God Help the Child: A novel

Toni Morrison

Apr 2015 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A New York Times Notable Book • This fiery and provocative novel from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner weaves a tale about the way the sufferings of childhood can shape, and misshape, the life of the adult.

At the center: a young woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life, but which caused her light-skinned mother to deny her even the simplest forms of love. There is Booker, the man Bride loves, and loses to anger. Rain, the mysterious white child with whom she crosses paths. And finally, Bride’s mother herself, Sweetness, who takes a lifetime to come to understand that “what you do to children matters. And they might never forget.”        

“Powerful.... A tale that is as forceful as it is affecting, as fierce as it is resonant.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Ratings and reviews

Toni Morrison gives a voice to those who've been overlooked or purposely ignored throughout American literature. From out of nowhere, her characters appear - for some - inconveniently so! Those that she writes about, aren't shackled to the subliminal confines of annual patronage, where an additional twenty-four hours of freedom awaits them every four years! Toni Morrison gives a year-round posture to people, who happen to be ubiquitous and black!

Toni has a big thing with race. Though I understand why, I was able to complete the book in one sitting, due to its length and for some odd reason I was unable to put it down. Toni touched on very touchy subjects in the book and they were just thrown right at you no time to prepare just a take it or leave it approach. Race and skintone were touched on as well as the flaws of thinking in the black community. Empowerment was the biggest thing for me. Empowerment to all black women that we are beautiful.

I think it is a good book it's just that I had to read this for an English class and the very dark material made me not want to read this anymore. Also my teacher was dick because he didnt read the DISGUSTING parts but we had to for the test we had.

About the author

TONI MORRISON is the author of eleven novels, from The Bluest Eye (1970) to God Help the Child (2015). She received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She died in 2019.