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Tar Baby
- Narrated by: Alfre Woodard
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
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Publisher's summary
The author of Song of Solomon now sets her extraordinary novelistic powers on a striking new course. Tar Baby, audacious and hypnotic, is masterful in its mingling of tones—of longing and alarm, of urbanity and a primal, mythic force in which the landscape itself becomes animate, alive with a wild, dark complicity in the fates of the people whose drama unfolds. It is a novel suffused with a tense and passionate inquiry, revealing a whole spectrum of emotions underlying the relationships between black men and women, white men and women, and black and white people.
The place is a Caribbean island. In their mansion overlooking the sea, the cultivated millionaire Valerian Street, now retired, and his pretty, younger wife, Margaret, go through rituals of living, as if in a trance. It is the black servant couple, who have been with the Streets for years—the fastidious butler, Sydney, and his strong yet remote wife—who have arranged every detail of existence to create a surface calm broken only by sudden bursts of verbal sparring between Valerian and his wife. And there is a visitor among them—a beautiful young black woman, Jadine, who is not only the servant's dazzling niece, but the protegée and friend of the Streets themselves; Jadine, who has been educated at the Sorbonne at Valerian's expense and is home now for a respite from her Paris world of fashion, film and art.
Through a season of untroubled ease, the lives of these five move with a ritualized grace until, one night, a ragged, starving black American street man breaks into the house. And, in a single moment, with Valerian's perverse decision not to call for help but instead to invite the man to sit with them and eat, everything changes. Valerian moves toward a larger abdication. Margaret's delicate and enduring deception is shattered. The butler and his wife are forced into acknowledging their illusions. And Jadine, who at first is repelled by the intruder, finds herself moving inexorably toward him--he calls himself Son; he is a kind of black man she has dreaded since childhood; uneducated, violent, contemptuous of her privilege. As Jadine and Son come together in the loving collision they have both welcomed and feared, the novel moves outward—to the Florida backwater town Son was raised in, fled from, yet cherishes; to her sleek New York; then back to the island people and their protective and entangling legends. As the lovers strive to hold and understand each other, as they experience the awful weight of the separate worlds that have formed them—she perceiving his vision of reality and of love as inimical to her freedom, he perceiving her as the classic lure, the tar baby set out to entrap him—all the mysterious elements, all the highly charged threads of the story converge. Everything that is at risk is made clear: how the conflicts and dramas wrought by social and cultural circumstances must ultimately be played out in the realm of the heart.
Once again, Toni Morrison has given us a novel of daring, fascination, and power.
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Critic reviews
“Deeply perceptive. . . . Return[s] risk and mischief to the contemporary American novel.” —John Irving, The New York Times Book Review
“Arresting images, fierce intelligence, poetic language . . . One becomes entranced by Toni Morrison’s story.” —The Washington Post
“Wrenchingly good. A terrific book.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
Featured Article: 85+ Toni Morrison Quotes on Life, Love, Freedom, and Hardships
The first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, Toni Morrison, who passed away on August 5, 2019, left behind a legacy of wisdom in her novels and essays. Her work explores topics like human nature, happiness, love, and enduring hardships, but also delves into the subject of freedom and what that has meant for African Americans. These quotes will get you through tough times, inspire you to look at yourself, and much more.
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Oakland-bred LaVeesha “Vee” Gilliam (Coco Jones) is a determined single mother of an autistic son and a gifted aspiring coder. When Vee loses her job as a food-services worker at the onsite restaurant at Grapengine, a large Silicon Valley tech company, she’s unable to pay for her son’s much-needed specialized education. By a twist of fate, mistaken identity, and her tech skills, Vee meets Troy Wilson (Keith Powers), the company’s wealthy founder and CEO and a wunderkind in the tech industry, who believes that Vee is a college-educated techie who works at his company.
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Overdue Diverse Representation in Tech!
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Ghost Stories: Stephen Fry's Definitive Collection
- By: Stephen Fry, Washington Irving, M.R. James, and others
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
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As the days grow shorter and the temperature drops, Halloween approaches. Come, brave listener, pull up a chair, and spend some time with master storyteller Stephen Fry as he tells us some of his favourite ghost stories of all time, in truly terrifying spatial audio. From the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow to the tortured spirits of M.R. James, from Edgar Allan Poe’s terrifying tale of a doppelganger to Charlotte Riddell’s Open Door that should definitely stay shut, join Stephen as he tells you some truly terrifying tales.
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Wonderful narration. Mediocre stories.
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Dracula [Audible Edition]
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The modern audience hasn't had a chance to truly appreciate the unknowing dread that readers would have felt when reading Bram Stoker's original 1897 manuscript. Most modern productions employ campiness or sound effects to try to bring back that gothic tension, but we've tried something different. By returning to Stoker's original storytelling structure - a series of letters and journal entries voiced by Jonathan Harker, Dr. Van Helsing, and other characters - with an all-star cast of narrators, we've sought to recapture its originally intended horror and power.
