Jesse’s Reviews > Tar Baby > Status Update

The absolute BOMBSHELL dropped during the Christmas dinner, the immediate aftermath, and then the second act is heartbreaking. I wasn’t exactly expecting compassion for the tyrannical Valerian and his child-abusing wife, Margaret, but that’s what I got because Toni Morrison is the absolute best. This drama is juxtaposed with the wide-eyed romance of Son and Jadine, a joy of poetry.

I honestly have no idea where this story is going outside of Jade and Son maybe getting together based on how a major part of the tale is how “white” Jade acts and thus her relationship with her “blackness” and it’s hit head on the moment that Son starts harassing her, telling her how a woman of African descent OUGHT to act. But we also have our first taste of the story’s compassion for him.

In a vague way I’m reminded of The Sundial but Morrison’s compassionate sketches of each of the characters, both the eccentric whites and the blacks who move around them, make this a compelling story for entirely different reasons. One of Jackson’s dark talents was in illustrating what to laugh at; Morrison highlights what to ache, what to cry for. Her humanism is not solely in revealing faults.

This story hits a bit different because it affords a much deeper examination of the power dynamics between blacks and whites, with much of the opening carried between the (white) elderly Valerian and his 20 or so year younger wife, while his two long-time (black) servants work on the periphery. It is sort of the backdrop of Jadeine, the servants’ daughter, who is educated in addition to being a magazine model.