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156th out of 598 books
—
1,402 voters
Tar Baby
Ravishingly beautiful and emotionally incendiary, Tar Baby is Toni Morrison’s reinvention of the love story. Jadine Childs is a black fashion model with a white patron, a white boyfriend, and a coat made out of ninety perfect sealskins. Son is a black fugitive who embodies everything she loathes and desires. As Morrison follows their affair, which plays out from the Caribb...more
Paperback, 320 pages
Published
June 8th 2004
by Vintage
(first published 1981)
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i have a great idea for a wildly over-the-top romance novel. slap a likeness of blair underwood on the cover, airbrush some dreadlocks on his head, a tropical landscape in the back… ready? ready:
crazy dreadlocked black man is found hiding in the closet of a wealthy white couple’s carribean house. rather than take him to the police, Valerian Street (the white millionaire) invites him to dinner. now check it: Valerian and Margaret (a former beauty queen!) have two black servants who have a niece,...more
crazy dreadlocked black man is found hiding in the closet of a wealthy white couple’s carribean house. rather than take him to the police, Valerian Street (the white millionaire) invites him to dinner. now check it: Valerian and Margaret (a former beauty queen!) have two black servants who have a niece,...more
Jan 20, 2008
Rachel
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Those who liked "Beloved"
Recommended to Rachel by:
College Course
Shelves:
1-favorites
Everyone knows that Beloved is Toni Morrison's most famous work, but I would argue that Tar Baby is better. There are so many relationships in this book and so many layers to each of those relationships. Love, sex, race, gender, class, ethnicity, even geography...there isn't much Morrison doesn't take on in this beautiful story. And, of course, there are always those heart-stopping passages that Morrison's writing never fails to produce. Tar Baby is an absolute must-read, and if you have the pri...more
3 likes · like · see review
Pretty much any possible interaction between blacks and whites, rich and poor, man and woman, is played out in this novel - there are no real resolutions and some of the relationships are wildly overplayed, but overall this is an incredible piece of literature that I could see spending an entire semester on in college. It is basically the story of the rich white Valerian who retires to the Caribbean where his much younger wife broods over the absence of her college-aged son who is racked by whit...more
2 likes · like · see review
Outstanding. Brilliantly plays with the intersections of gender, race, and class. Very insightful, imaginative, and intelligent.
I also really enjoyed the narrative structure. It will keep shifting focus between the different characters, but it uses dialogue as a bridge. So, for instance, a long passage delving into the history and psychology of Valerian, followed by a conversation between him and Sydney, followed by Sydney's history and perspective. The net effect is a collection of incredibly i...more
I also really enjoyed the narrative structure. It will keep shifting focus between the different characters, but it uses dialogue as a bridge. So, for instance, a long passage delving into the history and psychology of Valerian, followed by a conversation between him and Sydney, followed by Sydney's history and perspective. The net effect is a collection of incredibly i...more
Toni Morrison is a stunning writer and this book is an absolutely breathtaking example of her literary opulence. An amazing, complex piece of literature, it considers themes of race, gender, love and freedom in ways that don’t crash and burn in attempt to resolve them but mandate the reader to question herself as to many of her approaches and underlying assumptions about existence. Brutally romantic and painterly, I believe this work of art adds both blossoms and seeded fruit to the anticolonial...more
I didn't really like this book at first. It seemed pretty dry to me a first but I'm glad I stuck with it. It centers around race relations which is extremely interesting. I was disgusted by how pretentious Valerian and Jadine were but I guess that's the point. When I started reading this book I didn't like Jadine,Margaret,and Valerian.(I still don't like them).Margaret was awful from the start. Jadine is so selfish yet at the same time she hates herself. But Toni Morrison has a way of shaping he...more
My personal opinion on the book? Well, I believe that the book was terrible and I would not recommend this book to anyone. I say that because the book was altogether irrelevant and I did not understand why it was written. To add fuel to the fire, it was boring. There was no action whatsoever and the first few chapters of the book was meaningless. If I had to give the book a rating out of 5 stars, I would literally give it a 1 star. I would give it that because at least she tried to write somethi...more
I'm wondering how many 1 and 2 star ratings came from readers thinking this would be a good Caribbean vacation beach read. I also wonder how many of them were clueless to the meaning of the term "tar baby". Sigh... There should be no need to discuss that, it's rather obvious that, well, ALL the characters, black, white and mulatto, were tar babies. Inextricably stuck to who they are, no matter where they are, they cannot escape themselves, their pasts, their childhoods. In fact, WE ARE ALL tar b...more
This book almost seemed like a fable or allegory. There are the rich white couple,Valerian and Margaret, who take their black servants for granted and except for the old retainers, Sydney and Ondine,don't even bother to learn their names,calling one "Yardman" and one "Mary" even though that isn't her name.
