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On Morrison: Deepen your understanding of one of our greatest writers
'Serpell is a superlative essayist' DIANA EVANS
'Serpell brings her expertise and eye to Toni Morrion's singular literary genius' HARPER'S BAZAAR
The essential companion to Toni Morrison’s work, written by Namwali Serpell, ‘one of the most innovative and intelligent writers today’ (Financial Times)
Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and most beloved of writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, ‘she is our only truly canonical black, female writer – and her work is highly complex.’ In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and professor to illuminate Toni Morrison’s masterful experiments with literary form.
This is Morrison as you’ve never encountered her before, a journey through her vivid fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry – with contextual guidance and original close readings. Accessible and thrillingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of our time, but how to approach any great work of literature. The conversation between the two black women artist-readers that rises from these pages is stylish, edifying and spectacular in its scope and erudition.
'Breathtaking, provocative, and refreshing' IMANI PERRY
'A literary miracle' KIESE LAYMON author of An American Memoir
'Incisive, tender, and also honest and unsparing’ HANIF ABDURRAQIB, author of A Little Devil in America
'Serpell brings her expertise and eye to Toni Morrion's singular literary genius' HARPER'S BAZAAR
The essential companion to Toni Morrison’s work, written by Namwali Serpell, ‘one of the most innovative and intelligent writers today’ (Financial Times)
Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and most beloved of writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, ‘she is our only truly canonical black, female writer – and her work is highly complex.’ In On Morrison, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and professor to illuminate Toni Morrison’s masterful experiments with literary form.
This is Morrison as you’ve never encountered her before, a journey through her vivid fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry – with contextual guidance and original close readings. Accessible and thrillingly rigorous, On Morrison is a primer not only on how to read one of the most significant American authors of our time, but how to approach any great work of literature. The conversation between the two black women artist-readers that rises from these pages is stylish, edifying and spectacular in its scope and erudition.
'Breathtaking, provocative, and refreshing' IMANI PERRY
'A literary miracle' KIESE LAYMON author of An American Memoir
'Incisive, tender, and also honest and unsparing’ HANIF ABDURRAQIB, author of A Little Devil in America
370 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 17, 2026
42 people are currently reading
9058 people want to read
About the author
Namwali Serpell
24 books753 followersNAMWALI SERPELL is a Zambian writer who teaches at UC Berkeley. She received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award in 2011 and was selected for the Africa 39 in 2014. She won the 2015 Caine Prize for African Writing.
THE OLD DRIFT is her first novel. The chapter entitled "The Falls" is derived from The Autobiography of An Old Drifter, by the historical figure, Percy M. Clark (1874-1937).
THE OLD DRIFT is her first novel. The chapter entitled "The Falls" is derived from The Autobiography of An Old Drifter, by the historical figure, Percy M. Clark (1874-1937).
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June 5, 2025Can't wait to get back on my Toni Morrison bullshit in 2026.
February 21, 2026
an astonishing deep dive into toni morrison’s oeuvre. i’ve only read the bluest eye, sula, song of solomon, and beloved so far, and it was great to get more insight into morrison’s themes and the brilliant way she used language to convey them. i plan on reading tar baby next, so i took notes from its chapter here on what to look out for when i do pick it up.
i can see myself returning to this book as i make my way through the rest of morrison’s work because of how well-researched and carefully thought out each section is. if you haven’t read many of morrison’s books, i would recommend jumping around in on morrison - read the chapters about her books you’ve already read, and return to it as you read the rest of her novels. because of how deep serpell goes, it can be a bit overwhelming reading straight through about the books you’re not yet familiar with. if you’ve read more of morrison’s work than i have, i’m sure you will get even more insight out of this one than i did.
thank you to hogarth and netgalley for the digital copy!
i can see myself returning to this book as i make my way through the rest of morrison’s work because of how well-researched and carefully thought out each section is. if you haven’t read many of morrison’s books, i would recommend jumping around in on morrison - read the chapters about her books you’ve already read, and return to it as you read the rest of her novels. because of how deep serpell goes, it can be a bit overwhelming reading straight through about the books you’re not yet familiar with. if you’ve read more of morrison’s work than i have, i’m sure you will get even more insight out of this one than i did.
thank you to hogarth and netgalley for the digital copy!
