery and escaped from Kentucky to Ohio. Revealing the story of Sethe and her family as they survive the brutality of the farm, only to encounter torments even more punishing than whippings after they escape, Morrison presents scenes in a seemingly random order, each scene revealing some aspect of life for Sethe, her boys, her dead baby Beloved, and the new baby Denver, both in the past and in the present. Moving back and forth, around, and inside out through Sethe's recollections, she gradually reveals Sethe's story to the reader, its horror increasing as the reader makes the connections which turn disconnected scenes into a powerful and harrowing chronology.

As the novel opens, Sethe and Denver have lived in #124, a house in Ohio, for eighteen years, refusing to socialize and enjoying no company. When Paul D. Garner, one of the Sweet Home men and a friend of her long-missing husband, arrives on her doorstep and moves in, Sethe slowly reveals her long-buried nightmares, and the two share their stories of the events leading up to their escape. Most haunting to Sethe is the death of her young daughter Beloved, shortly after the escape from the farm, though the reader does not know for many pages the shocking manner of her death. When a ghostly figure who calls herself Beloved arrives at #124, shortly after Paul D., Morrison creates mystery and a heart-stoppingly tense atmosphere, when Beloved, too, moves in. As Beloved gradually takes over the household and seems to demand and then possess Sethe's soul, the sorrow which has burdened Sethe seems close to breaking her.

The sadism of some slave-owners, the devices used to torture, and the desperate measures some slaves took to protect themselves and their loved ones come fully alive here, the horrors growing as the reader gradually discovers the real source of Sethe's torment. By forcing the reader to make the connections, instead of spelling out details in a traditional narrative, Morrison strengthens the impact of the novel and its brutal revelations. Symbols of water, rain, snow, and ice connect the disparate scenes, and the use of shadows and the ghostly character of Beloved keep the reader on tenterhooks until the action is eventually resolved. A powerful, atmospheric, and shocking novel, Beloved is also a searing indictment of slavery and the damage it has done to the fabric of life, damage that cannot be repaired until it is fully recognized through novels such as this. Mary Whipple

A powerful and heartfelt indictment of the monstrousness and stupidity of the slave trade, 08 Jun 2007
Toni Morrison's powerful and heartfelt indictment of the monstrousness and stupidity of the slave trade, where individuals were forced to commit atrocious acts as mechanisms for survival, does not make easy reading. It is by necessity raw and uncompromising as she shifts between the past and present of individuals whose lives have been battered and bludgeoned beyond recall. This book again demonstrates how much more effective novels can be than dry historical texts at recapturing periods and events in the past. The principal character is Sethe who some twenty years previously had murdered her baby daughter Beloved to prevent her from being sold into slavery. The story is concerned with the return of the spirit child and her desire for retribution against her mother who continues to love her in spite of all.
I wonder though if this novel was not the definitive word on the subject as the twentieth century threw up events that surpassed in scale and in evil intent - the pathological obsession with the total industrial annihilation of a segment of humanity rather than the ruthless desire for a limitless supply of expendable free labour - even the transatlantic slave trade. Ultimately, the starkness of the narrative, the supernatural element, and the somewhat abstract portrayal of the central characters acted as impediments to believability, and consequently some of the sympathy was lost. A great work, though.


The Bluest Eye, 02 Oct 2008
Filled with striking imagery which makes up for the sometimes fragmented narrative. A sad tale which for me evoked a time and a place vividly. Perhaps a little overly 'literary' in places, I thought this was worth reading.

Interesting but incomplete, 11 Apr 2008
The Bluest Eye is about race relations and, as such, can never be completely understandable to a non-American such as me. It revolves around a simple and very sad story of rape, incest and the victimisation of a little girl in 1940s America. It is told from the point of view of blacks - this was before the term African-American - and partly in another child's voice. The little girl thinks herself ugly and envies the looks of blue-eyed whites. That a black child could consider herself physically inferior was a real shock to me, and for considering this only the book is worth reading. One wonders how much this has changed in the last four decades.

