Toni Morrison

Tar baby

Morrison is truly a master of language and of narrative. Tar Baby pressed on race and sexuality and questioned our ways of seeing reality.

Arie P

Maureen

“his corny unself-conscious joy was like blue-sky water. Show me again what it's like to be shining all alone in the sky.”


*** 

Morrison never disappoints. This is my fifth novel of hers but I am left in awe again of how skillfully she portrays the human condition— our capacity to love and be loved, to inflict pain on others but also instill hope. There is nothing she hesitates to lay bare, and she does it so bewitchingly. 

Set predominantly in the Caribbean, Jadine and Son are, to an extent, Cathy and Heathcliff's counterparts. They were a mismatch from the start— her being educated and affluent, him being uneducated and a laborer. But what a whirlwind romance they had. 

As M. Lucero puts it, Tar Baby is like Milton’s retelling of Eden, with Son likened to Lucifer for his snake-like hair and beauty like the bright star. While Jadine may have fallen prey to his charms just as Eve did, she certainly knows how to forge her path and does not rely on the man for change. Albeit just as destructive as the relationship between Eve and Lucifer, Jadine and Son honestly believed they were rescuing the other from harm. The former, from her internalized standards of white beauty and what it means to be a Black woman— and the latter, from his ignorance and stubborn refusal to accept the fraternizing between two cultures. 

Morrison explores the dynamics between men and women, touches upon internalized beauty standards, interrogates age-old beliefs, and blurs the line between right and wrong. Each character, after all, was marked by their own histories and scars that would not heal no matter the passage of time. Overall, Tar Baby poses the question of whether two races can coexist without addressing how their familial yet indentured bonds shaped the people they have grown to become.

Jim Hagan

Katie Chua

a novel about conflict, primarily. and asking what home is. and what power in relationships look like. and what love is. and so much freaking more!! as always, written so beautifully. i needed that

Alexia

Although there were moments where Morrison’s beautiful writing appeared, it was a bit of a mess... This one wasn't for me. 
2.5 stars.

The arrival of an ominous black stranger disturbs the precisely choreographed interactions among the five people living in a beautiful house on a Caribbean island--a millionaire candy manufacturer, his wife, and their servants--in a novel that explores the spectrum of emotions underlying the relationships between the races. Reader's Guide available. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Tar Baby

Christine Liu

I don't know if it's the setting and Toni Morrison's lush prose that makes you feel as if you're there on a Caribbean island while palm fronds sway in the balmy breeze or the different pace of the story, but I had a harder time getting through this book than I did with Morrison's previous three novels. It reads more like a character study and a close examination of the dynamics between a young Black woman who was educated at the Sorbonne, the aunt and uncle who raised her, and the wealthy retired white couple who employs them.

Tar baby

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