New Critical Essays on Toni Morrison’s God Help the Child: Race, Culture, and History

In a sometimes enlightening group of essays, eight literature scholars, including collection editors Eaton, Montgomery, and Stave, provide close readings of Toni Morrison’s final novel. The selections focus, in particular, on how God Help the Child explores persistent themes in Morrison’s work, namely racism and colorism, trauma, and mother-child relationships. In the opening essay, Stave demonstrates—using theoretical insights from Judith Butler and Jacques Lacan—why the book’s central character, Bride, initially rejects intimacy with her partner, Booker. Reading Morrison’s novel through a psychiatric lens, Suzanne Vega-Gonzalez discusses how the two characters surmount difficult upbringings, while Montgomery tracks Morrison’s references to classical mythology. Throughout these and other pieces, worthwhile insights into Morrison’s novel appear, albeit often obscured in jargon (“to become a subject, interpellation must occur”). Eaton’s closing entry departs somewhat from the prevailing tone with a discussion of her relationship to Morrison’s work as a reader as well as an academic, but not enough to temper the book’s scholarly nature. This will be useful to, and enjoyable for, Morrison scholars primarily, rather than Morrison fans. (July)