On Morrison by Namwali Serpell
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. 2 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!
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