MixedThe New York Times Book ReviewToni Morrison has always written for the ear, with a loving attention to the textures and sounds of words. And the natural landscapes in her books have a way of erupting into lively play, giving richness and depth to her themes ... In God Help the Child, however, we get clipped first-person confessionals and unusually vague landscapes. The settings feel flat, the tone cynical. There are swirls of brutal personal histories, hurried vignettes and blatantly untrustworthy monologues ... every now and then, God Help the Child steps away from moralizing and yields to the slow, tender, dangerous art of storytelling. Morrison brings back her paintbrush and indulges the reader with color and dread as she vividly evokes Booker’s tight-knit family and his idolized older brother ... But too often we get a curt fable instead, one more interested in outrage than possibilities for empathy.
