Admittedly, I listened to the audiobook, so it made it easier but also likely made it harder for me to catch all the details the first time around. My improved understanding coupled with a genuine desire to get as much as I could out of this novel motivated me to reread the novel. After I did that, it made a lot more sense. While it may be a disappointing to my past literature teachers, I choose to review some readings aids after I finished the first time to figure out the things I was missing. Later, it gives another first person perspective, and a lot of the book in between is third person.Īs you might imagine, that was difficult to follow and keep up with. The book is presented at points in first person by a seemingly side character. I was able to ascertain the overarching points and narrative, but I was still confused a bit by whose who but more so the structure of the novel.
By the end of my first read through, I will admit I felt like I missed some details. Toni Morrison is an author I have wanted to read for years, and the only reason I never got around to it was a fear of not being able to comprehend these complicated works of literary fiction. We substituted good grammar for intellect we switched habits to simulate maturity we rearranged lies and called it truth, seeing in the new pattern of an old idea the Revelation and the Word.After reading this, I immediately stopped and started it over again. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life. We honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength.Īnd fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive we were not free, merely licensed we were not compassionate, we were polite not good, but well behaved. And she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt. Even her waking dreams we used-to silence our own nightmares. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. Her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we had a sense of humor. We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. All of us-all who knew her-felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her.
And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. “All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed.
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