February 19, 2026
Big thanks to Random House and NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy of Namwali Serpell’s brilliant new in-depth analysis of the works of American Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison titled On Morrison. If I could give this book 10 stars, one for each insightful chapter focused on Morrison’s novels, a play, a book of critical essays, and a short story, I would. This book was absolutely a joy to read, especially if you love literature and reading or were an English major. I had the pleasure of reading Song of Solomon and Beloved in two different lit courses in my undergrad studies, and I still remember how much Morrison’s writing both challenged and delighted me. It’s not just her characters and storytelling, but it’s her language- her imagery, the chiasmus, the metaphors, all of these literary and rhetorical devices that English majors become acquainted with- used to mastery to create worlds and beings so realistic and imbued with such emotion, passion, love, pain, loss, and sorrow. Reading Morrison in class, pairing the readings with research and criticism, discussing the findings and developing a thesis to argue for a research paper all helped me better understand some of the ideas and conceptions that Morrison grappled with in her writing, and Dr. Serpell’s book brought back all of that dialogue and debate, creating a Bakhtinian reading experience that also references the talking book and the kind of reading that Morrison reminded Orpah was necessary in literature. On Morrison is a book that I wish I had access to in undergrad or even when I was teaching Beloved to high school students. Not only does Dr. Serpell look at the kinds of dialogues and influences that Morrison’s books engage in, but she also gets into textual analysis, examining specific lines and sections from Morrison’s novels and other works to show these influences, the traditions, and signifying, demonstrating how Morrison not only engaged with classical and “canonical” literature, but also incorporated African American literature, history, themes, and language. On Morrison is such an important book not only because it assesses and addresses the first female Black Nobel Laureate in American history, but it also serves as a great model for students to learn textual analysis and close reading. It takes that kind of literary scholarship, which can seem foreign and intimidating to students, and makes it more accessible for students and others who may be interested in Morrison’s work but not necessarily studying her for a course. Furthermore, Dr. Serpell’s work helps readers appreciate Morrison, but also understand her place in American and world literature. While I wasn’t sure if this book would be more of a contextualized biography of Morrison’s life and works, it was so much more, and I felt as if this book was a course itself. I learned so much from this book, not only about Morrison’s life, but more about her work and how to consider her work and works of other writers like Hurston, Jean Toomer, William Faulkner, and Ralph Ellison. I also added to my “To Read” list with other writers who may have influenced Morrison’s writing. More importantly, though, Dr. Serpell’s book evoked memories, or the kind of re-memory from Beloved, where I kept thinking about friends, colleagues, and students, and how Morrison factored into so many of our conversations throughout my career as a student and teacher. Maybe my experience is unique, but I hope that others who have read and experienced Morrison’s novels may have a similar experience.
I haven’t read all of Morrison’s books; in fact, I’ve only read 5 of the books in this book. Two of them I read for classes; I’ve taught Beloved, which was its own emotionally fraught experience, and I’ve read 3 others on my own (The Bluest Eye, A Mercy, and Home), and my experience reading for class and teaching Beloved was much different than reading on my own. Dr. Serpell’s book was helpful in reconsidering these books, their themes, and how they relate to some of Morrison’s other works, as well as the works of other writers. In particular I appreciated the chapter dedicated to Morrison’s 3 later novels. Rather than addressing these novels with their own individual chapters, Dr. Serpell notes how there’s a difference with these novels than with Morrison’s earlier works. Furthermore, the last chapter indicates Morrison’s ambivalence to monuments, even though she has a hall in Princeton named after her. As Dr. Serpell notes too, citing Edward Said, later works can sometimes not only challenge or push against the previous work, raising complexities and contradictions with the artists (see notes Beethoven’s later works as a reference point), but that they can also provide insight into how the artists view their own works. It’s a fascinating chapter that lovingly critiques Morrison’s work, both in its differences and similarities to other works, and seeks not to monumentalize or memorialize her, but rather to further rearrange the puzzle pieces of her works to evoke a new or reimagined image. She used a bingo card to present some of the recurring themes, motifs, characters, and images that help readers better understand possible meanings in Morrison’s work. It’s both brilliant and funny. In addition, this chapter also focuses on Morrison’s experiments, and the many failures or the abandoned projects that were never midwifed into publication. This was also fascinating to read, and it was also a reminder of how even Nobel Laureates and the greats of American Literature even sometimes struggle with the writing process. I really enjoyed Dr. Serpell’s critiques of Morrison’s poetry, which I didn’t even know existed. However, it was the analysis of A Mercy, a book I read 17 years ago, shortly after it was first published, and really struggled to make meaning of it. Dr. Serpell’s analysis was clear, thoughtful, and provided much to consider. I loved seeing how A Mercy was in dialogue with other books from Morrison’s worlds. Reading this analysis definitely made me want to revisit the book to see many of the characters, stories, symbols, and language that I missed on my initial, isolated read.
