Toni Morrison - RIP

[ejp626]

Toni Morrison passed away at the age of 88 - https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/aug/06/toni-morrison-author-and-pulitzer-winner-dies-aged-88

I actually saw her at University of Michigan giving the Tanner Lectures that was eventually published in Michigan Quarterly Review - https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2019/02/unspeakable-things-unspoken-the-afro-american-presence-in-american-literature/ (This link gives a significant portion of the lecture, though then you have to go page by page through the archive for the rest.)  The themes are fairly similar to the Massey Lectures that were published as Playing in the Dark.

I have to be honest that I kind of run hot and cold with her novels and pretty much stopped reading them at Jazz (more due to running short of time than anything else).  I recognize the importance of The Bluest Eye but don't love it.  Beloved left me fairly cold.  My favorites among her novels are Song of Solomon and Tar Baby. 

I think this year I will commit to rereading The Bluest Eye (it is quite short) and Song of Solomon.  I'll then restart with Jazz and try to read one or two of her later novels each year until I get through them all.

[Milestones]

She was a great writer, and will be a long remembered--though there's not much respect for novelists anymore.

I was close to Morrison a couple of times, first when she gave a stunning reading from Beloved at Cleveland Stat University (I was in the Master's program then) and later when she appeared at the Toni Morrison conference at Lorain County Community College, where I teach.  But she was low-key there and I had no chance to talk to her or shake her hand. 

I have long taught The Bluest Eye, which is favored around here since it's the only one with a Lorain setting.  A very good book, but not her best.

I think everyone should read Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved.  Among later novels, A Mercy is quite good.