Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby explores her major literary themes: race, gender, and social class. So, it is a big novel, loaded with big ideas, but they only work in a novel if they are deployed correctly in the small moments of character interactions, narrative thrust, and language usage.
Morrison accomplishes this, certainly, but certain parts lag. The interactions between Son and Jade are too protracted. Margaret Street, despite her terrible deeds, is not drawn nearly deep enough. Her sin arrives without much warning. The novel could have concluded about fifty pages before it actually did; Morrison tells us too much, and ends on an odd note.
We come to Morrison’s work with the expectation of slipping into a finely made suit. Tar Baby fits well enough, but its shirttails are hanging out.
Morrison accomplishes this, certainly, but certain parts lag. The interactions between Son and Jade are too protracted. Margaret Street, despite her terrible deeds, is not drawn nearly deep enough. Her sin arrives without much warning. The novel could have concluded about fifty pages before it actually did; Morrison tells us too much, and ends on an odd note.
We come to Morrison’s work with the expectation of slipping into a finely made suit. Tar Baby fits well enough, but its shirttails are hanging out.
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