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Tar Baby (Abridged) Audiobook
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The author of Song of Solomon now sets her extraordinary novelistic powers on a striking new course. Tar Baby, audacious and hypnotic, is masterful in its mingling of tones--of longing and alarm, of urbanity and a primal, mythic force in which the landscape itself becomes animate, alive with a wild, dark complicity in the fates of the people whose drama unfolds. It is a novel suffused with a tense and passionate inquiry, revealing a whole spectrum of emotions underlying the relationships between black men and women, white men and women, and black and white people. The place is a Caribbean island. In their mansion overlooking the sea, the cultivated millionaire Valerian Street, now retired, and his pretty, younger wife, Margaret, go through rituals of living, as if in a trance. It is the black servant couple, who have been with the Streets for years--the fastidious butler, Sydney, and his strong yet remote wife--who have arranged every detail of existence to create a surface calm broken only by sudden bursts of verbal sparring between Valerian and his wife. And there is a visitor among them--a beautiful young black woman, Jadine, who is not only the servant's dazzling niece, but the protegée and friend of the Streets themselves; Jadine, who has been educated at the Sorbonne at Valerian's expense and is home now for a respite from her Paris world of fashion, film and art. Through a season of untroubled ease, the lives of these five move with a ritualized grace until, one night, a ragged, starving black American street man breaks into the house. And, in a single moment, with Valerian's perverse decision not to call for help but instead to invite the man to sit with them and eat, everything changes. Valerian moves toward a larger abdication. Margaret's delicate and enduring deception is shattered. The butler and his wife are forced into acknowledging their illusions. And Jadine, who at first is repelled by the intruder, finds herself moving inexorably toward him--he calls himself Son; he is a kind of black man she has dreaded since childhood; uneducated, violent, contemptuous of her privilege. As Jadine and Son come together in the loving collision they have both welcomed and feared, the novel moves outward--to the Florida backwater town Son was raised in, fled from, yet cherishes; to her sleek New York; then back to the island people and their protective and entangling legends. As the lovers strive to hold and understand each other, as they experience the awful weight of the separate worlds that have formed them--she perceiving his vision of reality and of love as inimical to her freedom, he perceiving her as the classic lure, the tar baby set out to entrap him--all the mysterious elements, all the highly charged threads of the story converge. Everything that is at risk is made clear: how the conflicts and dramas wrought by social and cultural circumstances must ultimately be played out in the realm of the heart. Once again, Toni Morrison has given us a novel of daring, fascination, and power.
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"To write this off as a romance novel does not do justice to Morrison's intricate study of the complex and delicate relationships between and among people. In this tale, Morrison deftly and inextricably weaves emotion into landscape - the point of view flows seamlessly from person to place to animal to create the space in which all three interact, dream, yearn, and ultimately fail to understand one another. Ghosts lurk in the corners of rooms and minds and islands; history weighs heavily on conscience, hand, and mind. In all this is a painfully human and real depiction of relationships, yet beautiful and touching in its loss and sadness, and in its acknowledgement that conflict between people is rarely ever as simple as black or white."
— Valerie (4 out of 5 stars)
Tar Baby Listener Reviews
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" An extremely well-written book. This reminds me of Faulkner at his best, and Cormac McCarthy at his best, but of course she has her unique style that stands alone. I was awed by this book, and now I plan to read the rest of her novels. "
— Mark, 2/19/2014 -
" Morrison takes the reader very skillfully through issues of post-colonialism and two different views of race relations in the US without ever really coming to an answer-- but she definitely gives the reader a lot to think about. "
— Amelia, 2/17/2014 -
" Toni captured love, race, and class all in one novel. "
— Vern, 1/28/2014 -
" This one is my favorite Morrison. The phrase: 'something in his heart knelt down' is in this book. She's Mozart with words, Renoir with a pen. "
— Maryanne, 1/27/2014 -
" Tar Baby kept goosebumps forming throughout my body. A fine read. Fine. "
— Barbara, 1/27/2014 -
" My very first book I read of Toni Morrison I read it after reading a review in Essence Magazine. I loved this book "
— Pattoncox2, 1/24/2014 -
" Bored to tears by the opening chapters I moved on without finishing it. By all accounts it's a great book but you have to want to read it really badly to suffer through the beginning, if indeed there is anything worth reading later on. "