There is a broader subject, however, which is the psychological impact and destructive power of models of beauty, especially feminine beauty. This, unfortunately, is only alluded to and could have been addressed in far more depth. The book also lacks the victim's own voice. Because it is told in chronological disorder and from different protagonists' angles, the story tends to be less strongly felt. At times it almost reads like a documentary. Perhaps this is for the best, since some scenes might have been unbearable if told by the central character herself. Still, while interesting and often revealing, this book too often gave me the impression of being unfinished.


The Bluest Eyes, 24 Oct 2007
This was my first introduction to Toni Morrison many years ago. I re-read it after unpacking from a house move. It remains a beautifully written, evocative and gently powerful text. I remembered why I am still 'hooked' on her writing.

Fragmentary but beautiful, 03 Jan 2007
More a collection of mini-stories than a fully developed narrative, The Bluest Eye looks at the different factors involved in a young girl's becoming pregnant by her father, from her stay with friends to the histories of her parents and their relationship. It is sensitively told without judgement, and you get a feel for the tragedies of all the characters concerned.

One of her earlier works, this isn't the best book if you want to discover Toni Morrison, but it is beautifully written as always, and a fascinating insight into her early development. Most useful here is a postscript by Morrison where she identifies her intentions and some of the weaknesses in the book.

The Bluest Eyes, 12 Jul 2005
A moving and well written story. Structured through different points of view to suck the reader right into the heart of the story. The dialogue flows easily and doesn't alienate the reader who lacks prior knowledge of the culture or linguistic style.

That's the kick, 03 Oct 2008
I had to read this for A Level English and at first I found it almost impossible to get into. A lot of it tends to go over your head but as you keep reading and get to the end, something just clicks and at the last 3/4 of the last chapter, you honestly believe it's a masterpiece. Upon several rereadings of the book, I found I understood more of it and it's just wonderful. Especially the last paragraph.

Stay away from this over-rated stream of consciousness rubbish, 04 Aug 2008
I like an original and unique book as much as the next man, but this is just plain awful. I can't stand the way it is written, the characters names, the ridiculously dull story (which gets even worse when you have to endure the characters' past as well) and to top it off this has somehow won the nobel prize for literature. Clearly the people who voted had never actually bothered to read the book.
I have the unfortunate task of doing my english literature coursework on this next year but if you have the choice of not reading this, stay well away!
If you have to read a Morrison book, Beloved was marginally more readable, with Paul D the only remotely interesting character.

Spanning the Transition from Slavery to the Freedom of Jazz, 09 Jul 2004
For many African-Americans, the period from 1860 through 1930 was a particularly challenging one. The formal slavery of the South transitioned into a vulnerable rural economic existence, dependent on the weather and the price of crops. The promise of the city lured many to leave their homes, and adopt city life-styles that put new social pressures on them and their relationships. Jazz tells this story through the microcosm of one marriage, that of Joe and Violet Trace.

Unlike many books about marriage, this one is a love story. Although it bears no relationship to any romance novel you have ever read, it reveals the way that the need for love develops from within each of us and allows us to grasp its potential when we respond to the yearnings of those we care about.

Music was important in the lives of many people during those years. Churches and music halls vied for the attention of most people in the cities. Jazz was a new influence, bursting on the scene with a combination of extreme freedom and mutual respect for the other players. In this book, jazz is represented both as a symbol of freedom and as a source of base impulses that can lead people astray. Ms. Morrison also pays homage to jazz by building her narrative around the individual stories of those involved taken in solitary order, much like the solos in a jazz piece. The narratives all weave together, but you have to hear the whole piece to understand how. Be patient with what seem like digressions. They are really transitions into new perspectives, like when a horn does a riff before returning to the theme.

You also get the metaphor of jazz used in the relationship of the two Traces. They were originally in rhythm with each other, then fell out of rhythm, and then regained their ability to improvise together. It's very nicely done!

To me, the best part of the book was that Ms. Morrison does not permit her characters to fall back on misfortune, fate, and heredity as excuses for misbehavior. Clearly, those factors affect us, but we all have the potential to rise above them. We need only open our eyes and start responding to those closest to us. Then, we can build a better life together.

