Tar Baby

I read this in high school and loved it. Great American Literature. My high school library, being the hater that she was, tried to tell me it was too advanced for me...I read it anyways. Even your own people will try and bring you down. The book actually touches on that very subject.

I read this in high school and I remember being very confused disappointed after I finished this book. Maybe I wasn't old enough to understand.

I love Toni Morrison but I found it hard to get into this book, unlike the others I've read. Perhaps I just didn't find any of the characters that likeable. Or perhaps because I just didn't understand the significance of the story until right near the end.

Not the best Morrison book that I've read. It seemed to circle on itself, trying to emphasize themes that seemed somewhat strained. Instead, I would recommend Song of Solomon or Beloved.

Kinda draggy. Didn't get it altho' I see she's a good writer. Looking forward to reading Sula, Bluest Eye and Beloved.

Genuinely captivating and very telling of the nuances that exist in any realationship. This book developes the idea of machismo and the resilience of women of all races!

While not my favorite Toni Morrison book, this is still an amzing book. The characters are great and the descriptions are wonderful. Overall, this was a really good book!

Toni Morrison is a beast! This is the 4th Morrison novel that I've read, and though I've loved all of them (The Bluest Eye the most, Song of Solomon the least), Tar Baby was a suprise. Going into reading the story I wasn't sure what to expect at all, I just knew that anything by Morrison was a safe bet. Since reading the novel, Tar Baby has become my favorite love story, and possibly my favorite Morrison novel.

The characters are honest, the prose intelligent and insightful, and the plot consistently engaging; but that's to be expected when reading anything by Morrison. What stands out as the most satisfying aspect of Tar Baby, is the novel's sense of place and setting. Morrison's writing allows the various backdrops in the story to literally become characters in themselves. In one particular scene midway through the novel, Morrison describes the fog that surrounds the characters while they dine as if it's a dinner guest as well. Every bit of the novel's atmosphere lives and breathes, and Morrison uses it to flawlessy pull every aspect of the novel together.

The chemistry between Jadine and Son is beautifully intense, and often unsettling, but always honest.With these two Morrison depicts love as passionate and at times consuming, but never as a remedy for indivdual shortcomings, or wordly concerns; so that the world Jadine and Son build together can't function until they've learned to negotiate it with the world that surrounds them.

All of this, paired with Morrison's expert examination of race and gender politics in America and abroad makes this novel nothing short of amazing.

I found her descriptions are very beautiful and enjoyable to read. Even though they distracted me from the story, individually the metaphors and illustrations are works of art. Her creativity in putting together her descriptions amazes me. She truly has a beautiful mind for creating scintillating imagery with words.

The end of the world, as it turned out, was nothing more than a collection of magnificent winter houses on Isle des Chevaliers.