Love by Toni Morrison

Picture taken from here
The plane was about to land and I was hooked on the last few pages .. there was no plot really in Love, but the book had me hooked.

So Dadland Maye suggested reading with a writers eye too.. check the text and tell the story and engage with it.. but well Love had me kind of going all over the place.. 

It was a bit heady trying to understand who was who and where the 'Love' was.. because there was a lot of anger and desire and lust and jealousy until the end,, when the love story emerges.. because, well love is like that for many, full of anger and so on.

So the characters are Heed, Christine, May, L, the dead Mr Cosey, Junior (thinking of Junot Diaz' Yunior too here and wondering about the two very different characters both of whom seem to rebel though.. ) and Vida and Romen.. the 14 year old boy who in my mind turns out to be a hero.

Ms Morrison aint easy.. she talking about teenage sexuality in ways which are well.. only teenagers might talk about it.. and about abortion, and then this part which had me sniggering "In 1973, Tremaine Avenue, with its high level of comfort, was mighty attractive. Especially since everybody, militants and moderates,  wanted to be in and stay out at the same time, the good work of disobedience was merging with disguised acquiescence. the issues changed, spread, moved from streets and doorways to offices and conferences in elegant hotels. " since I had just come from a conference in one of the elegant hotels..

And there are more, the characters are human and complicated and I know one of my book club members will talk about how unreal the situations are.. but then so many human situations are just that, unreal.. Love is not recommended for anybody looking for a traditional love story.. or for any story with linear plots.



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