The family background of the two Traces is a rich tapestry as well of the social history of African-Americans during this period. Ms. Morrison's imagination is quite remarkable in the variety and vividness of these characters!

For those who are interested in understanding more about the roots of the Jazz Age, this book will also be very appealing.

After you have finished thinking about the lessons of Jazz, you should consider where you display the good characteristics of a jazz player . . . and where you do not.

Feel the rhythm around you!

Symphonic lyricism, 13 Nov 2002
As a child of fine artists and a classical and jazz musician, I had no idea or understanding as to why many of the churches- from the turn of the century to almost the present day in many areas- consistently referred to jazz as the devil's music, or dangerously secular, until after reading this book. Toni Morrison becomes the metaphor herself, along with her invented characters, as a story of love and passion, anger and rage, sorrow and grief, hunger and lonliness, acknowledgement, and quiet, earhty epiphany unfolds as uncontrollably as the tides,with all the simple complexity of a jazz riff- and with as much freedom from judgement. Toni Morrison's descriptive powers sweeping across the landscape of history and the landscape of the individual character's lives is frightening in its ability to overwhelm. She brings out the raw, triumphant humaness of each character with such lyricism and painful joy. The novel can at times feel like a giant denoument, yet its slowly building climaxes are what make it more than readable; they make it exciting, sublimely predictable and unpredictable simultameuosly. It almost makes one understand better why the story of Christ is called a "Passion"; passion, as exemplified in this novel, is not just a sexy or damaging thing, but also the way to come to know God.

There are small pars of the novel that are a bit too detailed in the rendering of lesser character's lives. Yet her rendering of the time period- Harlem in the 20's, and the community is incredible. This is more, or different, than a novel. It is an epic poem- an epic jazz poem that has you hearing the music as it mildly, painfully, poignantly and triumphantly ends. Toni will not let you down with this one.

great book, 27 Sep 2002
The book is rhythmically excellent, its narritive entwining the stories of the characters as effortlessy as Jazz music entwines chords.
Toni Morrisons voice trancends colour and creed and has become one of the greatest writers in America.
Each character and therefore, each story, is haunted by a tragic past, one which they must face and overcome before it overcomes them.
the book is haunting and remains with you even after you have finished reading.
what more can be said - simply eloquence.

A literary gem, 15 May 2007
Not only does Toni Morrison write beautiful and engaging prose, she's also a genius when it comes to portraying social issues and evoking social consciousness in her books. Song of Solomon vividly portrays Afro-American life in North America from approximately the 1930's through the 1960's, but adding further depth to social issues and the consequences of hundreds of years of history.
The most striking about this book is in what I see as the major theme: the personal growth the protagonist, Milkman, undergoes when he sets out on a journey looking for riches, only to find riches that have nothing to do with the material. Instead of finding gold he finds his ancestry, his "people", who they were, where they went and why, and in doing so he is forced to make a choice about what type of man he will be: Will he turn away from his people and continue to seek personal gain and lead a detached life, or will he take responsibility for them and start showing some interest in his family, their 'strange' behavior, and his cultural heritage?
Song of Solomon is a book of the senses. The reader is confronted with the characters' thoughts, ideas, morals, dreams, smells, tastes, songs, and so on, making this a book on humanity with all its aspects on display. And though these confrontations are plentiful, Morrison manages to keep the storyline clear and comprehensible and you run no risk of getting confused in the human mesh. On the contrary, the book is an easy read and the story flows by with almost no effort at all.
The further you read into this book the more you learn that nothing is the product of chance. Every song, every thought, every action has its purpose, a purpose that lies deeper into one's history than one might be interested in knowing.


