Toni Morrison, Beloved & Me

Toni Morrison

(Sweatpants & Coffee) — I cradled Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved in the crook of my arm the summer before my 18th birthday.

Sweat dripped from my elbow onto the plastic cover of the library book as I waited to cross the street to my house on the corner. Jackhammers echoed the soundtrack of my frayed nerves. A traffic cop stood in the middle of the street and held his hand against the rush of cars.

“I’d stop traffic for you any time,” he said.

I ignored his flinty smile and hurried across the street. I had bigger things to think about, like the flashes of anger quickening across my mother’s face. They grew more frequent as the day I would leave for college approached.

I escaped to the local library in the afternoons while mom napped between her “stories.” My stories lived among the dusty, library stacks. On that day, a white book with a white cover and green and red letters whispered, “Beloved.”

To read more about how Beloved saved my life, please click here

RELATED POSTS