Other chapters focus on specific texts- mostly novels, but one chapter focuses Morrison’s short story “Recitatif”, which was another experiment in removing racial identifiers from the main characters. I looked forward to reading each chapter, savoring them, going back to re-read longer passages of analysis and finding agreement with the connections and conclusions Dr. Serpell delivers. I think that Beloved was probably my favorite chapter, just because it’s a novel I’ve read and taught so many times, yet I learned so much more from this. While I recognize Beloved is a haunted house, ghost, and even a possession story, I never thought about the book in relation to the popular horror of the 80s, like Stephen King and Anne Rice. However, a few years ago, I read Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and James Welch’s Fools Crow, which were both published around the same time as Beloved. I couldn’t help but wonder if these books influenced Morrison at all. Similarly, when reading the chapter focused on The Bluest Eye, about the isolation and deprivation of Pecola, I wondered whether Morrison may have been influenced by McCarthy’s dark tale of isolation and alienation Child of God, or Welch’s earlier novel Winter in the Blood, which is another tale of fragmentation and identity. Although this book was published later than The Bluest Eye, maybe Welch read Morrison’s book and was influenced. I also kept thinking about Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments, another book I read for an African Literature course that has haunted me for nearly 30 years. This is another book about the power of colonization and corporations to created a fragmented sense of identity, where the main character truly loses a sense of his self due to the westernization of Ghana. It was published around the same time as The Bluest Eye, so I’m not sure if Morrison had any advanced notice of it, or maybe it was just something in the chronotope of the time period. It’s been more than 20 years since I read The Bluest Eye, and it’s not necessarily a book I want to revisit immediately, but reading Dr. Serpell’s analysis and connections made me want to revisit these texts to see how Morrison may have been in dialogue with some other writers of her time.
In addition, I couldn’t help but think of Sarah Chihaya’s memoir Blbliophobia, where she recounts her close emotional connection to reading and texts. Chihaya mentioned that The Bluest Eye was the text that she referred to as a “life ruiner,” since it opened her eyes to racism and self-hatred. Although I didn’t have the same experience, I do agree that reading Toni Morrison is an emotional and evocative experience. It’s transcendent and moving, a rare, but important experience that some of us may have when reading or engaging with great art that maybe doesn’t make us feel great, but that makes us feel a range of emotions, helping us to be more empathetic and understanding. Reading Namwali Serpell’s On Morrison was a thick love experience, like Sethe tells Paul D. “Thin love ain’t no love at all.” Dr. Serpell’s book, like most of Morrison’s books, is a loving experience, and one that is particularly thick in love. I could go on and on about this book, but I highly recommend it. Again, thanks to Random House and NetGalley, but more importantly thanks to Dr. Serpell for her brilliant writing and analysis about Toni Morrison. I will be revisiting this book, and it is one that I would share excerpts with students as well. Just an incredible read!
