A review by thisreadingcorner
God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

5.0

“It’s not my fault so you can’t blame me. I didn’t do and I have no idea how it happened.”

So begins the story of Sweetness, Bride, Brooklyn, Sofia, Booker, Rain, and Queen. Bride, blue black child raised on shame and conditional care, grows to be a woman of impeccable taste and glamour. Her childhood manipulation haunts her, and the end of her most meaningful relationship sends her mind and body hurtling to buried traumas and identities.

In Part III though, the book began to sing. After a break from the book, I turned to the audiobook and something about Toni reading the sections in Booker’s perspective made the story come alive.

Read this one for a lost woman finding, losing, and then finding her way again. For community and companionship found in unlikely places. For grief and the haunting of a love too large to be contained. For parenting coming too little and too late. For redemption in the most selfish  of ways. 

“Good luck and God bless the child.”