A literary gem, 15 May 2007
Not only does Toni Morrison write beautiful and engaging prose, she's also a genius when it comes to portraying social issues and evoking social consciousness in her books. Song of Solomon vividly portrays Afro-American life in North America from approximately the 1930's through the 1960's, but adding further depth to social issues and the consequences of hundreds of years of history.
The most striking about this book is in what I see as the major theme: the personal growth the protagonist, Milkman, undergoes when he sets out on a journey looking for riches, only to find riches that have nothing to do with the material. Instead of finding gold he finds his ancestry, his "people", who they were, where they went and why, and in doing so he is forced to make a choice about what type of man he will be: Will he turn away from his people and continue to seek personal gain and lead a detached life, or will he take responsibility for them and start showing some interest in his family, their 'strange' behavior, and his cultural heritage?
Song of Solomon is a book of the senses. The reader is confronted with the characters' thoughts, ideas, morals, dreams, smells, tastes, songs, and so on, making this a book on humanity with all its aspects on display. And though these confrontations are plentiful, Morrison manages to keep the storyline clear and comprehensible and you run no risk of getting confused in the human mesh. On the contrary, the book is an easy read and the story flows by with almost no effort at all.
The further you read into this book the more you learn that nothing is the product of chance. Every song, every thought, every action has its purpose, a purpose that lies deeper into one's history than one might be interested in knowing.


"Solomon cut across the sky, Solomon gone home.", 12 Aug 2006
Filled with imagery and symbolism from the Bible, this magisterial novel also draws on the epic tradition, tracing the roots of four generations of an African-American family as they fight a series of battles--against the legacy of slavery and racism, the loss of cultural values and roots, the trauma of injustice, and the self-centeredness resulting from economic success. For all its elegance of development and seriousness of purpose, however, this 1977 novel by Toni Morrison is decidedly earthy, filled with unusual characters and exciting, often sensuous, stories about a family descended from Solomon, a freed slave who, according to legend, flew on his own wings back to Africa, leaving his wife and twenty-one children behind.

The male protagonist, Milkman Dead, is the arrogant son of a wealthy slumlord. His aunt Pilate, a poor woman whose life is filled with love, is so vibrant a contrast and so dominating a force in the family, however, that she becomes the fulcrum upon which the action turns. Milkman's selfishness vs. Pilate's compassion, his desire to escape from the family vs. her need to remember its stories and its past, his love-'em-and-leave-'em attitude toward women vs. her generosity of spirit ("If I'd-a knowed more people, I'd-a loved more," she says)--parallel the tensions which seize every generation of this family.

The novel develops impressionistically, not chronologically, as stories about characters from four generations unfold, seemingly at random. The relationships of all these characters, along with the time line in which they live, evolve only gradually. When Milkman's father, Macon Dead, Jr., tells him the story about how he, accompanied by his sister Pilate, killed a man in a cave and then discovered many bags of the man's gold, Milkman begins the journey which will lead to his discovery of who he is and what gives real meaning to life. In an effort to find the missing gold, he travels to the farm where earlier generations of the family lived, discovering, in the process, the missing links in the family's chain of memories.

Racism is a pervading theme, from the flight of Solomon to the execution of Macon Dead on his own land, and, in the 1960s, the formation of The Seven Days, a vigilante group that kills whites in direct proportion to the number of blacks killed and left unavenged. The novel is primarily about an arrogant young man's self-discovery, however, and the importance of being connected. Lyrical, richly descriptive, powerfully dramatic, and filled with symbols and motifs that connect Milkman in universal ways to the Bible and to the earliest epics, this is Toni Morrison at her best. Mary Whipple

"Solomon cut across the sky, Solomon gone home.", 22 May 2006
Filled with imagery and symbolism from the Bible, this magisterial novel also draws on the epic tradition, tracing the roots of four generations of an African-American family as they fight a series of battles--against the legacy of slavery and racism, the loss of cultural values and roots, the trauma of injustice, and the self-centeredness resulting from economic success. For all its elegance of development and seriousness of purpose, however, this 1977 novel by Toni Morrison is decidedly earthy, filled with unusual characters and exciting, often sensuous, stories about a family descended from Solomon, a freed slave who, according to legend, flew on his own wings back to Africa, leaving his wife and twenty-one children behind.

