God Help the Child

Description:

Spare and unsparing, God Help the Child--the first novel by Toni Morrison to be set in our current moment--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."

subjects: American fiction (fictional works by one author),  Mothers and daughters, fiction,  African americans, fiction,  Fiction, family life,  African Americans,  Fiction,  Mothers and daughters,  Noires américaines,  Romans, nouvelles,  Mères et filles,  Enfants négligés,  nyt:combined-print-and-e-book-fiction=2015-05-10,  New York Times bestseller,  New York Times reviewed,  Family life,  Self-confidence,  Mother and child,  Coming of age,  Success,  Colorism,  Fiction, family life, general,  FICTION / General,  African American Fiction,  Maternal rejection,  Noirs américains,  African americans--fiction,  Mothers and daughters--fiction,  Ps3563.o8749 g63 2015,  813/.54