“The beginning begins with the shoes. When a child I am never able to abide being barefoot and always beg for shoes, anybody’s shoes, even on the hottest days. My mother, a minha mãe, is angry at what she says are my prettify ways.”
This is how readers are introduced to Florens, an enslaved girl with tender feet in A Mercy, Toni Morrison’s ninth novel. How people dress – their bodies, their communities, their houses – mattered a great deal to Morrison, which is evident in the way she focused on how her characters presented themselves to others.
