What I love about this author is not just her flawlessly executed prose, but her unique artistic angle, yet untouched by any other writer. And although I appreciate and admire her other novels (Beloved is beyond doubt a World Classic of the 20th Century), I think that with Tar Baby, Ms. Morrison is at her most entertaining. The novel is alive with the pages practically turning themselves.

It is a novel filled with humour and human truths about love and relationships. It is a moving indictment on race, money, and identity. It is as complex as Uncle Remus Tar Baby tale. It opens your mind without solving any questions. But above all it is a fun novel.

Read it and be all the more wiser for doing so.

Uncle Remus and his tar-baby reigns ahigh on this amazing book as the absolute lord and ultimate trap he is. Three black couples confronted to one white one. Where is the trap ? The trap is the white mirage represented by this white couple. The mirage is little by little unveiled for what it is : an appearance that covers up an ugly and bleak human reality under the surface of the money they made on the back of the blacks by selling them some candy. This novel is deeply inspired by European playwrights. We recognize Ionesco in the suffering of a black woman due to her being reduced to a sex object, a bitch that the black dogs come and sniff for recognition before taking her. We recognize Beckett and his famous Godot in the son of the white family, a son who will never come for the special Christmas party prepared by the mother who is revealed as a tormentor. The alienation of the black couple who have served the white family for a lifetime is exposed, not so much in their unconsciousness, because they know they are alienated, but in their acceptance of it because it provides stability, in contrast with another couple of servants who do not even have names for these first two couples and are dismissed by the white boss because they tried to steal a few apples, a rare exotic fruit in this tropical west indian island where the action takes place. The whole action is concentrated on the third black couple : the orphan niece of the lifetime black servants who was educated by the white family and a black runaway who is the tar-baby in the book. He is the one who sees the alienation of the blacks in this white colonial society. He knows how the whites are destroying the world and eventually themselves in this attempt to possess and transform nature by killing anything that stands in their way or enslaving anybody that they need. He knows the racial divide and cannot evade it. He is the tar-baby of the black world of the night that breathes and haunts the darkest side of life. He doesn't even have a real name. He is the trap that will try to capture the attention and then the affection of the niece of the black servants. Will he succeed ? No, because it is impossible. How will he fail ? That is the whole novel. Will the niece get stuck in this tar-baby ? No, because there are many other tar-babies to fall for. How will she evade him ? That is the whole novel. What will happen to him when his being the tar-baby trap he is supposed to be will fail and be rejected ? That is the whole novel. A blind black woman will lead him back to his black inferno over a black sea in the blackest of all nights. The book then becomes an allegory of black fate in America. Black men are trapped in their historical heritage and are unable to liberate themselves from this mental and social slavery, in a word the cultural slavery it has become over the decades of liberation and education. They are unable to see that they have to climb over the fragile and perilous rocks of this heritage, beaten up by the waves of the demented reality of life and made slippery by the foam and scum of the ocean of reality, through education and social ambition, unable to see that they can do it if they want to do it. Women are lured into being their accessories by their mutual (both coming from men and women) sexual desires and their need to be needed by a man. To escape this fate they can only fly away to some European white man who will worship them and put them on a pedestal. But will they really be free ? Will they really be what they are : black women with a complete potential and personality or just some fetichised sex object ? The novel is particularly pessimistic about the possibility for these sons and daughters of black slavery in America to find a way to liberation and realization without betraying their forefathers, without forgetting where they are coming from, without losing their souls to the devil of sentimental stability, the worshipping love of some white man, a mirror of their dreams that is fathomless and at the same time empty. You can escape the tar-baby of black historical heritage but is it not only to fall into the trap of the tar-baby of the fetichising and alienating looking glass of the whites ? Is there any real liberation for these black men and women in this white society ? Toni Morrison delivers a chilling message about the impossibility to escape from this reality except by evading the question.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU

Very Long and didn't like the ending but other than that it was okay- don't regret reading it

OK, I didn't understand all of this novel, but I liked it. Being a 46 year old white male I probably never will undestand it all. How ever, I can report that the character studies of Valerian Street and his wife ("The principal beauty of Maine") are some of the most devistatingly accurate upper class character studies I've ever read, and very funny in a vitriolic way. This is my introduction to Toni Morrison, and I plan to read more.