The male protagonist, Milkman Dead, is the arrogant son of a wealthy slumlord. His aunt Pilate, a poor woman whose life is filled with love, is so vibrant a contrast and so dominating a force in the family, however, that she becomes the fulcrum upon which the action turns. Milkman's selfishness vs. Pilate's compassion, his desire to escape from the family vs. her need to remember its stories and its past, his love-'em-and-leave-'em attitude toward women vs. her generosity of spirit ("If I'd-a knowed more people, I'd-a loved more," she says)--parallel the tensions which seize every generation of this family.

The novel unfolds impressionistically, not chronologically, as stories about characters from four generations unfold, seemingly at random. The relationships of all these characters, along with the time line in which they live, evolve only gradually. When Milkman's father, Macon Dead, Jr., tells him the story about how he, accompanied by his sister Pilate, killed a man in a cave and then discovered many bags of the man's gold, Milkman begins the journey which will lead to his discovery of who he is and what gives real meaning to life. In an effort to find the missing gold, he travels to the farm where earlier generations of the family lived, discovering, in the process, the missing links in the family's chain of past memories.

Racism is a pervading theme, from the flight of Solomon to the execution of Macon Dead on his own land, and, in the 1960s, the formation of The Seven Days, a vigilante group that kills whites in direct proportion to the number of blacks killed and left unavenged. The novel is primarily about an arrogant young man's self-discovery, however, and the importance of being connected. Lyrical, richly descriptive, powerfully dramatic, and filled with symbols and motifs that connect Milkman in universal ways to the Bible and to the earliest epics, this is Toni Morrison at her best. Mary Whipple


A complex, magical exploration of African-American identity, 24 May 2002
First published in 1977 Song of Solomon was Morrison's most successful novel to date. In a way it is a bildungsroman about the development of a young man, Milkman Dead, but it also taps into cultural and family memory to explore the complexities of black identity. There is an element of a puzzle, as Milkman gradually uncovers his family past and the past of his culture. Morrison shows how for black people in America, family identity is closely connected to the wider culture and history of America. In travelling South Milkman casts off the trappings of one identity - middle class modernity - and delves into his roots and true legacy. Yet there is nothing simplistic in Morrison's view of black history and identity as we see in Milkman's discovery of his Native American side and the complex blending of modes of narrative and expression. Her work could never be described as narrowly "black" fiction or "women's" fiction. Set mainly in the 1960s, the novel explores the issue of assimilation into white middle class America but it doesn't set up essentialist oppositions of black vs white society. There is an acknowledgement of the hybrid nature of America, as well as an assertion of the right of oppressed peoples to a culture and history often denied them.
Morrison deals with these issues but at the same time the novel succeeds on a dramatic level, with superb characterisation and facsinating sub-plots. It is at times angry, moving and even funny - the scene where Milkman and his friend Guitar satirise white hypocrisy towards race could be a Richard Pryor routine.
The novel confirmed Morrison as a serious writer, one who innovates technically and addresses serious themes, while maintaining a masterful grasp on plot, dialogue and characterisation.

"They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time. No need to hurry out here. They are 17 miles from a town which has 90 miles between it and any other. Hiding places will be plentiful in the Convent, but there is time and the day has just begun." So begins Paradise, Toni Morrison's first novel since winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993. As one would expect from the author of such brilliantly imagined novels as Song of Solomon, Beloved and Jazz, Morrison's Paradise is ambitious, political, deeply spiritual and peopled with characters as complex as they are unforgettable. Time is fluid in the universe of this particular novel; though set in 1976, Morrison travels easily between eras, taking the reader back in time to the founding of Ruby, an all-black township in Oklahoma, at the end of World War II, then further back to the establishment of its predecessor, Haven, which parallels the story of Exodus: a band of former slaves wanders the Oklahoma territory in search of a homeland. Overlying the strong sense of character and place that imbues each page is a touch of the supernatural--ghost children skitter through the halls of an abandoned Catholic girl's school and "unseen friends" visit lonely women by night.

