Reviewers, often more certain of Morrison's success than the author herself, have lauded the quality and power in her brutal yet tender honesty, her melodrama, and her use of oral tradition and myth. Reviewing her first novel, Ruby Dee wrote, "I've just finished reading Toni Morrison's book The Bluest Eye and my heart hurts." Marcia Ann Gillespie, former Ms. Editor-in-chief, says that "Morrison's women — some are big, powerful people, others shadows and totally powerless, some risk takers, others safety seekers." She adds that "through all of them, Morrison asks us, What's power? What's love? What's the real cost of living? Who and what can you claim and/or control? What tricks do you have to play in order to get through? How do you define yourself?" Such perceptive interrogation reminds us that Morrison questions more than black/white relations; she probes humanistic terrain.
Critic Nellie Y. McKay, a strong supporter of Toni Morrison's approach to fiction, celebrates her imaginative flow and control of inner dialogue. Comparing her skills to those of James Joyce and William Faulkner, McKay notes that Morrison has absorbed the styles and methods of significant literary movements and periods, yet she remains true to her own understanding of what it means to be black — to look through the collective eyes of an entire race. As Toni Cade Bambara says, Morrison is "grand and majestic"; she is a writer who "courageously tackles the big issues all the time. She's not small."