In reading Toni Morrison's striking novel Tar Baby, I came to characterize Jadine as a cultural orphan. The two often times conflicting worlds of white and black juxtapose along the lines of social, cultural and political demarcation. In the midst of such duality exists the character of Jadine, who symbolizes a contemporaneous example of the black female in a post-Civil Rights moment. Jadine is a woman who is educated, elevated and moneyed and in sharp contrast to the perceived notions of what it means to be black and female in a time of vast social and political change.

Jadine is a woman trying to escape the stigma associated with her class position. Her family has money, but finds it hard to truly identify with them. She has no allegiance to African-American cities; she had received an education at the Sorbonne and was afforded the kind of lifestyle that is alien to many African-American women of her time. Jadine finds herself torn between the black world and the white world, fitting into neither. She equates her position as a black female in the culture through two dogs copulating in a street in Baltimore, Maryland. She is in a working-class situation and does not enjoy it - especially since she witnessed the "other side of the tracks," figuratively speaking, and saw life through the rose-colored lenses of the white world.

Jadine is part of a new generation - one that did not grow up in a segregated society. The culture she is in and the lifestyle she inherited is predominately white - her upbringing, her education and her outlook.

African-American culture is a hybrid culture, leading one to wonder why Jadine would be viewed as a cultural orphan, but there are political reasons, which determine why we rally under the flag of race or gender or sexual preference, etc. There is a change in the culture and Jadine is reflective of such change in a culture that has always been hybrid since its very beginnings. Toni Morrison, through the characterization of Jadine in the novel of Tar Baby is trying to redefine the parameters and scope of the term "culture" and gerrymander its boundaries.

Name the big Black romance novels. I dare you. Name them all. Ok, five, name five romance novels centralized around Black characters, in love, loving, making love, living well, being well that doesn't have four women as successful best friends?
Go ahead, I'll wait.
Toni Morrison is not easy. Do not mistake her ever for easy, do not mistake her subject matters for simple to pierce or to understand. I agree with the previous reviewer, people expect books to be like TV. And they aren't. Good books anyway. Books that are literature. This book is literature.
Hopefully more will come along, more romance that mean something, that say something about culture, about color, about power and the abuses.
Son is all of the projected racial fears and Jadine is the homogenized Black America wants Black people to be/to become. Grateful and still on some level serving in the kitchen (Sydney and his wife). Black people are required to be so much within this world, this America. Savage, erudite, butler, maid/cook and yet all of the characters here in the book, that are White, are one form (rich) here. White is a decision to be, to be a thing, rich, poor, bohemian, angry, depressed, rebllious, vane, but all that is shiftable, malleable. Black however is static from White perception and being Black from the inside out? That's birth from a dead womb.

_Tar Baby_ tells of the relationships of a wealthy white couple, Valerian and his wife, Margaret, and a black couple, Sydney and Onadine, who have been their servants for many years. The setting is a manor on an island in the Caribbean. One of the subplots concerns Margaret's tortured relationship with her estranged son, Michael. Onadine shares a terrible secret with Margaret concerning the son.

Adding to the novel's complexity is the black couple's beautiful niece, Jadine, who lives with them and who has received an education at the Sorbonne, paid for in entirety by Valerian. Jadine finds herself torn between the black world and the white world, fitting into neither. To further complicate matters, Jadine later falls in love with a handsome black man who is called "Son," among other names, who has hidden himself in one of Margaret's closets after jumping ship. He is also on the lam due to his previous commission of a foolish crime of passion. Realizing her potential, Jadine is frightened of being trapped, like the limited, poorly educated, dirt poor women whom she meets while on an extended visit to Son's friends and family in Florida. Jadine is suffocating in this atmosphere, and is particularly haunted at night by obesssive thoughts of the women. To Jadine, Son will always remain their "son," an ignorant and irresponsible child, without any direction in life.

This deliciously complex novel of race, family, and above all, human relations, could only have been done justice by writer of the caliber and sensitivity of a Toni Morrison. Ms. Morrison, an African-American and a woman, is able to find the nuances and subtleties inherent in the black experience that someone else would have difficulty understanding. _Tar Baby_ is a triumph in every way.