Even as Morrison deftly limns the history of the town and its inhabitants, she lays the foundation for the conflict brewing in the present-day story: A new minister has come to town, bringing with him a whiff of the politics that engulfed that era--civil rights, student uprisings, rioting in the streets--activities which speak to the restlessness of the town's youth. Meanwhile, 17 miles away at the former girls' school nicknamed "the Convent," a small group of unconventional women have moved in. Their stories, told in individual chapters bearing their names, are also stories of exile, exodus and eventual homecoming. For the men of Ruby, however, these women represent everything that is dangerous about the outside world and as the sanctity of Ruby's traditions begin to crumble, nine men go on a deadly hunt.

As always, Morrison is not afraid to explore the relations between the races or the genders and she is particularly adept at creating characters who, though frequently not likable, are always sympathetic. Paradise is a book you'll want to read more than once and each time you'll find something new to haunt and amaze you. -- Amazon.com

Journey into American Past to Understand American Present, 11 Nov 2008
In her latest novel Toni Morrison takes us back to the late 17th century America. The plot gives her an opportunity to present America in the making, there is no US yet, there are colonies, each somewhat different in their culture, religion or attitude to slavery. Morrison adroitly shapes the plot in such a way as to give the reader at least an impression of the variety that once was America, sending her characters on distant voyages. The differences are the most clearly visible in the opposition between Maryland and New York yet the choice of character also helps Morrison to stress the diversity of American roots.
And yet "A Mercy" is not just a historical novel. The setting is important but Morrison seems much more interested in her characters. This concentration is reflected in the form of the book - we get to know about the events from the characters in a series of monologues which culminate in the final monologue of Florens' mother which ties some of the book's loose ends and answers some of its haunting questions.
Each of the monologues comes from a completely different character - a slave, a native American, a Dutch etc. - this variety is almost incredible but serves to add a depth to the book, broadens the view the reader gets.
As usual in Morrison's fiction the characters are mostly women. As a result the book to some degree fails as a HIStory book, it is much more of a HERstory book, offering the reader a selection of points of view usually missing in more traditional history writing both fictional and scholarly.
In short: another great book from a Nobel-prize winning novelist.

"I don't think God knows who we are. I think He would like us, if He knew us, but I don't think He knows about us.", 11 Nov 2008
(4.5 stars) Continuing themes that she has been developing since the start of her career, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison creates an intense and involving philosophical, Biblical, and feminist novel set in the Atlantic colonies between 1682 and 1690. Her impressionistic story traces slavery from its early roots, using unique voices--African, Native American, and white--while moving back and forth in time. The primary speaker is Florens, a 16-year-old African slave, who tells the reader at the outset that this is a confession, "full of curiosities," and that she has committed a bloody, once-in-a-lifetime crime. In a flashback to 1682, we learn that when Florens was only eight years old, her mother suggested to the Maryland planter who owned the family, that Florens be given to New York farmer Jacob Vaark to settle a debt. Florens never understands why she was abandoned by her mother.

Florens lives and works for the next eight years on Vaark's rural New York farm. Lina, a Native American, who works with her, tells in a parallel narrative how she became one of a handful of survivors of a plague that killed her tribe. Vaark's wife Rebekkah describes leaving England for New York to be married to a man she has never seen. The deaths of their subsequent children are devastating, and Vaark is hoping that eight-year-old Florens will help alleviate Rebekkah's loneliness. Vaark, himself an orphan and poorhouse survivor, describes his journeys from New York to Maryland and Virginia, commenting on the role of religion in the culture of the different colonies, along with their attitudes toward slavery.

All these characters are bereft of their roots, struggling to survive in an alien environment filled with danger and disease. When smallpox threatens Rebekkah's life in 1692, Florens, now sixteen, is sent to find a black freedman who has some knowledge of herbal medicines. Her journey is dangerous and ultimately proves to be the turning point in her life.

