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A review by soundslikeashley
Love by Toni Morrison
4.0
I'm writing this right after finishing the book. There is so much in a Morrison tale that you have to sigh with relief and adoration afterward. I took so much away. I had to re-read sections throughout the book often to grasp the full meaning of them. Other sections I realized, I'll take away a meaning and someone else will take away something distinctly different but the narrative is as powerful as it is poignant.
I mourned a lot as I read - for what the characters in the story lost. And I found some semblance of warmth and happiness in Heed and Christine's tragic reconciliation. Their lost language that they found again. The sisterhood they reclaimed in something as small and intimate as their, "Hey, Celestial."
The topics/themes: pedophilia, rape, jealousy, family, Blackness, elitism, manhood, womanhood, motherhood, daughterhood, desire, hatred, apathy, fear, ostracizing, abandonment, abundance, lack, confusion, joy, ownership, longing, and Love... I haven't read a book that so carefully and honestly weaves humanity together as this one.
I'll chalk up the difficulty of reading it here and there to my stepping away from reading the greats for a time. If you're searching to stretch yourself and your understanding of the human experience, Morrison doesn't disappoint. She just doesn't. I could spend a year digging into this book and what it means and picking up the revelations it strategically leaves strewn in its wake.
I marked this book up with exclamation points, question marks, my thoughts, my questions. And there is a lot that feels elusive at first but if you stick with it, keep reading, ponder it, write down your thoughts and follow through, the culmination with make sense and it will satisfy.
That's the genius and honesty of Toni Morrison and I'll always be thankful for her.
I mourned a lot as I read - for what the characters in the story lost. And I found some semblance of warmth and happiness in Heed and Christine's tragic reconciliation. Their lost language that they found again. The sisterhood they reclaimed in something as small and intimate as their, "Hey, Celestial."
The topics/themes: pedophilia, rape, jealousy, family, Blackness, elitism, manhood, womanhood, motherhood, daughterhood, desire, hatred, apathy, fear, ostracizing, abandonment, abundance, lack, confusion, joy, ownership, longing, and Love... I haven't read a book that so carefully and honestly weaves humanity together as this one.
I'll chalk up the difficulty of reading it here and there to my stepping away from reading the greats for a time. If you're searching to stretch yourself and your understanding of the human experience, Morrison doesn't disappoint. She just doesn't. I could spend a year digging into this book and what it means and picking up the revelations it strategically leaves strewn in its wake.
I marked this book up with exclamation points, question marks, my thoughts, my questions. And there is a lot that feels elusive at first but if you stick with it, keep reading, ponder it, write down your thoughts and follow through, the culmination with make sense and it will satisfy.
That's the genius and honesty of Toni Morrison and I'll always be thankful for her.