"Tar Baby" by Toni Morrison sets off on the Isle des Chevalier where Valerian and Margaret Street lived in the fancy rooms upstairs and the colored servants; Ondine and Sydney lived in the second-hand use furniture downstairs. Along with the other members of the household lived the servants' niece, Jadine, who stayed occasionally when she was away from modeling in Paris of New York. During the vacation stay, Margaret awaits for the arrival of her son, Michael who is supposed to show up for Christmas. But the cynical Valerian doubts his visit because of a mysterious reason. Amidst the waiting, one night, Margaret discovers a big black man hiding in her closet. Everyone is alarmed of his trespass, except for Valerian. Not only is Valerian calm of his trespass, but also invites this man to the dinner table. While Margaret, Sydney, and Ondine disapprove of this "nigger," Valerian gets to know him better and a special, but strange relationship develops between Jadine and the mystery man. Finally, Christmas time comes and the family still awaits Michael. Not only does his visit become questionable, but also trouble arises the dinner table when both the colored and non-colored are seated together. I highly recommend this book to someone who is willing to appreciate Morrison's vivid descriptions. Some drawbacks are the overuse of information, but is still worth reading. This book is rather complicated and keeps you hanging on what will be on the next page, but is worth the time to read.

Good English skills, worth one star, rambling on in endless and trifle details lead to no conclusions in a mesh of decadent white masters full of caprice and down-to-earth-like-in-roots black servants. The one character that came through believable, is the queen of the soldier ants. Lack of phantasies and an absent talent of spellbinding make it utterly boring to the end, lickety-lickety-lickety split. gerborguta

hoothoot420.
I found this book slow untill the middle and end. it wasnt as good as SULA, but it was laright. It is a story about love, abuse, and rascism. the White couple Margarete and Valerian have a son that later on in the novel you find that she abused the boy terribly, she burnt him, stuck him in the behind with pins and cut him. it is a good book, and i spose if someone asked i would recommend it

Tar Baby is the story of a young, successful, black model, who lives between the world of successful white people and her own black heritage. She continually struggles with the indebtedness that she feels towards her white benefactor and his wife. Jade's relationship with her benefactor is further complicated by the fact that her aunt and uncle, by whom she was raised, work as domestic help in the home of her benefactor Valerian Street.
The dynamics of the relationships between the members of the household keep you wondering from one moment to the next what will occur.
Margaret and Jade had a good relationship with their Aunt Ondine, but as the relationship between Margaret and Valerian continues, their relationship begins to decline. Sydney, Ondine's husband and his employer, Mr. Street get along very well. Sydney is very grateful for all the advantages that he has been given by Valerian.
Margaret who has befriended Jade, is less than emotionally stable. On several occasions Margaret has had episodes where she cannot remember how to do the most simple of tasks. She is also obsessed with an upcoming Christmas visit from her estranged son.
When a young black man is found hiding in the closet of Margaret Street, the whole mansion is thrown into chaos. The man is ragged and unclean. Margaret enters the dining room screaming about an intruder in her closet. Valerian, who sometimes tends to give little credence to his wife, ignores her. Sydney responds to the situation and goes to Margaret's aid. He brings the intruder to the dining room at gun point, where he is invited to join the dinner gathering by Valerian. This is Valerian's way of getting back at Margaret for her obsession with their estranged son.
The entire situation explodes and things are said by all members of the household and it is disclosed by Ondine that Margaret had physically abused her son when he was a child and that is the reason for her obsession with him, as well as her unstable emotional state.
To make matters even worse, Jade is attracted to this dangerous stranger and they run off together. She sees in him the side of her black heritage that she is out of touch with because of her success.
Throughout the entire book, you are treated to poetic, symbolic and descriptive writing by, Nobel Peace Prize winner, Toni Morrison. She explores the relationship of a black man true to his black heritage and a young woman who is molded by the white culture that has made her who she is.
The story explores relationships between blacks and whites, as well as the relationships between black people who have been given very different opportunities in life. It also examines how successful black people treat those less fortunate of their race.

This was the first book I read by Toni Morrison . I beleive I was 10 years old and it was exactly what I neede to hear. As a dark-skinned Black girl, I had images about me thrust upon me, but to read someone articulate all this subterfuge about me regarding color, colorism within the Black community was amazing. I no longer felt like I was the only one. that was along tme ago, but upon re-reading 'Tar Baby' last Summer, I wa still amazed how powerful this book is.