Sydney and Ondine are the faithful black servants who have
been in service all their lives and know their place.
Their niece, Jade, thanks to Valerian and Margaret, has gotten
an education a...more
2 likes · like · see review
I haven't read all of Toni Morrison's novels (Sula, Paradise, Love) but I have read most of them. Out of her novels that I've read, Tar Baby is easily the most digestible. Not to say that it doesn't have depth, it's just a little easier to read and more mainstream. If someone came up to me and said they wanted to start reading Morrison, and I knew they weren't strong, attentive readers, I would definitely recommend this book.
It's her most modern book. The story takes place during the '70s, and i...more
It's her most modern book. The story takes place during the '70s, and i...more
For those wondering, I’m in a graduate seminar on Toni Morrison this semester, we’re reading all of her novels in the order published and, in order to make time to work on my thesis, I’m reading ahead. I’ve decided to write my random thoughts on the novels down so that, when they do finally come up in class (well, I’m not that far ahead) I can look over then and, hopefully, still have an intelligent discussion about them.
Thus far we’ve read The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Song of Solomon, and while SO...more
Thus far we’ve read The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Song of Solomon, and while SO...more
Not sure what I think of this book. I heard it in my car on CDs, read by the awesome Alfre Woodard. I thought she gave it a lot, but it was, to me, an odd story. I found the characters interesting, but I couldn't understand the appeal of Son (Sun?) to Jaydine. I'm trying to understand why she found him attractive - because he was dangerous? Everything a beautiful, educated black woman should walk away from? Because he brought out in her her inner "black girl" that was the complete opposite of th...more
Following the mighty success of Song of Solomon in the late 1970s, Morrison spent five years working on her fourth novel, Tar Baby. With lukewarm receptions upon its publication in 1982, Tar Baby looks at clashes between and within races. Morrison also demonstrates her brilliant range as a novelist as she expands her vision of the black community beyond the rural, small-town settings of her previous three novels. She moves her setting to a remote island in the Caribbean and alternates the isolat...more
Feb 24, 2013
Kimberly Hicks
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Everyone
Recommended to Kimberly by:
Goodreads
Shelves:
african-american-read,
read-on-kindle
Having read a few of Toni Morrison's books, I must say this isn't one of my all-time favorites of hers, but it was good just the same.
This story deals with family, love and loss, secrets, pain and devastation that comes from the secrets that one never shares. It just proves that what you don't know can actually hurt you.
The book starts off a little slow for me, but once you get the hang of what is really going on, it picks up and holds the reader's interest. Imagine, if you will, staying at your...more
This story deals with family, love and loss, secrets, pain and devastation that comes from the secrets that one never shares. It just proves that what you don't know can actually hurt you.
The book starts off a little slow for me, but once you get the hang of what is really going on, it picks up and holds the reader's interest. Imagine, if you will, staying at your...more
Recently I listened to Toni Morrison's Tar Baby. I don't mean for this to be a formal review, just my observations. I wish I had read the book as it did not work for me as an audiobook. Although the narrator, Desiree Coleman, has a lovely, clear voice that was easy to listen to, she didn't really differentiate between the characters and I would get lost, wondering who was talking at the moment. That would not have been so hard to do with a well placed he said or she said. The novel seemed to dra...more
Toni Morrison is one of the most lauded writers of our time and I can understand why after experiencing her unique structure in this novel. The [3rd person] narration's focus flows from character to character without pause, mirroring the Caribbean waters that play their own role in the novel.
