Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.01 AVERAGE
4.01 AVERAGE
A collection spanning forty years that has either been ill-edited or not edited at all. Editing Morrison might be intimidating–she won the Novel Prize, ffs–but that, particularly with established authors, is what publishers are for. The collection has been arranged so as to make it embarrassingly obvious that Morrison often recycles whole paragraphs from one public speaking engagement to the next–and you know what, everyone does that, it’s neither unexpected nor a crime–but when at least three essays in the first section, none of which are long, all feature a paragraph that starts “Excluding the height of the slave trade, the mass movement of peoples is greater now than it has ever been”, you can forgive a reader for feeling mildly insulted. There are also no citations for most of the texts Morrison quotes. Up your game, Chatto & Windus.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Reading Toni Morrison’s Mouth Full of Blood was like attending a master class in literature, sociology, and life. Keeping up with her thoughts often felt like a rewarding intellectual pursuit; though she does write with tremendous clarity.
The structure of the book, however, could be improved. I found myself wishing for a layout that placed the origin of each essay either below its title or at its conclusion. Moreover, encountering repeated paragraphs across chapters was a jarring experience. While this might have been a deliberate stylistic choice to emphasize certain points, it often led to a sense of disruption rather than reinforcement.
Morrison’s voice offers wisdom that seems to echo through time. Yet, I couldn’t help but feel that the book’s presentation (which was likely not her own doing) could have been more thoughtfully aligned with the elegance and fluidity of Morrison’s writing.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
slow-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
The whole book was great, really made you think while reading the chapters of essays, speeches and so on. Probably a book I have to re read a few times over the years but it's a great reading experience