"No, a star star. In the sky. Keep your eyes closed, think about what it feels like to be one." He moved over to her and kissed her shoulder. "Imagine yourself in that dark, all alone in the sky at night. Nobody is around you. You are by yourself, just shining there. You know how a star is supposed to twinkle? We say twinkle because that is how it looks, but when a star feels itself, it's not a twinkle, it's more like a throb. Star throbs. Over and over and over. Like this. Stars just throb and throb and throb and sometimes, when they can't throb anymore, when they can't hold it anymore, they fall out of the sky." -Tony Morrison

A man jumps off a boat and finally makes it to shore on an island in the Caribbean -- an island filled with images, past and present, disturbing and haunting, myth and legend. He discovers and falls instantly in love with a spunky sophisticate named Jadine. The story weaves its way through the island, the love story, and winds itself around Jadine's hosts and adopted family -- a rich, old-moneyed, Philadelphia factory owner and his wife and servants. While waiting for Christmas guests and family members, a fragile string is unwound which uncovers a deeply buried secret. After this secret surfaces, nothing is ever the same. Everyone present is caught in the tar baby of that secret, and the ramifications of its discovery affect everyone's lives ever after.

This is much more than a love story, however, the love story is exquisitely passionate, memorable, enlightening and poignant. This author is a masterful storyteller, and she completely captivates with mesmerizingly beautiful prose. Want to know more? Read this beautiful and disturbing book. Highly recommended!

i finally read this book because i was told by a close friend that i reminded her of jadine. once i began to read i instantly saw her point. jadine, perhaps the most interesting next to margret, is the 1990/2000 black woman. educated. successful. partially assimilated. but never quite whole. jadine has no counterpart. she is never truly satisfied with her success because her black man has failed to join her. the relationship between jadine and son (who is a classic case of the black boy who never develops into a man...see john singleton's babyboy)is classic because it is an illustration of the upwardly mobile woman trying to love a man who is sometimes strangled by his hostility and down right contrary nature. don't get me wrong, jadine is no angel, as she has plenty of identity issues, but i do see a lot of myself in her. why should she have to marry a white man? why can't her man grow up and live in the present world rather than his delusions and hostility. can we really blame jadine for wanting more?

Yes, she's a great writer, but I did not enjoy this book as much as I adored Beloved and The Bluest Eye. Actually, this should be a play.

Now, I love reading plays, but the bouncing back and forth between a theater-like dialogue and "scenes from a novel" bothered me. I couldn't get into it as I have her other superb novels. I'll keep trying, however. This is my second run at it and I held on a bit longer. Frankly, I found Jadine rather boring, too. The stereotyping of all the characters wasn't oppressive - it just seemed too burlesque...once again, theater.

If I was a producer, I'd consider mounting "Tar Baby" on Broadway - and no, I am not talking musical comedy, though it has that quality, too.

Yes, she's a great writer, but I did not enjoy this book as much as I adored Beloved and The Bluest Eye. Actually, this should be a play.

Now, I love reading plays, but the bouncing back and forth between a theater-like dialogue and "scenes from a novel" bothered me. I couldn't get into it as I have her other superb novels. I'll keep trying, however. This is my second run at it and I held on a bit longer. Frankly, I found Jadine rather boring, too. The stereotyping of all the characters wasn't oppressive - it just seemed too burlesque...once again, theater.

If I was a producer, I'd consider mounting "Tar Baby" on Broadway - and no, I am not talking musical comedy, though it has that quality, too.

Yes, she's a great writer, but I did not enjoy this book as much as I adored Beloved and The Bluest Eye. Actually, this should be a play.

Now, I love reading plays, but the bouncing back and forth between a theater-like dialogue and "scenes from a novel" bothered me. I couldn't get into it as I have her other superb novels. I'll keep trying, however. This is my second run at it and I held on a bit longer. Frankly, I found Jadine rather boring, too. The stereotyping of all the characters wasn't oppressive - it just seemed too burlesque...once again, theater.

If I was a producer, I'd consider mounting "Tar Baby" on Broadway - and no, I am not talking musical comedy, though it has that quality, too.

Tar Baby appealed to me the second I picked it up from the rack. When I read the brief summary however, I just knew that this was going to be a "love story" with an expected ending. I was pleasantly suprised.

