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robertlashley's review against another edition
4.0
Before I begin with what I think Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child is, let me define what I’m sure it is not. I have little patience with any criticism of her work that is based on race; and—like all of her novels, Child doesn’t have any comforting post-racial statements that have nothing to do with the organic structure of a novel. I also don’t care for any criticism that takes the words of an individual character and interprets them as Morrison's own beliefs without regard to the contextual dynamic of the stories she creates; and there are characters that make off-handed references to whites. I have no time for the Charles Johnson School of criticism that says Toni Morrison can’t write about black men; and the male protagonist of Child is depicted as a complicated man and not a rascally saint who walks on water. In short, if you demand that white people have a central place in the lives of African American Characters, this isn’t the review for you.
Those more prone to see her as a writer than a right-wing talking point might find a lot to talk about in Child, a book more in the tradition of her experimental novels. If one really reads her, they might find her to be a wildly experimental writer, someone who has more in common with Claude Simon than James Baldwin. The Bluest Eye is structured as a counterpoint to Jean Toomer’s cane, and has more symbolism in it than The Wasteland (though one can read the powerful core of the narrative in its own right). In its experimental prose, Jazz owes more to the post modernism of Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters than it does to Richard Wright. And Beloved—I’m sorry—suffers toward the end when she cuts her breathtaking story with the Virginia Woolf-styled narrative shifts that she can never get quite right (it’s still a very good book).
I have my favorite Morrison in; The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, A Mercy, Home, the first 3/4ths of Beloved, and the first 2/3rds of Love, she has created some of best and the most innovative fiction I have ever read in my life. In them, she showed herself to be the clearest heir to the tradition of Zora Neale Hurston: finding the universal in the vernacular, myth, ritual, ceremony and interrelationship dynamics of African American life. Combining that with experiments in Magical realism, modernism and post modernism, she shifted the landscape of African American fiction by creating fiction that wasn’t about messages to white people, but stories about the interiors of black characters.
When she wasn't on her A-Game (2/3rds of Jazz, Paradise, half of Tar Baby) her experiments seem like inorganic stitches that tie dynamic pieces of writing together. At times, Child fell square into the latter category. Morrison still likes Woolf’esque transitions (and did them better than she ever did in Home, her last novel), but here they seem jarring and inorganic again. Some of the monologs of the novel’s characters were too expository for my taste, statements to help the novel get to its finish line.
But dear black Jesus, the best parts of this novel! I don't know what the hell critics are talking about when they complain about Morrison's later prose: A Mercy and Home have a minimalist power and effect that her often grandiose 90's voice didn't have. In Paradise, Morrison's inhabitants of Ruby sound exactly like her, and it reads like a companion to the bad novels of Nabokov, Updike, or James. In Child she almost completely lets her characters get away from her, and the novel's best moments, IMO, make it a success and worth the reader’s time.
The plot, I'm on shakier ground to be declarative about. Not because I hate it, but it relates to complex relationships between women that cause me to fall back and not assume that I have the definitive opinion on the subject. Child is Morrison at her most directly interpersonal core: A trauma narrative around Lula Ann, an abused child who became a powerful cosmetics exec, the light-skinned mother who abused her as well because of her dark color, her wounded ragamuffin boyfriend who struggles to deal with his shit, and a circle of friends who have been through various stages of hell. At the center of the novel are the loaded relationship dynamics that her characters have had, ones between mothers and daughters, between best of friends, between men who fuck over and who have been fucked over.
Black Feminist scholars of her work have been dealing with/arguing about these dynamics for over 45 years. I can see how most critics can love this novel. I can see how Kara Walker can be queasy about it. It’s also easy to see how a good deal of Morrison’s readers are on the fence about it. The only thing I can add is that it's a startling, powerful novel, and remarkably so.
Are their arguments to be made against Toni Morrison's work? Yes, just like there are arguments to be made against any major writer, especially given the fact that Morrison was 84 years old when she wrote it.
I could imagine an ethical reader more interested in the grounded magic of Chekhov, Trevor, and Munro who might not take Morrison’s experimentalism to their liking. Critics need to deal with what she’s written, however, instead of making her a highbrow tea party talisman. The idea that there wasn’t a comforting post-racial statement in God Help the Child, that the people are messy, human, and wounded, that they hurt each other, are hurt, and don’t heal in a straight arc, were the best things about it for me. To see it as a protest novel about white people (which almost every conservative critic has accused it of being) only presents a negative side of the political correctness they claim to despise.
Those more prone to see her as a writer than a right-wing talking point might find a lot to talk about in Child, a book more in the tradition of her experimental novels. If one really reads her, they might find her to be a wildly experimental writer, someone who has more in common with Claude Simon than James Baldwin. The Bluest Eye is structured as a counterpoint to Jean Toomer’s cane, and has more symbolism in it than The Wasteland (though one can read the powerful core of the narrative in its own right). In its experimental prose, Jazz owes more to the post modernism of Toni Cade Bambara’s The Salt Eaters than it does to Richard Wright. And Beloved—I’m sorry—suffers toward the end when she cuts her breathtaking story with the Virginia Woolf-styled narrative shifts that she can never get quite right (it’s still a very good book).