I haven’t read all of Morrison’s books; in fact, I’ve only read 5 of the books in this book. Two of them I read for classes; I’ve taught Beloved, which was its own emotionally fraught experience, and I’ve read 3 others on my own (The Bluest Eye, A Mercy, and Home), and my experience reading for class and teaching Beloved was much different than reading on my own. Dr. Serpell’s book was helpful in reconsidering these books, their themes, and how they relate to some of Morrison’s other works, as well as the works of other writers. In particular I appreciated the chapter dedicated to Morrison’s 3 later novels. Rather than addressing these novels with their own individual chapters, Dr. Serpell notes how there’s a difference with these novels than with Morrison’s earlier works. Furthermore, the last chapter indicates Morrison’s ambivalence to monuments, even though she has a hall in Princeton named after her. As Dr. Serpell notes too, citing Edward Said, later works can sometimes not only challenge or push against the previous work, raising complexities and contradictions with the artists (see notes Beethoven’s later works as a reference point), but that they can also provide insight into how the artists view their own works. It’s a fascinating chapter that lovingly critiques Morrison’s work, both in its differences and similarities to other works, and seeks not to monumentalize or memorialize her, but rather to further rearrange the puzzle pieces of her works to evoke a new or reimagined image. She used a bingo card to present some of the recurring themes, motifs, characters, and images that help readers better understand possible meanings in Morrison’s work. It’s both brilliant and funny. In addition, this chapter also focuses on Morrison’s experiments, and the many failures or the abandoned projects that were never midwifed into publication. This was also fascinating to read, and it was also a reminder of how even Nobel Laureates and the greats of American Literature even sometimes struggle with the writing process. I really enjoyed Dr. Serpell’s critiques of Morrison’s poetry, which I didn’t even know existed. However, it was the analysis of A Mercy, a book I read 17 years ago, shortly after it was first published, and really struggled to make meaning of it. Dr. Serpell’s analysis was clear, thoughtful, and provided much to consider. I loved seeing how A Mercy was in dialogue with other books from Morrison’s worlds. Reading this analysis definitely made me want to revisit the book to see many of the characters, stories, symbols, and language that I missed on my initial, isolated read.
Other chapters focus on specific texts- mostly novels, but one chapter focuses Morrison’s short story “Recitatif”, which was another experiment in removing racial identifiers from the main characters. I looked forward to reading each chapter, savoring them, going back to re-read longer passages of analysis and finding agreement with the connections and conclusions Dr. Serpell delivers. I think that Beloved was probably my favorite chapter, just because it’s a novel I’ve read and taught so many times, yet I learned so much more from this. While I recognize Beloved is a haunted house, ghost, and even a possession story, I never thought about the book in relation to the popular horror of the 80s, like Stephen King and Anne Rice. However, a few years ago, I read Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian and James Welch’s Fools Crow, which were both published around the same time as Beloved. I couldn’t help but wonder if these books influenced Morrison at all. Similarly, when reading the chapter focused on The Bluest Eye, about the isolation and deprivation of Pecola, I wondered whether Morrison may have been influenced by McCarthy’s dark tale of isolation and alienation Child of God, or Welch’s earlier novel Winter in the Blood, which is another tale of fragmentation and identity. Although this book was published later than The Bluest Eye, maybe Welch read Morrison’s book and was influenced. I also kept thinking about Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments, another book I read for an African Literature course that has haunted me for nearly 30 years. This is another book about the power of colonization and corporations to created a fragmented sense of identity, where the main character truly loses a sense of his self due to the westernization of Ghana. It was published around the same time as The Bluest Eye, so I’m not sure if Morrison had any advanced notice of it, or maybe it was just something in the chronotope of the time period. It’s been more than 20 years since I read The Bluest Eye, and it’s not necessarily a book I want to revisit immediately, but reading Dr. Serpell’s analysis and connections made me want to revisit these texts to see how Morrison may have been in dialogue with some other writers of her time.
In addition, I couldn’t help but think of Sarah Chihaya’s memoir Blbliophobia, where she recounts her close emotional connection to reading and texts. Chihaya mentioned that The Bluest Eye was the text that she referred to as a “life ruiner,” since it opened her eyes to racism and self-hatred. Although I didn’t have the same experience, I do agree that reading Toni Morrison is an emotional and evocative experience. It’s transcendent and moving, a rare, but important experience that some of us may have when reading or engaging with great art that maybe doesn’t make us feel great, but that makes us feel a range of emotions, helping us to be more empathetic and understanding. Reading Namwali Serpell’s On Morrison was a thick love experience, like Sethe tells Paul D. “Thin love ain’t no love at all.” Dr. Serpell’s book, like most of Morrison’s books, is a loving experience, and one that is particularly thick in love. I could go on and on about this book, but I highly recommend it. Again, thanks to Random House and NetGalley, but more importantly thanks to Dr. Serpell for her brilliant writing and analysis about Toni Morrison. I will be revisiting this book, and it is one that I would share excerpts with students as well. Just an incredible read!