Writing prowess aside, I was disappointed in the ending of the novel. I was angry that after the grand revelation of Margaret's abuse of her son, nobody made any effort to make amends with the boy who was cl...more
Writing prowess aside, I was disappointed in the ending of the novel. I was angry that after the grand revelation of Margaret's abuse of her son, nobody made any effort to make amends with the boy who was cl...more
“At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. No record of it needs to be kept and you don’t need someone to share it with or tell it to. When that happens — that letting go — you let go because you can. The world will always be there — while you sleep it will be there – when you wake it will be there as well. So you can sleep and there is reason to wake. A dead hydrangea is as intricate and lovely as one in bloom...more
May 12, 2008
Rachel
added it
Provocative, complex, intimate. Personal favorite of all the Morrison novel's I've read so far. Tar Baby allows access to thoughts/emotions that take me days to digest but seem effortless for Morrison to recount, specifically regarding Jadine's choices or lack thereof. Rich detail, constantly re-reading and re-learning.
May 03, 2008
Athena
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
people with a lot of patience and a love for the dramatic
Whew. This book was a roller coaster. It started off very slowly, but picked up quite strongly in the middle. At this point, the writing became exquisite! It was, however, like trudging through mud....chocolate flavored mud. It was hard, but delicious.
Prose as purple as an eggplant. Lacking cohesion, theme, even plot. A most random assortment of characters (all one dimensional and caricatures, mind you) thrown together on an island (equally one dimensional and caricatured). What? How? But why? No one has a clue. It's a painful book, and doesn't say much about anything. Oh, it does say a little about race--but nothing more than affirming the racial and gender stereotypes of the "dangerous black criminal" and the "plastic-beautiful woman". The...more
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I wasn't fond of this, but maybe you've got to be in the right audience to understand it. I did think that the writing was excellent and some of the character description was spot on.
Toni Morrison really has a beautiful way with words. I believe this is the first novel she had published (I think, I think) and it is marvelous. She describes colors in metaphors much like Zora Hurston does and her characters are never flat or simple. I didn't give this book 5 stars because of two things - there are characters I absolutely despise (Jadine and Margaret) and you don't know what happens at the end (whether or not Son ever finds Jadine again!). Oh well! It is a beautifully written b...more
A complex tale dramatically presented addressing race, class, and gender issues as they relate to a white landowner and his family who reside in the Dominican Rebublic, the family's black servants, and a black young woman who was orphaned at age 12, who was subsequently sheltered and educated by the white family who then has to make choices of association and direction in her adult life that are influenced substantially by white values.
Morrison's storyline can be challeging to follow because of...more
Morrison's storyline can be challeging to follow because of...more
To write this off as a romance novel does not do justice to Morrison's intricate study of the complex and delicate relationships between and among people. In this tale, Morrison deftly and inextricably weaves emotion into landscape - the point of view flows seamlessly from person to place to animal to create the space in which all three interact, dream, yearn, and ultimately fail to understand one another. Ghosts lurk in the corners of rooms and minds and islands; history weighs heavily on consc...more
the best novel ever written in my opinion! the significance of black female sexuality and the relevance of love in everything that we do and every decision we make.
After reading Morrison's Tar Baby I felt slighted. Although I know that a perfect resolution is not required, I felt as though she left the primary characters' conflicts unresolved. Jadine and Son especially. Maybe I am a hopeless romantic and wished for them to make it, for their love to sustain them where ever they traveled, whether from Isle des Chevaliers, New York, Eloe to Paris. The situation on Isle des Chevaliers, at Valerian's house seemed a bit more tidied up. Morrison conveyed a sense...more
What a relief after reading some YA fiction to pick this one up. Toni Morrisson, she can write, and she writes for adults.
