Katran Bebek (1981)

This would have better to read over a long weekend afternoon than to listen as an audiobook. The setup is long and slow. Very difficult to gain any momentum. Worth reading, but not my favorite Morrison. ( )

Tar Baby opens with an unnamed sailor jumping ship and swimming to the shore of a Caribbean island, and then the scene shifts abruptly to the residents of a large house on the island, and their preparations for the upcoming Christmas holiday. Valerian and Margaret are white Americans who have lived on the island since Valerian’s retirement three years earlier. Sydney and Ondine are a Black couple who serve as butler and housekeeper. Their niece Jadine has recently arrived from Paris, where she has enjoyed a somewhat successful modeling career. Margaret is eagerly anticipating the arrival of her son, Michael, but Valerian is convinced he won’t show up. From the outset you know there’s more to that situation than meets the eye. And then the sailor shows up and pretty much turns everyone’s world upside-down.

Valerian and Margaret are oblivious to the ways in which they marginalize Sydney and Ondine, and take them for granted. Jadine is caught between two cultures, enjoying independence in Paris but still struggling to make it in the world on her own, especially as a Black woman. She finds Son, the sailor, simultaneously loathsome and attractive. As often happens when too many people are thrown together for two long, tensions begin to rise, tempers flare, and family secrets are maliciously revealed. Christmas turns out much differently than anyone expected. Each character must try to heal themselves and, if they choose, their relationships with the others.

Published in 1981, Tar Baby was Toni Morrison’s fourth novel and explores themes of feminism and race. The first two-thirds of the novel felt fresh and unique, perhaps because it was set in the Caribbean and was the first of Morrison’s novels where white and black people shared the stage. The last third is set elsewhere and focused primarily on only two characters. My interest flagged a bit at that point as I kept wondering what had happened to the others. My questions were answered in the denouement, and I was ultimately satisfied with this book but enjoyed it less than some of Morrison’s earlier books. ( )

Tar Baby was the first novel I ever read. It was part of the reading for a course I took as a college freshman on African American folklore in literature. I was required to take a writing course as a William & Mary freshman, but as they were all filled up I was allowed to chose from a new series of writing-intensive seminars, and this was the one I picked. It was a good choice as I got to discuss some excellent literature with the professor and eleven other students and I have to say it was a very meaningful point in my education and life.

The irony is that while I would go on to become a devoted reader of Toni Morrison, I didn't like Tar Baby when I first read it. This time I liked it a lot better. The story focuses on a group of characters on a Caribbean island. Son, a Black sailor who jumps ship and swims to the island, ends up hiding in the estate of Valerian Street. Valerian, a retired candy manufacturer, has made his island home his permanent residence where he enjoys cultivating plants in his greenhouse despite the pleas of his wife Margaret to return home to Philadelphia. Margaret is a former beauty queen who we learn is mentally unstable and suffers from the restrictions on her life as a woman.

Working at the estate are a married Black couple, Syndey, the butler, and Ondine, the cook. Despite their servile position they each have a familiar relationship with their employers and are willing the share their opinions. Sydney and Ondine's niece, Jadine, who they act as surrogate parents for after she was orphaned. Jadine is highly sophisticated and cosmopolitan after education at the Sorbonne, sponsored by Valerian, and working as a fashion model.

The discovery of Son hiding in Margaret's closet begins a series of events that reveal the deep-seeded tensions among the residents of the estate. Valerian makes a great show of treating Son as a guest while Margaret, Sydney, and Ondine disapprove. Eventually, Son and Jadine, both attractive, young people in their 20s flee and begin a romantic relationship. They first go to New York City where Jadine thrives but Son feels stifled. Then they go to Son's home town of Eloe, Florida where Son feels more at home being close to nature with his people, but Jadine is overwhelmed by the strict, traditional expectations for women.

The book covers many themes related to women and race. All the women in this story find themselves restricted in different ways. The relations of the Streets to Sydney, Ondine, and Jadine appear cordial at first but are revealed to built on white supremacy. Internalized racism is also revealed as first Sydney and Ondine, and later Jadine, judge Son for his natural and "wild" ways. And there is the intersection of reality with African American folklore, particularly in the story of the wild horsemen of the island, descended from the first enslaved people brought there. This is also the first book of Morrison's set in a contemporary rather than historical period which makes it stand out among her works. ( )

dust jacket

Stranger appears on a Caribbean island in a household of a rich, retired husband, wife and black support staff, and the beautiful niece of one of them. Seemed like a lot of writing for not accomplishing much. ( )