Toni Morrison: A Reaction
December 23rd, 2010 § 15 Comments
i wouldn’t recommend reading seven Toni Morrison books over the relatively short span of four months. it’s just not a good idea.
that’s not to say that her writing isn’t amazing, because it absolutely is. but, one or two of her novels is enough to make your head spin for quite a while. and arguably all of her books require a re-read to even begin to grasp what’s going on. and that’s just the plot, which doesn’t scrape the surface of what’s being presented.
i read seven of her nine books, a short story, and some of her essays for a course on, you guessed it, Toni Morrison. it was one of several single author courses offered at my university (others include Shakespeare, Milton, Twain, Austen, and Woolf) and hers only gets offered something ridiculous like once every other leap year, so i jumped on the opportunity. i’d never read any of her works, but just had a gut feeling that i’d really enjoy her writing – and i definitely did.
we read the seven in the order that they were published, so our schedule went like this:
i could write a review for each, but that seems unnecessary, since so much has been said about them each independently already. instead, i figured it might be more productive to write a review of them collectively, as a reaction to a single author’s work. NOTE: i have yet to read Love and Paradise, but will probably read those after i’ve had some time to decompress.
so, the first and most obvious thing about Morrison and her books is that she is writing as an African American woman for an African American audience. that’s to say that she writes about race issues from within her place in the black community and speaks very directly to the power struggles that exist within and around those sites of struggle. she isn’t however racist, i don’t think, or even necessarily touting black superiority (or anything like that). she just writes from within the culture that she finds under- and mis-represented, so get comfortable with it and expect your views on race and racism to be challenged a bit.
Morrison also doesn’t skirt around difficult subjects, but rather tackles them head on. in her novels, she addresses racism, gender issues, economic and political happenings, and historically significant events like slavery. she also takes terrible things like murder, pedophilia, and incest and makes them almost palpable, or at least she jumbles up your impressions of them, so that you are left questioning your own beliefs in the end. and on top of all of that, the writing is just strikingly beautiful, almost painfully so.
the most impressive thing that i found in her writing is her very deliberate choice and construction of language to convey meanings. Morrison, in her introduction to Song of Solomon, even wrote a 2-page analysis of the opening sentence.
The North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance agent promised to fly from Mercy to the other side of Lake Superior at three o’clock.
the sentence seems so simple and un-meaningful, but it is so very deliberate and practically each word carries some meaning that wasn’t obvious at first. for example, she explains that she is mocking a journalistic style and that the words ‘life’ and ‘mutual’, in their double meanings, carry a significance that might not originally be appreciated. the terms ‘fly’ and ‘mercy’ are central to the book and are recurring themes in her writing. and it goes on and on. you could literally take any one of her books, flip it open to a random page, point to a sentence and do a deep reading based on the framework that it is presented.
which brings me to the framework itself: Morrison writes all of her books in an almost formulaic way, although it is an untraditional and rather difficult formula to follow. as a reader, in each novel, you are shoved into the narrative as if you knew everything that had happened before it. significant names, places, events are mentioned without back stories and the experience is almost always disorienting for the first 50-100 pages. then, at some point in the middle, you realize that you are starting to piece it all together and when you happen to flip back to earlier chapters, you see things that you didn’t at first because you understand the bigger picture. it’s like peeling an onion from the inside-out and trying to understand the big picture. you can’t see it all until the very last line, at which point you really should just go back and read the whole book again.
the most important thing i found with Morrison’s books is that you will get out of her reading as much as you are willing to put into it. if you are a careful reader, a lover of language, then you can spend hours poring over words, tracking themes, and just getting lost in her careful writing. and when you do, it is immensely rewarding and you will realize what an amazing author she is. everything and every word carries the potential for hidden meanings or multiple readings, and i doubt that any two people get the same things out of her books. so, in that sense her writing is phenomenal and unbelievably powerful. but, if you don’t have the time or are not invested, i feel like reading her books might almost be a waste because you’d be missing the point. which is why i feel like reading seven of her books in four months was a bad idea… i couldn’t invest myself into the reading in the way that i felt the books deserved.
