Books: Native Daughter

SONG OF SOLOMON by Toni Morrison Knopf; 337 pages; $8.95

The progress of black American writing, Novelist Toni Morrison once said, is marked by five stages. First comes the heat of protest, and then the more reflective search for personal identity. This is followed by an exploration of culture, a refinement of craft and finally a wider vision of the world. But the important thing, says Morrison, is not to explain but "to bear witness, to record." The author, who is also an editor at Random House, did this in The Bluest Eye (1970) and...

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