Morrison examines the roots of racism going back to slavery's earliest days, providing glimpses of the various religious practices of the time, and showing how all the women are victimized. They are "of and for men," people who "never shape the world, The world shapes us." As the women journey toward self-enlightenment, Morrison describes their progress in often Biblical cadences, and by the end of this novel, the reader understands what "a mercy" really means. An intense and thought-provoking look at various forms of slavery from their beginnings, this short novel has an epic scope, one which admirers of Morrison will celebrate for its intense thematic development, even as they may somewhat regret its sacrifice of fully developed characters. Mary Whipple

Sula
Beloved (Vintage Classics)
Jazz
Song of Solomon
Love
Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination



Haunting, profoundly brilliant--an honor to read it., 20 Oct 2008
Beloved is a masterpiece. Beautifully written--deeply moving and deeply disturbing. I have never read a novel that I found touched my heart the way this did.
It is a unique story. A kind of ghost story but far more than that. It is a haunting of the heart, the soul--the being.
It will haunt me for the rest of my life.

NOT A GREAT TITLE FOR A REVIEW BUT 'BRILLIANT' WILL SUFFICE, 14 Aug 2008
Engaging, involving, powerful business. Stays with you long after the last drop has been drained from the glass.

Very complicated read, 26 May 2008
My daughter saw the film to this and said it was a good story so i thought i'd try the book. After reading the book reviews i thought i wouudn't mind a challenge, well i made it to pg 133 and just couldn't go anymore. It is very descriptive and Toni Morrison seemed to go off into another dimension and it became quite tedious, sorry folks, but for those who made it to the end, well done, my imagination was stretched to the limit, had to have a long lie down for a week after this ordeal.

"That woman is crazy, [but] ain't we all?", 15 Sep 2007
In this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of 1988, Toni Morrison frees herself from the bonds of traditional narrative and establishes an independent style, just as her characters have freed themselves from the horrors of slavery and escaped from Kentucky to Ohio. Revealing the story of Sethe and her family as they survive the brutality of the farm, only to encounter torments even more punishing than whippings after they escape, Morrison presents scenes in a seemingly random order, each scene revealing some aspect of life for Sethe, her boys, her dead baby Beloved, and the new baby Denver, both in the past and in the present. Moving back and forth, around, and inside out through Sethe's recollections, she gradually reveals Sethe's story to the reader, its horror increasing as the reader makes the connections which turn disconnected scenes into a powerful and harrowing chronology.

As the novel opens, Sethe and Denver have lived in #124, a house in Ohio, for eighteen years, refusing to socialize and enjoying no company. When Paul D. Garner, one of the Sweet Home men and a friend of her long-missing husband, arrives on her doorstep and moves in, Sethe slowly reveals her long-buried nightmares, and the two share their stories of the events leading up to their escape. Most haunting to Sethe is the death of her young daughter Beloved, shortly after the escape from the farm, though the reader does not know for many pages the shocking manner of her death. When a ghostly figure who calls herself Beloved arrives at #124, shortly after Paul D., Morrison creates mystery and a heart-stoppingly tense atmosphere, when Beloved, too, moves in. As Beloved gradually takes over the household and seems to demand and then possess Sethe's soul, the sorrow which has burdened Sethe seems close to breaking her.

The sadism of some slave-owners, the devices used to torture, and the desperate measures some slaves took to protect themselves and their loved ones come fully alive here, the horrors growing as the reader gradually discovers the real source of Sethe's torment. By forcing the reader to make the connections, instead of spelling out details in a traditional narrative, Morrison strengthens the impact of the novel and its brutal revelations. Symbols of water, rain, snow, and ice connect the disparate scenes, and the use of shadows and the ghostly character of Beloved keep the reader on tenterhooks until the action is eventually resolved. A powerful, atmospheric, and shocking novel, Beloved is also a searing indictment of slavery and the damage it has done to the fabric of life, damage that cannot be repaired until it is fully recognized through novels such as this. Mary Whipple

