Amid the horrors...

Thank goodness there are books.

We are on a perpetual roller coaster, without the thrills. It is exhausting to be whipsawed by the cruel, Trumpian chaos, by the spectacle of the Bezos/Sanchez union as juxtaposed with the nightmare so many immigrants in our country are experiencing. But…book nerds can seek temporary refuge—and/or inspiration—between the pages.

This week I started reading Toni at Random, by rock star scholar Dana A. Williams. The biography’s subtitle is “The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship,” as it chronicles the Great Writer’s journey into the rarified world of book publishing at a time when few Black bibliophiles had penetrated that elite universe—Toni was a genius from day one.

She was born Chloe Wofford, but after converting to Catholicism at an early age, she adopted “Anthony”—after Saint Anthony—as her baptismal name—thus Toni. Her parents let her do it! “By junior high,” Williams writes, “ a teacher sent a note home to Morrison’s parents saying it would be a shame if they did not make every effort to send her to college.” They knew she was intellectually gifted—she was the only student in her Larain, Ohio first grade class who could read, for one—and they more than stepped up to the plate. Her father was a welder, and took on another union job—against the rules—to supplement the family’s income. Her mother picked up odd jobs. Morrison read widely on her own, and got into dance, dreaming of becoming a prima ballerina. She chose to go to Howard University, to be among her own.

You have to buy this book.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/toni-at-random-the-iconic-writer-s-legendary-editorship-dana-williams/21828027?ean=9780063011977&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=coop_harpercollins&utm_content=harpercollins_dsa&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=publisher_coop_dsa&utm_term=&utm_content=173694767454&device=c&matchtype=&utm_adgroup=dsa_bookshop&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22224636854&gbraid=0AAAAACfld40IgDyf1aXuFC4hNcT8YtSUD&gclid=Cj0KCQjwgvnCBhCqARIsADBLZoIMdQo_k_vh57C1GMASriUeDuiYyYaaNOxanVoPYnE5R2uyGRnNwYIaAgpMEALw_wcB

I’ve read everything (I think) Toni Morrison ever wrote. I worked with Oprah Winfrey, who idolized Morrison. I had the honor of writing Oprah’s eulogy for Toni Morrison, so I’m all in. And yet reading Toni At Random, I felt I was discovering her anew. She was fierce from day one. She was always conscious of the “white gaze.” Her point-of-view began to form before she was a teenager. Not to diminish the education she received, or the choices she made—she could have become a dancer, or a theater actor—but she was fated to be Toni Morrison.

Okay, I haven’t finished reading this (so far) remarkable book. I will report back when I do. But I love the eye opening that takes place when a writer—Dr. Williams!—excavates a subject I think I know well. Brava!

Also, I have finished The Uproar, a totally splendid novel by sophomore author Karim Dimechkie. Rarely have I read a work of fiction that rankled me so much, and intersected with my hive mind, or encapsulated (was in conversation with, in current parlance) the current zeitgeist (is current necessary with zeitgeist?) You can all follow that convo on The Ink.

So—-closing out my second solo on Substack. Hmmm..All I can say is that I will comfort myself tonight with the anticipation of finishing Toni, but E. Jean Carroll’s Not My Type beckons. Okay, and my three-year-old grandson, Liam.

I’m just starting this. Feel free to subscribe without paying, for now. This is an experiment. But I may soon ask for your financial contribution. Meantime, let me know your thoughts!