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I'm going to round up because I really, really liked this. With each new book I read by Toni Morrison, I am constantly amazed. She has this incredible ability to spin a fresh and riveting story that delves deeply into the complex themes of race, class, politics, and colorism. It's truly masterfully done.
Some things I particularly loved about the conversation in this book - Tar Baby is, to my knowledge, Toni Morrison's first book with prominent white characters. I think the inclusion of them sets up a really interesting dynamic and conversation around privilege, class, and what I might call strategic benevolence (a term I may have just made up lol). Toni Morrison famously preferred writing about the intricacies of black life and the black community over the dynamics between white and black characters, so this is a rarity and I think it serves the book well.
At the center of this book is Jadine, an orphan whose aunt and uncle become her legal guardians. Her aunt and uncle work as the hired help for a wealthy white couple, The Streets, who left Philadelphia to move into a beautiful mansion in Dominique (Dominica). The Streets also took on the task of sponsoring Jadine's education, going so far as to pay for her to travel to study in France and sponsoring some of her lifestyle when she gets into modeling in Europe.
This book kicks off when Jadine comes back to Dominique to stay with her aunt and uncle. It's this cast of characters that really grounds the discussion of this book. Jadine moves into The Streets' house and lives as if she is a guest, while her aunt and uncle are relegated to the servants' quarters and even have to serve her dinner as she often eats with The Streets. This status quo is disrupted when a runaway named Son is discovered living on the property. The Streets similarly invite him to come into the same spaces as Jadine, and that's when this story gets even more tense.
What blossoms from there is a romance between Jadine and Son that is complicated and tumultuous and exposes their very different thoughts on white people. Son's adamant hatred of white people clashes with Jadine's feelings of gratitude toward and friendship with The Streets. Their relationship easily starts to fracture under the pressure of their fundamentally different beliefs, beliefs about what she owes to her aunt and uncle, how they deserve to be treated by their employer, what it means to feel indebted to someone, and how they value their family's roots.
There are other characters in this book that add even more layers to this conversation. A nephew and his aunt live on the property working as a yardman and a housekeeper. The Streets are estranged from their son Michael and anxiously await his potential return for the holidays.
In comparison to Toni Morrison's other books, this one lacks some of the heavier and more in-your-face content warnings (thank god no incest or pedophilia). But it does have quite a bit of domestic violence (not too hard to read but present), particularly in the back half of the book. So it's very different from the four books I've read by her so far, but I think it's one I'll be thinking about a lot.
Some things I particularly loved about the conversation in this book - Tar Baby is, to my knowledge, Toni Morrison's first book with prominent white characters. I think the inclusion of them sets up a really interesting dynamic and conversation around privilege, class, and what I might call strategic benevolence (a term I may have just made up lol). Toni Morrison famously preferred writing about the intricacies of black life and the black community over the dynamics between white and black characters, so this is a rarity and I think it serves the book well.
At the center of this book is Jadine, an orphan whose aunt and uncle become her legal guardians. Her aunt and uncle work as the hired help for a wealthy white couple, The Streets, who left Philadelphia to move into a beautiful mansion in Dominique (Dominica). The Streets also took on the task of sponsoring Jadine's education, going so far as to pay for her to travel to study in France and sponsoring some of her lifestyle when she gets into modeling in Europe.
This book kicks off when Jadine comes back to Dominique to stay with her aunt and uncle. It's this cast of characters that really grounds the discussion of this book. Jadine moves into The Streets' house and lives as if she is a guest, while her aunt and uncle are relegated to the servants' quarters and even have to serve her dinner as she often eats with The Streets. This status quo is disrupted when a runaway named Son is discovered living on the property. The Streets similarly invite him to come into the same spaces as Jadine, and that's when this story gets even more tense.
What blossoms from there is a romance between Jadine and Son that is complicated and tumultuous and exposes their very different thoughts on white people. Son's adamant hatred of white people clashes with Jadine's feelings of gratitude toward and friendship with The Streets. Their relationship easily starts to fracture under the pressure of their fundamentally different beliefs, beliefs about what she owes to her aunt and uncle, how they deserve to be treated by their employer, what it means to feel indebted to someone, and how they value their family's roots.
There are other characters in this book that add even more layers to this conversation. A nephew and his aunt live on the property working as a yardman and a housekeeper. The Streets are estranged from their son Michael and anxiously await his potential return for the holidays.
In comparison to Toni Morrison's other books, this one lacks some of the heavier and more in-your-face content warnings (thank god no incest or pedophilia). But it does have quite a bit of domestic violence (not too hard to read but present), particularly in the back half of the book. So it's very different from the four books I've read by her so far, but I think it's one I'll be thinking about a lot.