February 19, 2026
Thank you to Net Galley and Penguin Random House for the ARC of On Morrison.
Author / Professor Namwali Serpell uses On Morrison to focus on Morrison’s writings, focusing on a different book in each chapter. In the chapter that covers the book Sula, Serpell highlights names of characters; on verbal wit and “playing the dozens” in the chapter on Song of Solomon; and stereotypes throughout culture and language in the chapter on Tar Baby. Serpell does a fine job of tying the themes covered in each chapter and tying them back to Morrison’s history as a writer or her personal life story, depending on the topic. Serpell even includes a critical look at Morrison’s poetry, an area of work that has not drawn the same attention as the novels Morrison has written. The chapters and the introduction shows the scholarly eye used by Serpell throughout the book, and is a fine read and reflection of Morrison’s work. I highly recommend On Morrison.
Author / Professor Namwali Serpell uses On Morrison to focus on Morrison’s writings, focusing on a different book in each chapter. In the chapter that covers the book Sula, Serpell highlights names of characters; on verbal wit and “playing the dozens” in the chapter on Song of Solomon; and stereotypes throughout culture and language in the chapter on Tar Baby. Serpell does a fine job of tying the themes covered in each chapter and tying them back to Morrison’s history as a writer or her personal life story, depending on the topic. Serpell even includes a critical look at Morrison’s poetry, an area of work that has not drawn the same attention as the novels Morrison has written. The chapters and the introduction shows the scholarly eye used by Serpell throughout the book, and is a fine read and reflection of Morrison’s work. I highly recommend On Morrison.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
A fascinating look at a towering author whose work is too often treated to reductive or tendentious readings that seek to further contribute to Morrison's well-deserved canonization in American literature. What remains most fascinating about Serpell's readings is her steadfast commitment to reading Morrison, turning us repeatedly to the texts themselves as well as great archival materials in order to wrestle with their difficulty, a difficulty so often elided in mass cultural reception of Morrison as a reparative, identitarian writer. This is particularly the case in Serpell's fantastic chapter on Beloved. Serpell's essays bring Morrison back to us in all her beauty and complexity.
February 21, 2026
A luminous dive into memory, art, and the enduring echoes of Toni Morrison’s legacy.
Namwali Serpell’s prose is as intricate as it is lyrical, weaving together biography, reflection, and literary homage. At times, the narrative meanders, but it feels purposeful—inviting readers to sit with ideas rather than just events.
Serpell’s insight into Morrison’s life and work is sharp and tender, with explorations of race, storytelling, and cultural memory that linger long after the last page. The blend of personal reflection and literary analysis creates a rare, immersive experience.
Perfect for fans of literary biography and anyone eager to feel Morrison’s presence anew.
Namwali Serpell’s prose is as intricate as it is lyrical, weaving together biography, reflection, and literary homage. At times, the narrative meanders, but it feels purposeful—inviting readers to sit with ideas rather than just events.
Serpell’s insight into Morrison’s life and work is sharp and tender, with explorations of race, storytelling, and cultural memory that linger long after the last page. The blend of personal reflection and literary analysis creates a rare, immersive experience.
Perfect for fans of literary biography and anyone eager to feel Morrison’s presence anew.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
An incredibly detailed and deep look into the works of Toni Morrison, one book (mostly) at a time. Serpell is such a thorough and thoughtful reader and writer. She is sleuth-like in how she unpacks all of the complexities in Morrison's work, and she takes great care to give Morrison the rigorous analysis she deserves. My only complaint is that this book is dense, and reading it all the way through it got overwhelming by the end. I would suggest reading this slowly over time (even returning to it as you read the books she unpacks).
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
This book was not exactly what I was expecting. I thought I would learn a little more about Morrison as well as her works but it was mostly a breakdown of each of her works and what certain phrases could signify. It felt like being in high school English class again. The analysis was great and spot on but it was not the kind of book I was looking to read.
February 21, 2026
Will re-read in greater detail as I work my way through Morrison's books.
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