by Toni Morrison
Having read this, I cannot stop thinking of my elderly Jewish friend, a Holocaust survivor. I'm not an American, but I was born in a country where literally a half of the total Holocaust death toll took place, and sometimes, speaking to her - and she is a wonderful, humorous, beautiful human being -...
Home is spare and beautifully written. It's remarkably small for such a richly described and emotional book. There aren't many wasted words. Most importantly, Morrison takes me far away from my home and comfort zone to show me something new.
Frank is a black Korean War veteran, a year out, suffering PTSD, imprisoned in a mental hospital for actions he cannot remember. He has been engaging in a range of self-destructive behaviors that have led him to this bedraggled state. He had received a letter concerning his sister, “Come fast. She ...
Powerful, painful, and moving.
Toni Morrison is master of the English language. It doesn't matter if she's talking about flowers, or shoes, or syphilis, there is a rhythm to her words that feeds beautifully from one sentence to the next. It's that thing called “flow” students of creative writing are taught, the same flow instruct...
This felt like "Morrison-lite." A strong story, and it packed a big emotional punch, but I felt like it lacked the complexity (of language? of structure? of thought?) that is the hallmark of her style - and that truly sets her apart. This either needed to be pared back to a short story (as it is, ...
I got about 30 minutes into to the audio of this one, and I was confused and bored. I can't really pinpoint what it was about the book that I didn't like. It could be that I didn't like listening to Ms. Morrison reading her own book. It could also be that I had no idea what was going on. Normally...