Tar Baby explores relationships--not just man and woman, but black and white, and black and black. It is a novel that creates societal stereotypes, and is persistent in tearing them down by the end of the story. Although there is an intimate relationship between two of the anchor characters, it serves as a definition of society and Morrison's point, and is not the focal point of the story.

A surprising ending--very different, and appealing to the novel. A very easy read; however, I enjoyed it when everything was quiet, and I could "put" myself into the novel as I read it.

"Tar Baby" may not be the most celebrated of Toni Morrison's many memorable novels, but, in my opinion, it's the most fun. Much of the story takes place at the Caribbean mansion of white millionaire Valerian Street. Morrison weaves a deliciously nasty psychodrama involving Street, his flaky wife, the Street's black servants, and Jadine, a young black woman who is niece to the servants and who has been educated thanks to Valerian's money. Into this mix Morrison tosses Son, a dreadlocked black man with a dangerous edge.

"Tar Baby" is a frequently outrageous satire of racial identity, sexual politics, consumer culture, class consciousness, and family dysfunctionality. Her cast of characters is colorfully warped in an almost Dickensian manner. Particularly interesting is the portrait of Jadine, the black wunderkind beloved by her wealthy white patrons; I think of her as a whorish postmodern parody of early African-American poet Phillis Wheatley.

As always, Morrison's writing is marked by passages of poetic power and grace. Check out, for example, this marvelous description of Son's hair: "Wild, aggressive, vicious hair that needed to be put in jail. Uncivilized, reform-school hair. Mau Mau, Attica, chain gang hair."

Ultimately, I read "Tar Baby" as a comic tragedy of people trapped in a complex web of racial, sexual, and economic mythologies. Profane, thought-provoking, ironic, and rich in scathing humor, this novel is ample proof of Toni Morrison's writerly talent.

Because of the trickster elements inherent in most of Ms. Morrison's fiction, her work is often misunderstood or difficult to comprehend. Not so with Tar Baby. Although her literary style is beautifully wrought in this novel of racial and social classism, the fact that the story is linear and conclusive makes it more assessible for casual reading. Ms. Morrison does not shrink from her task of showing the inherent difficulties of the social construct that Americans struggle with in their attempt to define self and others in a hierarchical way. She brillantly illustrates the schizophrenia that such valuations of pigment gradation cause us. She further enhances this intuitive disconnect by developing within the story class gradations. The offensive title of the novel is intentional and confronts the reader immediately with the racist history of the English language in America.

This was the first time Morrison tried to deal with contemporary life (the second time was Paradise) and she fails, miserably. Insted of offering an intelligent critique of consumer culture, Morrison contrasts consumer culture (here identified, in all forms, as "white" and Eurocentric) against a mythical blackness, represented by the character Son and his podunk hometown, Eloe. Son escapes some ship and hides in the house of a wealthy white couple, who just happen to have paid for a young black model to go to the Sorbonne. Morrison carefully sets her stage: on one side, Jade (the model) who is as white as snow because she rejects her black heritage and is grateful that the white couple paid for her schooling; and on the other side is Son and mystical ghosts who visit him, or some nonsuch. Naturally, this being a Morrison novel, neither side wins, but the white people get a good spanking when Morrison reveals that the wife used to abuse her son and the man is more interest in classical music than his family. This couple was written about more memorably, many times over, by Edward Albee in VIRGINIA WOOLF. Is this the best critique Morrison has to offer? Against consumer culture she posits, what, ghosts? Myth? Myth is the very tool of capitalism. Again, Morrison has failed to show how real black people actually live (watching television and reading the paper, not listening to ghosts; living in multi-racial communities, not conveniently isolated all-black ones)in order to make some sort of point about the importance of not forgetting your heritage. When given the choice between two polar opposites -- mythic blackness or false whiteness -- why should either Son or Jade choose. Both strategies are complicit with the capitalist culture Morrison tries to undermine.

In Tar Baby, Morrison explores the various relationshipsAfrican Americans find ourselves engaged in at any given point intime. Tar Baby scrutinizes our relationship to the oppressor and toeach other, parent to child, child to parent, man to woman. In our relationship to the oppessor the novel implies that we are forever wanting and forever in service to. Wanting of acceptance, at times at any cost, while serving him diligently, completely. The desire for acceptance is symbolized, in this reader's opinion, by the novel's title. Was the Jadine character, at her worst, a white woman in black skin? Is her acculturation likened to having poured, like tar, a black coating over the ideals, notions, and behaviors of white women? Is that what happened to Jadine's "ancient properties"?