— Andrew, 1/16/2014 -
" Perhaps one of the best novels I have EVER read... but you'll notice that I say that about every single one of Toni Morrison's books! I think we're related - we must be. "
— Cameo, 1/10/2014 -
" Had to read this for my American Lit class. Really good story!!! Love the ending. "
— Rachael, 1/10/2014 -
" I liked and was surprised by the ending - it took me someplace I did not expect. (I would have given this book 3.5 stars if I could.) "
— Ora, 12/21/2013 -
" slow read, but there is a sensual element to this book "
— Amber, 12/12/2013 -
" As with Nic, I read this because of frequent encouragement to read Morrison. I didn't like it. I just didn't like it. I'm not sure what else to say -- it's been a while. "
— Cory, 10/22/2013 -
" after Beloved, this is my favorite Toni Morrison novel. "
— Kmd, 6/4/2013 -
" rereading this for my qual exams. as brilliant and frustrating as i remember. "
— Ash, 1/21/2013 -
" Seductive, rhythmic unbelievably unique. I loved the characters and setting in this post colonial meets soap opera novel! "
— Anne, 12/9/2012 -
" This book was easy to read but it felt sexier than her other books, in a bad way. It felt slightly trashy. "
— Marisa, 10/5/2012 -
" Not my favorite Morrison novel, but I find anything she writes is well worth the time and effort to read. "
— Kay, 5/21/2012 -
" I really liked this book. A lot of people I know seem to really dislike Toni Morrison, and I wonder why (seriously--this is the only book by her I've read. I started Beloved at one point but didn't like it). Anyway, this is a good read. "
— Rob, 3/20/2012 -
" This is one Toni Morrison novel I have to go back and read. I missed a lot, whether due to my whiteness, young age, or a combination. I will read and revise. "
— Ryan, 3/14/2012 -
" not her best, not her worst "
— Psalm, 10/12/2011 -
" So far so good! I love the language that Toni uses...especially in her scene transitions! Phenomenal! "
— Lindsay, 8/27/2011 -
" This was very clever, but somehow not so affecting. I've read The Bluest Eye and Beloved. While simpler (I think), TBE strikes me as less 'thought out'. Beloved was just sheer brilliance. I think I can see the structures in here too clearly, which makes me a bit sad. But still, very well done. "
— Lorraine, 5/28/2011 -
" This was very clever, but somehow not so affecting. I've read The Bluest Eye and Beloved. While simpler (I think), TBE strikes me as less 'thought out'. Beloved was just sheer brilliance. I think I can see the structures in here too clearly, which makes me a bit sad. But still, very well done. "
— Lorraine, 5/2/2011 -
" I liked this, though not as much as other Toni Morrison (maybe because it's so . . . contemporary?) <br/> <br/>Narration by Lynne Thigpen was, as always, wonderful. "
— Kerry, 1/24/2011 -
" Why do I like each Toni Morrison novel a bit less than the previous? "
— Erin, 10/28/2010 -
" My first Toni Morrison read was a bit of a disappointment. The rather absurd plot distracted from the messages of race, gender, class and age relations the author was trying to explore. Nevertheless I'd liketo try another from this Pulitzer Prize winner. "
— Thomas, 9/1/2010 -
" I loved this book. It's my 4th favorite Toni Morrison behind 1) Sula, 2) Beloved, and 3) Song of Solomon. I still haven't read "A Mercy" yet, so this list might change. "
— Orishaz, 8/11/2010 -
" took me a while to get into it...then when i finally started to love it the ending pissed me off! ugh! "
— Tiyana, 7/7/2010 -
" I liked and was surprised by the ending - it took me someplace I did not expect. (I would have given this book 3.5 stars if I could.) "
— Ora, 6/7/2010 -
" My favorite Morrison so far. The story, as in all of her books, is intertwined with folk stories and familiar characters and plots, but all twisted around to bring new depth and meaning. Beautiful setting and storytelling. Her characters are maybe the most full and human of any I've read. "
— Angie, 5/8/2010
About Toni Morrison
Toni Morrison (1931–2019) was an American novelist, poet, essayist, editor, teacher, and professor. In 2012, President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She also received the Nobel Prize for Literature, the National Book Critics Circle Award, a Pulitzer Prize for literature, an American Book Award, the Norman Mailer Prize, the PEN/Saul Bellow Award, the Condorcet Medal, the Thomas Jefferson Medal, and the Anisfield Wolf Book Award, among others. She wrote twelve novels, including Beloved, which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was made into a major motion picture starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover.
About Alfre Woodard
Charlayne Woodard is a film, stage, and television actress, as well as a playwright. She is best known for her recurring roles as Janice on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Vonda on Roseanne, and Sister Peg on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She was one of the original cast members in the Tony Award–winning Broadway musical Ain’t Misbehavin’, and in 2009, starred in a one-person performance called The Night Watcher at Primary Stages in New York City.