Scan barcode
A review by talypollywaly
Love by Toni Morrison
fast-paced
Oh, boy. This review is gonna be a tough one to make sense of.
Maybe it's unfair to Morrison, but I have to compare this to her other works. I have to, because The Bluest Eye is the most perfect novel ever written, and Song of Solomon is the one book I would put in a thousand-year time capsule.
This novel is, unfortunately, just an echo of some of Morrison's great works and the great heights she reached before.
This book followed every trope from the past books of hers I read... and yet it is still somehow suffering from the greatest sin a novel can have: forget-ability. Female friendships was done better in Sula, etc etc (because if I give more examples, that will be Spoilers).
I did not live with the characters as strongly as I have with her other works. And trust me, writing this review breaks my heart because Morrison's other works have been a deep, deep comfort to me for a decade now. Even when I was angry reading Sula or Jazz, I still was feeling something... but this book was so short, and so short of its own potential. Even Morrison's usual perfect prose that encapsulates unique and yet universal human experiences in a sentence was off. (It was there, just not as Perfect.)
The mystery was even off? She just blew the air out of the tires in the way she revealed it right when her audience had already essentially put it all together; she spelled it out. Which, isn't Telling and not showing a cardinal sin in writing?
I'm trying to write my way out of my disappointment with this novel, but even reading reviews from others isn't helping in the way that it did after I finished the long and confusing Paradise. One person said a reread would help... maybe? Or maybe I'm entering the bargaining phase of grief.
Yeah, I think I am. Here's a list of things I did like: 1) Old lady drama felt like watching a good soap; I was hooked 2) Romen's character was such a relief in a book with plenty of shitty people 3) the mystery was juicy, until (see above).
On the flip side: 1) the "tragedy" between the girls had no emotional weight to it because of how short the novel was and also because like I said, I couldn't really feel the characters this time. (In other Morrison works, I've cried for the characters before. Here I just gave a frown and closed the book.) I could have read through the book more slowly but, again, bargaining here. 2) like another reviewer said, the Junior and Romen storyline was so...weak? Tohinge a big plot point on their "love" just so that there's a clear representation of it in this novel was certainly a Choice 3) Pedophilia is supposed to be the big shocker of this book??? Pedophilia tears them a part??? And Morrison chose to start exploring this with 40 pages left??? That's not enough time to get into the psychological damage done but also are you serious Christine had NO growth in 40 years to where she realized her best friend was groomed even though she herself called Heed "bought," she was still blaming an 11 year old that got sold by her parents? I just... that is such a humongous gap in logic that makes me annoyed with Morrison for choosing her whole plot to hinge on this. Like it's such a pedestrian plot choice that its insulting. Someone said Morrison's books show how men tear down relationships between women, but Morrison has written so many characters filled with internalized misogyny or that flat out just hate each other and don't even care about the men, that it's starting to give me a headache and look at Morrison sideways.
Maybe it's unfair to Morrison, but I have to compare this to her other works. I have to, because The Bluest Eye is the most perfect novel ever written, and Song of Solomon is the one book I would put in a thousand-year time capsule.
This novel is, unfortunately, just an echo of some of Morrison's great works and the great heights she reached before.
This book followed every trope from the past books of hers I read... and yet it is still somehow suffering from the greatest sin a novel can have: forget-ability. Female friendships was done better in Sula, etc etc (because if I give more examples, that will be Spoilers).
I did not live with the characters as strongly as I have with her other works. And trust me, writing this review breaks my heart because Morrison's other works have been a deep, deep comfort to me for a decade now. Even when I was angry reading Sula or Jazz, I still was feeling something... but this book was so short, and so short of its own potential. Even Morrison's usual perfect prose that encapsulates unique and yet universal human experiences in a sentence was off. (It was there, just not as Perfect.)
The mystery was even off? She just blew the air out of the tires in the way she revealed it right when her audience had already essentially put it all together; she spelled it out. Which, isn't Telling and not showing a cardinal sin in writing?
I'm trying to write my way out of my disappointment with this novel, but even reading reviews from others isn't helping in the way that it did after I finished the long and confusing Paradise. One person said a reread would help... maybe? Or maybe I'm entering the bargaining phase of grief.
Yeah, I think I am. Here's a list of things I did like: 1) Old lady drama felt like watching a good soap; I was hooked 2) Romen's character was such a relief in a book with plenty of shitty people 3) the mystery was juicy, until (see above).
On the flip side: 1) the "tragedy" between the girls had no emotional weight to it because of how short the novel was and also because like I said, I couldn't really feel the characters this time. (In other Morrison works, I've cried for the characters before. Here I just gave a frown and closed the book.) I could have read through the book more slowly but, again, bargaining here. 2) like another reviewer said, the Junior and Romen storyline was so...weak? To
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia and Rape