Beautiful descriptive, allegorical passages. The section about our lovers in New York is stunning. She captures the intensity and the all consuming nature of new love perfectly. I could reread that section many times.
And it was erotic. The shower scene, wow, it gave me goosebumps.
The book works with the complex relationships between black and white, old and young, city and bu...more
Beautiful descriptive, allegorical passages. The section about our lovers in New York is stunning. She captures the intensity and the all consuming nature of new love perfectly. I could reread that section many times.
And it was erotic. The shower scene, wow, it gave me goosebumps.
The book works with the complex relationships between black and white, old and young, city and bu...more
Toni Morrison is one of my favorite authors. Jazz is one my all time favorite books. Tar Baby, however, was not one of my favorites. As usual, Morrison's writing is flawless, and as usual I had to reread several passages and descriptions and marvel at her prose. However, I think this book has not aged well. Reading it in 2012, over twenty years after it was written, some of the themes seemed dated. Similarly, I thought that the two main white characters, Valerian and Margaret, verged on stereoty...more
OK, I really tried to get into this, but finally gave up. I love the intro!
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Toni Morrison (born Chloe Anthony Wofford), is an American author, editor, and professor who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature for being an author "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality."
Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed African American characters; among the best k...more
More about Toni Morrison...
Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed African American characters; among the best k...more
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“At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. No record of it needs to be kept and you don't need someone to share it with or tell it to. When that happens — that letting go — you let go because you can.”
—
16 people liked it
“The hills below crouched on all fours under the weight of the rainforest where liana grew and soldier ants marched in formation. Straight ahead they marched, shamelessly single-minded, for soldier ants have no time for dreaming. Almost all of them are women and there is so much to do - the work is literally endless. So many to be born and fed, then found and buried. There is no time for dreaming. The life of their world requires organization so tight and sacrifice so complete there is little need for males and they are seldom produced. When they are needed, it is deliberately done by the queen who surmises, by some four-million-year-old magic she is heiress to, that it is time. So she urges a sperm from the private womb where they were placed when she had her one, first and last copulation. Once in life, this little Amazon trembled in the air waiting for a male to mount her. And when he did, when he joined a cloud of others one evening just before a summer storm, joined colonies from all over the world gathered fro the marriage flight, he knew at last what his wings were for. Frenzied, he flied into the humming cloud to fight gravity and time in order to do, just once, the single thing he was born for. Then he drops dead, having emptied his sperm into his lady-love. Sperm which she keeps in a special place to use at her own discretion when there is need for another dark and singing cloud of ant folk mating in the air. Once the lady has collected the sperm, she too falls to the ground, but unless she breaks her back or neck or is eaten by one of a thousand things, she staggers to her legs and looks for a stone to rub on, cracking and shedding the wings she will never need again. Then she begins her journey searching for a suitable place to build her kingdom. She crawls into the hollow of a tree, examines its walls and corners. She seals herself off from all society and eats her own wing muscles until she bears her eggs. When the first larvae appear, there is nothing to feed them, so she gives them their unhatched sisters until they are old enough and strong enough to hunt and bring their prey back to the kingdom. That is all. Bearing, hunting, eating, fighting, burying. No time for dreaming, although sometimes, late in life, somewhere between the thirtieth and fortieth generation she might get wind of a summer storm one day. The scent of it will invade her palace and she will recall the rush of wind on her belly - the stretch of fresh wings, the blinding anticipation and herself, there, airborne, suspended, open, trusting, frightened, determined, vulnerable - girlish, even, for and entire second and then another and another. She may lift her head then, and point her wands toward the place where the summer storm is entering her palace and in the weariness that ruling queens alone know, she may wonder whether his death was sudden. Or did he languish? And if so, if there was a bit of time left, did he think how mean the world was, or did he fill that space of time thinking of her? But soldier ants do not have time for dreaming. They are women and have much to do. Still it would be hard. So very hard to forget the man who fucked like a star.”
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12 people liked it
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