As many people are no doubt doing, I’ve pulled all the Toni Morrison books down from my shelves and started re-reading.

Ursula K. LeGuin and Toni Morrison both die in 2019? Donald Trump befouls everything within reach of Twitter on a daily basis? This will not go down in the history books as a good year.

Morrison’s work astounded a lot of us white folk by pushing the stark realities of being black in America in front of our faces in gorgeous, complicated, poetic prose that made us take notes, start over from the beginning, look for clues.  She didn’t make it easy. She didn’t sugar coat a thing.

Nor did she reduce things to black and white, where good guys and bad guys can be easily grouped according to color. Not all of her white characters are evil. Not all of her black characters are good.

She went way beyond black and white, to that place where the reader starts to wonder, “What in hell is WRONG with people?” and “What in hell can we do about it?”

If only the rest of us could follow her lead…