Ondine and Sydny are passive yet powerful characters having lived their lives in servitude to the Streets and Jadine, whose absent "ancient properties" and connection to self, left her confused, unsure of what to make of her of her own people. Like all of Morrison's novels, Tar Baby is filled with symbolism, lending itself to interpretation base on the reader's life experience. Its messages are raw and intense, its characters as knowable as a long time friend. A great group reading novel.

Morrison draws us into the lives of her characters and has the reader wanting to know what is going to happen to them next. Her characters are not exceptional people with exceptional lives. We get to peak in on their lives for only a short period. However, it is a time that proves to be disruptive to the order of things in all their lives. The book illustrates how fragile and tentative are our own life stories. A single incident can quickly change the order of our lives.

Although I have read every book by Toni Morrison and feel that she is one of the most important and impressive writer of our time, Tar Baby will always have a special place in my heart. I have read this book about 4 or 5 times and it seems that with each reading I delve deeper into the plot, deeper into the psyche of her characters. While Jadine may be shallow on the surface, a "tar baby" constructed to keep the black man in his place, she is also made up of the substance that has held the black community together through so many struggles. Her counterpart, Son is a strong, black men and may never really find a place in society for himself because of what he represents. This book is about an unlikely love between two people that would have been a perfect match in a environment not motivated by race, class or pedigree. Tar Baby is the most underrated Morrison novel. It's a great read and I would recommend it to anybody.

My H.S. Advanced Composition class forced me to read this book, which i normally would not read. I read "Beloved" first, and loved that, so i decided to try "Tar Baby" next. The book was overall a great story, one that kept me interested throughout.....however, i was a bit confused on some aspects. Toni Morrison is very deep...but kudos for her, this was a wonderful depiction of relationships on all aspects.

After reading Tar Baby I was left a bit confused and not happy in the least. When you read Morrison, there is a certain caliber that one expects to see and this novel is completely lacking. It had an interesting plot but the characters were flat and uninteresting. Issues are brought up but not explored as they could be. Overall, I was not impressed with this novel. As always, there are beautful parts but certainly this is not her best work.

In my opinion, this is not Morrison's best work, but the more I think about it after reading it, the more I like it. It starts off slow, but builds momentum as the story and its characters develop. The characters and their struggles are incredibly realistic, and though many have deemed this book "controversial" Morrison effectively explores the issues of race and class with honesty and integrity. There are many stories within a story here, and I recommend it to anyone willing to wait out a slow beginning.

Morrison moved outside of the Ohio setting in her novel Tar Baby. She plays on familiar themes of love and identity and sets most of the action in the Caribbean. This is not Morrison's best work in my opinion. It is an interesting novel, but one I didn't have to work so hard to understand. Her reference to the Tar Baby story and its connection to the novel were well paired. I think that this is a wonderful book, an easy read, but having read her previous works, I was a touch disappointed.

I chose "Tar Baby" for my first Toni Morrison read. It may not be the most natural place to start, nor is it her most celebrated novel. I guess I was intrigued by its subject and the blurb at the back of the book. I wasn't disappointed. As many online reviewers have pointed out, Morrison isn't easy to get into. She can be abstract, even a little obscure in her prose, so you have to concentrate to grasp her message. But I was richly rewarded for my efforts. "Tar Baby"'s multifaceted treatment of gender and racial politics is simply outstanding. She deals with male/female, black/white, parent/child, rural/urban issues, using a plot and a fascinating cast of characters for every last bit of irony inherent in the material. It would make a great movie. Valerian Street escapes to the Caribbean but locks himself in a greenhouse fitted to recreate the familiar environment he seeks to escape from. He is patron to Jadine, material girl and educated niece of his black servants, Sydney and Ondine, yet condescending in his relationship with blacks. He is smug and openly contemptuous of his wife Margaret's bimbo background but isn't remotely prepared for the shock that awaits him when the past is revealed. The big showdown scene between the Streets and their servants in the middle marks an the early climax from which nobody - including the plot - quite recovers. Intentionally or not, it upstages the tumultouse love affair between Jadine and black intruder, Son. Both are black, but that's about as much they have in common with one another. Will they succeed in overcoming the deep cultural divide that separates them ? I won't spoil it for fellow readers. Read the ending and figure it out for yourselves. "Tar Baby" was a fantastic reading experience for me. I loved the book so much I didn't want it to end. Truly.