I have my favorite Morrison in; The Bluest Eye, Sula, Song of Solomon, A Mercy, Home, the first 3/4ths of Beloved, and the first 2/3rds of Love, she has created some of best and the most innovative fiction I have ever read in my life. In them, she showed herself to be the clearest heir to the tradition of Zora Neale Hurston: finding the universal in the vernacular, myth, ritual, ceremony and interrelationship dynamics of African American life. Combining that with experiments in Magical realism, modernism and post modernism, she shifted the landscape of African American fiction by creating fiction that wasn’t about messages to white people, but stories about the interiors of black characters.
When she wasn't on her A-Game (2/3rds of Jazz, Paradise, half of Tar Baby) her experiments seem like inorganic stitches that tie dynamic pieces of writing together. At times, Child fell square into the latter category. Morrison still likes Woolf’esque transitions (and did them better than she ever did in Home, her last novel), but here they seem jarring and inorganic again. Some of the monologs of the novel’s characters were too expository for my taste, statements to help the novel get to its finish line.
But dear black Jesus, the best parts of this novel! I don't know what the hell critics are talking about when they complain about Morrison's later prose: A Mercy and Home have a minimalist power and effect that her often grandiose 90's voice didn't have. In Paradise, Morrison's inhabitants of Ruby sound exactly like her, and it reads like a companion to the bad novels of Nabokov, Updike, or James. In Child she almost completely lets her characters get away from her, and the novel's best moments, IMO, make it a success and worth the reader’s time.
The plot, I'm on shakier ground to be declarative about. Not because I hate it, but it relates to complex relationships between women that cause me to fall back and not assume that I have the definitive opinion on the subject. Child is Morrison at her most directly interpersonal core: A trauma narrative around Lula Ann, an abused child who became a powerful cosmetics exec, the light-skinned mother who abused her as well because of her dark color, her wounded ragamuffin boyfriend who struggles to deal with his shit, and a circle of friends who have been through various stages of hell. At the center of the novel are the loaded relationship dynamics that her characters have had, ones between mothers and daughters, between best of friends, between men who fuck over and who have been fucked over.
Black Feminist scholars of her work have been dealing with/arguing about these dynamics for over 45 years. I can see how most critics can love this novel. I can see how Kara Walker can be queasy about it. It’s also easy to see how a good deal of Morrison’s readers are on the fence about it. The only thing I can add is that it's a startling, powerful novel, and remarkably so.
Are their arguments to be made against Toni Morrison's work? Yes, just like there are arguments to be made against any major writer, especially given the fact that Morrison was 84 years old when she wrote it.
I could imagine an ethical reader more interested in the grounded magic of Chekhov, Trevor, and Munro who might not take Morrison’s experimentalism to their liking. Critics need to deal with what she’s written, however, instead of making her a highbrow tea party talisman. The idea that there wasn’t a comforting post-racial statement in God Help the Child, that the people are messy, human, and wounded, that they hurt each other, are hurt, and don’t heal in a straight arc, were the best things about it for me. To see it as a protest novel about white people (which almost every conservative critic has accused it of being) only presents a negative side of the political correctness they claim to despise.
blkwwwaffle's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
twtoppings's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is my first Toni Morrison book, a great introduction to the mastery of her storytelling. The story is told through multiple perspectives, spaced out unevenly and perfectly.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Sexual assault
prettybooksprettyplants's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
maralisanne's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
jasisreading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
brisamathias's review
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Following this narrative was sad. The whole book throws trauma and sadness at you at every single page. It's definitely not a feel-good read. But, also, something was missing to make me really feel all the feelings here.
I think that if the chapters were longer, if we could just sit a bit more of time with each character, would be easier to really get it. I wanted to hear more about their inner world and motives. Be taken along to the ride of despair, rage, fear, hopelessness, acceptance, grief, overwhelm... I know those things are there, I could read them between the lines, but I couldn't feel them. Just underlying sadness.
I understood people's actions and decisions, at the same time I condemned them for it. If anything, this book just makes my belief in the power of therapy + honest dialog. We need to be able to talk with and to people we love and care if we want any chance of stop being lead by our hurts, and if we want to stop hurting others in the process of coping, if we want to have any hopes to create better environment for children in this lifetime.
"God help the child" could've touched me deeper, but will left me with somethingsto digest, nevertheless.
I think that if the chapters were longer, if we could just sit a bit more of time with each character, would be easier to really get it. I wanted to hear more about their inner world and motives. Be taken along to the ride of despair, rage, fear, hopelessness, acceptance, grief, overwhelm... I know those things are there, I could read them between the lines, but I couldn't feel them. Just underlying sadness.
