Published in hardback by Chatto & Windus, £12.99 (ebook £6.64)
Nobel prize winner Toni Morrison’s first contemporary novel looks at the legacy of child abuse, and at how trauma can play out down the generations if the past goes unacknowledged. Bride, Booker, and Brooklyn, all outwardly successful, are haunted by pivotal moments in their childhoods, and by the love that was denied them.
All three are oblivious to how their histories have influenced their lives and their relationships; all three wish to believe, as adults, that their slates can be wiped clean. It is courageous subject matter, but at less than two hundred pages, and with a host of secondary characters on similar journeys of discovery, Morrison’s approach feels scattergun.
No character has the space to fully develop, and they drift, at times, into cliche. Both structure and plot feel loose and flabby, and the work gives the impression of having been published before its potential has been realised.
