In this startling group memoir, four friends--black and white, gay and straight, immigrant and American-born--use Toni Morrison's novels as a springboard for intimate and revealing conversations about the problems of everyday racism and living whole in times of uncertainty. Tackling everything from first love and Soul Train to police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, the authors take up what it means to read challenging literature collaboratively and to learn in public as an act of individual reckoning and social resistance.

Framing their book club around collective secrets, the group bears witness to how Morrison's works and words can propel us forward while we sit with uncomfortable questions about race, gender, and identity. How do we make space for black vulnerability in the face of white supremacy and internalized self-loathing? How do historical novels speak to us now about the delicate seams that hold black minds and bodies together?

This slim and brilliant confessional offers a radical vision for book clubs as sites of self-discovery and communal healing. The Toni Morrison Book Club insists that we find ourselves in fiction and think of Morrison as a spiritual guide to our most difficult thoughts and ideas about American literature and life.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Published: 02/04/2020
ISBN: 9780299324940
Pages: 208
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.40w x 0.60d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 10/14/2019
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2019
Library Journal 01/01/2020 pg. 75
Booklist 01/01/2020 pg. 32