As I read some of these reviews, I cannot understand how one could bash such a great novel without truly reading it. Those of you that bashed the book, have nothing to back it up with. That is just common sense, though. This angle that Morrison took with this novel was innovative and creative. This is the first time Morrison has used white characters in a novel, and if you read closely, one could parallel some of Jadine's struggles with Morrison's struggle as a publisher in a predominantly white corporate world. As all of the other novels that I have read by Morrison, this one too has very strong in depth characters, that you could place in any setting and still have an enjoyable time reading it. The character development is exquisite and I recommend this book to anyone that wants a challenging and interesting read.

Nothing can be more torturous than reading some of these reviews! Tar Baby is an amazing book - excellently written!

I feel that most people are looking for a quick and easy read, which Tar Baby is not. This book puts the reader into the minds of the characters - not merely superficial thoughts, but deep (and sometimes controversial) feelings.

This book is one of the most racist I have ever read. It is obvious that Morrison is primarily motivated by all consuming hatred. This book is one for the trash can.

One of the things that's often hard in reading other readers' responses to an author that you absolutely adore (and I am an avid Morrison fan) is preparing for the types of reviews that often try to invalidate her or dismiss her because her writing demands so much from us. Yet, I believe her Nobel prize speaks for itself (even for all those who were "forced" into reading her for a class or seminar -or even because Oprah said so), so when others "trash" her, my disgust is not in their inability to appreciate her but in a recurring trend that continues to prove that our mass-media, TV-dominated culture has produced a generation of readers (and I use the term loosely) who no longer appreciate reading a book for the sheer pleasure of how the written language comes together and how an author like Morrison blends both oral culture and myths with written text.

And, folks, you really need that appreciation if you're going to get into a novel like Tar Baby. I believe some very basic knowledge needs to be in place. A) Some knowledge of the African American folktale of the tar baby and Brer Rabbit B.) Some knowledge of the biblical story of Adam and Eve and how religious doctrine has traditionally interpreted it. C.) Some understanding of the "trickster" (and this novel is filled with this figure) tradition in both American and African lore--who is tricked, who's doing the tricking and what is the overall "trick": colonialism? male-female relations? race relations?

I believe that once we recover much of the traditions that someone like Morrison has been exposed to (from the Bible to the blues to Faulkner to Zora Neale Hurston), her novels can be read with some appreciation and respect. . . and love.

I'm not one of those who believe that Morrison as a black woman author is too "marginal" to be appreciated by a "mainstream" reader, but a "true reader" is someone who can transcend their particular identities and trust a writer to take then onto any journey outside themselves and not even mind if there is a "trick" in store for them, or some profound pleasure...or horrific pain.

Reading is about trusting the author to reveal to us some new vision we did not know existed...But be prepared: Morrison is not the type of writer who will hold your hand!

Here's hoping that Amazon can inspire true love of reading and real thought and vision that comes from extensive readership! Only then, can user reviews be exciting and a pleasure to read!

Toni can write much better than this. It took me over a month to finish this book and I still had no idea what the heck was going on. It reminded me of the book Good Fences, a mixed-up mess. I was confused as heck. After reading her masterpeice "The Bluest Eye" this was a real disappointment. Toni's great but this book is by no means in the same league as "The Bluest Eye". Glad I didn't buy it with my money. I love you Toni but this was the pits!!!!

There were several scenes in this book that related to me so closely! I think the main scene was where Jadine encountered the woman in the yellow dress and felt "unauthentic". The scene in the tar pit was on a similar note as Jadine struggled to free herself from the thick blackness. For me, this book was an eye-opener. I finished the book and asked myself if I was like Nadine; resisting my background. You know, not necessarily looking down upon those who embraced our culture, but somewhat thinking I'd get along better in this society, by being more "mainstream". I definitely became more aware of the way I perceive myself as well as others. Now I've begun to question why I would ever resist where I came from. I don't know if this was Morrison's intention, but that's what I took from this novel - a life lesson.