National Review, December 4th, 1987
Beloved by Toni Morrison (Knopf, 275 pp., $18.95) TONI MORRISON'S language is thick as menstrual flow. Rich as clotted milk on the shirtfront of a nursing mother. I adduce such images intentionally: the way, I'm sure, Toni Morrison herself did--to shock, to discompose, to trap attention on a vivid sensual plane. Since Song of Solomon at least, this has been her most conspicuous mannerism. Not that she uses the obscene. Far from it: her euphemisms, in fact, are what unsettle most --so some childish locution for male genitalia ("wee-wee,' say) can disgust more than a robust Anglo-Saxon expleti...
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