I understood people's actions and decisions, at the same time I condemned them for it. If anything, this book just makes my belief in the power of therapy + honest dialog. We need to be able to talk with and to people we love and care if we want any chance of stop being lead by our hurts, and if we want to stop hurting others in the process of coping, if we want to have any hopes to create better environment for children in this lifetime.
"God help the child" could've touched me deeper, but will left me with somethingsto digest, nevertheless.
missbookiverse's review against another edition
3.0
Ach, ich weiß nicht. Irgendwie tue ich mich schwer mit Toni Morrisons Romanen (war erst mein zweiter). Ich habe gerne zugehört (auch wenn das deutsche Hörbuch selbstverständlich wieder von einer Weißen gelesen wird), die Schicksale der einzelnen Charaktere sind interessant und tragisch, mir gefiel wie sie alle zusammenhängen und ich in die einzelnen Lebensgeschichten einen kleinen Blick werfen konnte, aber über allgemeines Interesse ging das alles nicht hinaus. Es hat mich nicht berührt oder nachhaltig beschäftigt und wirkte eher wie die gekürzte Zusammenfassung einer längeren Geschichte. Was mir hingegen richtig gut gefallen hat, sind die kurzen Gedichte, die wir von Booker zu lesen bekommen. Morrison scheint leider nie eine gesonderte Gedichtsammlung veröffentlicht zu haben, aber vielleicht sollte ich mir stattdessen mal ihre Non-Fiction Werke anschauen.
tmosley5's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
charlottekook's review against another edition
4.0
i liked reading this, though found it quite different from her earlier work which i've read more of. it was quite refreshing to read contemporary references, and though it felt less powerful to me than her older works i think this is because it was more subtle.
near the start of the novel, i found myself thinking that it was unusual to read something written by morrison with a first person narrator integral to the story (rather than a distanced, first or third person narrator), though as soon as i thought this the narrative perspective changed. i like the switches between character, and the bookending of the novel by sweetness - who's actions loom over bride/lu ann for the whole novel - and it felt very authentically "morrison", taking the chair out from under you as soon as you had got comfortable with the narrative. the subject matter was often distressing, but this was always positioned as a memory - so a lot can be unpacked here about trauma, death, abuse and its impact on victims and bystanders. i feel like the novel is more complex than it lets on, which i would again put down to the subtlety and brilliance of morrison's writing.
it felt both similar and completely different from her other works formally (though thematically similar). with the novels of hers i've read (no means an exhaustive list), there always seems to be an element of detachment from events and a displacement of characters - the latter is more obvious here, but the second seems to be tackled formally for bride, with the use of her mother, "friend" and sofia's voice, as well as the third person view of bride, interjecting into her story and making us see her from a distance - frustratingly so as, like i said, it's unusual for a morrison novel to give us a character's first person thoughts. i also think that this fractured/split nature of the narrators, as well as the mirroring(?) with booker's story makes the aims of the novel/morrison more difficult to grasp. there is no resolution to the trauma and the outcome of the accusations so the message (and there always is a message with morrison) has to be picked over later.
the novel intrigued me more than it gave me enjoyment, but i love morrison because - and honestly do not want to be too cringe/corny - she makes you think.
near the start of the novel, i found myself thinking that it was unusual to read something written by morrison with a first person narrator integral to the story (rather than a distanced, first or third person narrator), though as soon as i thought this the narrative perspective changed. i like the switches between character, and the bookending of the novel by sweetness - who's actions loom over bride/lu ann for the whole novel - and it felt very authentically "morrison", taking the chair out from under you as soon as you had got comfortable with the narrative. the subject matter was often distressing, but this was always positioned as a memory - so a lot can be unpacked here about trauma, death, abuse and its impact on victims and bystanders. i feel like the novel is more complex than it lets on, which i would again put down to the subtlety and brilliance of morrison's writing.
it felt both similar and completely different from her other works formally (though thematically similar). with the novels of hers i've read (no means an exhaustive list), there always seems to be an element of detachment from events and a displacement of characters - the latter is more obvious here, but the second seems to be tackled formally for bride, with the use of her mother, "friend" and sofia's voice, as well as the third person view of bride, interjecting into her story and making us see her from a distance - frustratingly so as, like i said, it's unusual for a morrison novel to give us a character's first person thoughts. i also think that this fractured/split nature of the narrators, as well as the mirroring(?) with booker's story makes the aims of the novel/morrison more difficult to grasp. there is no resolution to the trauma and the outcome of the accusations so the message (and there always is a message with morrison) has to be picked over later.
the novel intrigued me more than it gave me enjoyment, but i love morrison because - and honestly do not want to be too cringe/corny - she makes you think.