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IS THAT NOT SO?
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Brain Damage
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As Charly struggles to recover from her brain injury, she begins to realize that the events of that fateful night are trapped in the damaged right side of her brain. Now, she must put the jigsaw pieces together to discover the identity of the man who tried to kill her...before he finishes the job he started.
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Who Else Laughed, Cried, and Shuddered?
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Frankenstein
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Narrator Dan Stevens ( Downton Abbey) presents an uncanny performance of Mary Shelley's timeless gothic novel, an epic battle between man and monster at its greatest literary pitch. In trying to create life, the young student Victor Frankenstein unleashes forces beyond his control, setting into motion a long and tragic chain of events that brings Victor to the very brink of madness. How he tries to destroy his creation, as it destroys everything Victor loves, is a powerful story of love, friendship, scientific hubris, and horror.
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ARE WE ALWAYS TO BE UNHAPPY?
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 01-28-16
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The Strange Case
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Dr. Jekyll (Vanessa Kirby) is an elite international specialist in energy systems, working closely with her handler Louis (David Oyelowo) in a career that takes her across the globe to politically volatile territories such as Iran and North Korea. But when an arms dealer accuses her of having killed his family, Dr. Jekyll begins to question details of her life, who Louis really is, and whether her strange recurring dream has a greater meaning. She enlists the help of psychologist Sigrun (Sofie Gråbøl), and together they delve into Dr. Jekyll’s darker other side, a brutal assassin named… Hyde.
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Love the Originals !!
- By r2coder on 08-04-24
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The Cut
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Welcome to Barton Mallet, a remote village in the Midlands that has been chosen as the unlikely location for a new feature film from Hollywood producer Max Crow. Teenagers from the local drama group are encouraged to audition for a story about the trials and tribulations of growing up. Benjamin Knot, the CEO of a well-known architecture firm, discovers that his children, Lily and Nathan, have each been offered a role. But Barton Mallet has a deep wound that has never truly healed.
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Hard to get into
- By felicialeash on 09-15-24
By: Richard Armitage
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What listeners say about Tar Baby
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- M.J. - using things the real way
- 02-27-24
Reader skips paragraphs!!
My class attempted to follow along with the novel and weren't able, the reader skips paragraphs confusing students.
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- Misty.Minded.24K
- 11-15-17
I love Toni’s books!
Another great listen! I’m making my way through all Toni Morrison’s books and I’m glad to have listened to this one.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Aggie
- 09-07-17
Love
Love - Miss Toni & Miss Alfre are dear friends of mine in the higher intelligence of my mind.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Tyler Newman
- 02-02-22
Classic
This was a good listen, slightly difficult to follow at times, however overall it is a classic.
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- Stephanie Vinson
- 04-30-12
Great Book!
Would you listen to Tar Baby again? Why?
Yes. To get a better understanding of the characters of the book
What other book might you compare Tar Baby to and why?
The Darkest Child by Delores Philips. Though the stories are different a couple of the characters from each books remind me of each other.
What about Alfre Woodard’s performance did you like?
Her portrayal of each character, how she changes her voice for each one. She never missed a beat the story continued to flow and you knew who the character was by the change of her voice. Great Performance by her, Ms Woodard was the reason I purchased the audio book, one of my favorite actors.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
The secret the cook had kept about the lady of the house.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Parkerfu
- 08-27-19
Not sure how I feel about this one...
I really like Toni Morrison’s works, but this one felt a little hollow, like it wasn’t fully flushed out. There wasn’t the same sweeping poetry of her other works or the complexity of characters. Alfie Woodard, as the narrator, was an absolute wonder but Tar Baby left me wanting so much more.
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- Carol Binta Nadeem
- 08-21-20
Son Finding
Mysterious. One of the most hidden agenda’s In Morrison’s works. Racism, reverse misogyny, romance, physical abuse and the kitchen sink. My kind of story. Afro centric! Who else says lickity split?
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3 people found this helpful
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- Camille
- 11-24-19
Hard to Read...Great to Hear!
I've owned a hard copy of this book for years and have tried to read it several times to no avail. I found Ms. Morrison's writing style difficult to follow and the vernacular of the characters was nearly impossible to follow. I finally purchased this audio book and I'm super glad I did! What a fantastic story!! Ms. Woodard was the perfect narrator and she, as well as the subject matter, kept me mesmerized to the very end. I've recommended this title to several friends just so we could revel in the experience together when they were done and debate the ending. Very happy with this purchase...thanks, Audible.
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2 people found this helpful
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- S. Crier
- 04-10-09
Disappointing
I'm an avid admirer of Toni Morrison's work and have absolutely loved all of the previous books by her that I have read. This book was absolutely boring. It took months to force myself to listen to it. Some of the subplots were very undeveloped and led nowhere, just hanging there like untied threads. Basically, everyone just seemed underdeveloped and the book as a whole lacked the depth and character I have come to expect from Ms. Morrison.
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2 people found this helpful