the last thing i wanted to mention was about Morrison as a person. the image on the back cover of the books i read all had the same image of Morrison, and it got kind of creepy seeing the same picture for so long, over and over. i mean, her eyes are piercing into your soul and reminding you with every glance that she is a crazy, crazy woman capable of writing crazy, crazy things. i mean – what kind of sicko writes about incest, pedophilia, and murder in such a beautiful way without being a little crazy themselves? i had to wonder… i much prefer the picture above to this one because she looks less crazy!
of the books i read, Song of Solomon was my clear favorite and i would recommend it to anyone interested in trying her on for size. but, as i mentioned, everyone gets something different out of her books and i noticed (in my class of about 25 students) that everyone had distinctly different tastes. some loved the relative simplicity of style in The Bluest Eye, while others loved the bond of friendship that is central to Sula or the mother-child relationships central to Beloved. the modern setting of Jazz appealed to some while the very historical immersion of A Mercy was more comfortable to others. each book is unique in its own way, but as a collection, Morrison is a literary force and it is no wonder that she is considered to be one of the most amazing American writers of all time.
I read the Bluest Eye and loved it. I have Paradise in my library loot pile to read for the Fill In The Gaps challenge.
i’ll be interested to see what you think of Paradise since that is one i haven’t gotten to yet. i own it and Love and will hopefully get around to them sometime soon!
I know what you mean about the writing. I have read The Bluest eye and Beloved but I don’t think I can read another Morrison book for a while yet as her books are so intense.
definitely. her writing has an intensity that so few authors have. i’ll get around to the other two eventually, but i’m guessing it will take a while before i’m ready!
Wow, all in succession, that’s heavy. Song of Solomon is my absolute fave Morrison, too. Followed by Beloved and Sula, and then The Bluest Eye. The rest I don’t care for so much. Except for Paradise, which I don’t know yet as I haven’t read it. Thanks for the insights you shared here. Happy new year!
yes, definitely heavy.
i had a hard time with Beloved for some reason. it might have had to do with the fact that it came at about the time that i was starting to sag under the weight of all of the reading, but i didn’t love it. it definitely deserves a re-read, though, and i’m sure i’ll get something entirely different out of it the second time around.
i agree that Sula was just wonderful, too.
Finally, finally read Song of Solomon, just because I had to figure out what everyone was so mad about. I usually try not to go on reading jags now, like reading every book by a particular author or on a particular subject. Instead, I just check out way too many books at the library, based on what I see that’s interesting while I weed. Right now, I have 10 out, including ebooks. Sheesh.
i completely understand avoiding the focus… i wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t been for a class.
wow, 10 books! anything good?
Oh, always. I read A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons, which turned out very unexpectedly, and I quite liked it. I am re-reading the Riverworld series by Philip Jose Farmer, which spurred my interest in Sir Richard Francis Burton (try Mountains on the Moon). Gave up completely on the latest Whoopi Goldberg, Is It Just Me?, because I didn’t find it funny or interesting. Sorry for late reply. I have been working on pulling together an online class, and it has been BUSY.
lots of stuff i’ve never even heard of! i’ve been immersed in composition and rhetoric theory stuff lately. grad classes are underway and i’ll pretty much be over in my hole for a while.
I wouldn’t be able to read that much of her in a short time.
When I read The Bluest Eye, it was a complete mind*%&#. That she had me feeling something like pity or compassion for such a vile father means she’s a great talent. I found the writing to be beautiful in other ways, even when the subject matter really was difficult to read.
Nice post. It’s a good reminder that I need to do set aside some time for some of her stuff that I haven’t read.
haha, The Bluest Eye definitely was. Morrison has a way of taking a person that you’re supposed to hate for all the right reasons and make you feel sympathy for them. talent, for sure.
Although it sounds like a lot all at once, it’s really awesome you were able to experience her work like that. The first book of hers I read was A Mercy, and while I could tell how good it was, I didn’t simply like it all that much. Then I read Beloved and loved everything about it (which is weird to say, considering the themes present in that book.) I think Song of Solomon will be next for me!
yeah, i’m glad i did it, for sure.
i can see how reading A Mercy first would be a little strange. without being acclimated to her style, that might be awkward reading. i do hope you enjoy Song of Solomon. it’s such a wonderful book!
[...] process. and early on, it did. i tried to keep blogging about books i was reading in class (like my Toni Morrison binge), and it was exploratory and fun. but, as things got busier with grad school and i was reading [...]