A powerful and heartfelt indictment of the monstrousness and stupidity of the slave trade, 08 Jun 2007
Toni Morrison's powerful and heartfelt indictment of the monstrousness and stupidity of the slave trade, where individuals were forced to commit atrocious acts as mechanisms for survival, does not make easy reading. It is by necessity raw and uncompromising as she shifts between the past and present of individuals whose lives have been battered and bludgeoned beyond recall. This book again demonstrates how much more effective novels can be than dry historical texts at recapturing periods and events in the past. The principal character is Sethe who some twenty years previously had murdered her baby daughter Beloved to prevent her from being sold into slavery. The story is concerned with the return of the spirit child and her desire for retribution against her mother who continues to love her in spite of all.
I wonder though if this novel was not the definitive word on the subject as the twentieth century threw up events that surpassed in scale and in evil intent - the pathological obsession with the total industrial annihilation of a segment of humanity rather than the ruthless desire for a limitless supply of expendable free labour - even the transatlantic slave trade. Ultimately, the starkness of the narrative, the supernatural element, and the somewhat abstract portrayal of the central characters acted as impediments to believability, and consequently some of the sympathy was lost. A great work, though.


The Bluest Eye, 02 Oct 2008
Filled with striking imagery which makes up for the sometimes fragmented narrative. A sad tale which for me evoked a time and a place vividly. Perhaps a little overly 'literary' in places, I thought this was worth reading.

Interesting but incomplete, 11 Apr 2008
The Bluest Eye is about race relations and, as such, can never be completely understandable to a non-American such as me. It revolves around a simple and very sad story of rape, incest and the victimisation of a little girl in 1940s America. It is told from the point of view of blacks - this was before the term African-American - and partly in another child's voice. The little girl thinks herself ugly and envies the looks of blue-eyed whites. That a black child could consider herself physically inferior was a real shock to me, and for considering this only the book is worth reading. One wonders how much this has changed in the last four decades.

There is a broader subject, however, which is the psychological impact and destructive power of models of beauty, especially feminine beauty. This, unfortunately, is only alluded to and could have been addressed in far more depth. The book also lacks the victim's own voice. Because it is told in chronological disorder and from different protagonists' angles, the story tends to be less strongly felt. At times it almost reads like a documentary. Perhaps this is for the best, since some scenes might have been unbearable if told by the central character herself. Still, while interesting and often revealing, this book too often gave me the impression of being unfinished.


The Bluest Eyes, 24 Oct 2007
This was my first introduction to Toni Morrison many years ago. I re-read it after unpacking from a house move. It remains a beautifully written, evocative and gently powerful text. I remembered why I am still 'hooked' on her writing.

Fragmentary but beautiful, 03 Jan 2007
More a collection of mini-stories than a fully developed narrative, The Bluest Eye looks at the different factors involved in a young girl's becoming pregnant by her father, from her stay with friends to the histories of her parents and their relationship. It is sensitively told without judgement, and you get a feel for the tragedies of all the characters concerned.

One of her earlier works, this isn't the best book if you want to discover Toni Morrison, but it is beautifully written as always, and a fascinating insight into her early development. Most useful here is a postscript by Morrison where she identifies her intentions and some of the weaknesses in the book.

The Bluest Eyes, 12 Jul 2005
A moving and well written story. Structured through different points of view to suck the reader right into the heart of the story. The dialogue flows easily and doesn't alienate the reader who lacks prior knowledge of the culture or linguistic style.

That's the kick, 03 Oct 2008
I had to read this for A Level English and at first I found it almost impossible to get into. A lot of it tends to go over your head but as you keep reading and get to the end, something just clicks and at the last 3/4 of the last chapter, you honestly believe it's a masterpiece. Upon several rereadings of the book, I found I understood more of it and it's just wonderful. Especially the last paragraph.

Stay away from this over-rated stream of consciousness rubbish, 04 Aug 2008
I like an original and unique book as much as the next man, but this is just plain awful. I can't stand the way it is written, the characters names, the ridiculously dull story (which gets even worse when you have to endure the characters' past as well) and to top it off this has somehow won the nobel prize for literature. Clearly the people who voted had never actually bothered to read the book.
I have the unfortunate task of doing my english literature coursework on this next year but if you have the choice of not reading this, stay well away!
If you have to read a Morrison book, Beloved was marginally more readable, with Paul D the only remotely interesting character.

Spanning the Transition from Slavery to the Freedom of Jazz