Customer Reviews

Love

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Bill Cosey, the wealthy owner of the famous Cosey's Hotel and Resort, is dead. He left behind four very different women. Heed, his grieving widow. May, his daughter who eventually went crazy and has since died. Christine, who had been one of the many woman to lust after Cosey, until he married Heed. His choice drove whatever friendship that Christine and Heed had shared to hate. Finally Vida, Cosey's ex-receptionist at Cosey's Hotel and Resort. Vida now has a family of her own, but fondly remembers her crush on Cosey.

Years cannot dull hate. After Cosey's death, Christine and May moved into the large house on Magnolia Street to keep an eye on Heed; and Cosey's fortune. Even with May gone, Christine rages a constant battle of wits, making Heed's life as difficult as possible. Christine can't forgive Cosey for choosing Heed over her; and makes her past friend pay dearly for her dead husband.

Heed decides to write a book about her dead husband and their life together so that the entire town can know the truth of how he died. She puts an ad in the paper and help arrives in the person of Junior, a young woman from the Settlements that has no future and is fighting for one. She has secrets in her past that she is hoping to keep hidden from the lonely Heed and the conniving Christine.

Christine and Heed are both living in Cosey's house, but neither are sure who he has left the house to or his fortune. Cosey's will is a disjointed scribble in the margins of a 1950s hotel menu, and his reference to "my sweet Cosey child" might mean either of them -- or someone else entirely.

Cosey is dead but Junior hears his voice, smells his cologne, and sees his well-manicured hand on the doorknob. There are secrets inside Cosey's house and only time will see them revealed...

Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize winning author of "Beloved", gives us her newest literary offering titled "Love". Though, like previous novels, the title provokes a certain amount of irony. "Love" is actually a detailed look at hatred. While it is indeed a look at the ways love drives us, "Love" is more about the darker side of love and what it can force us to become.

However, there is a light in the darkness. Though the main story follows Cosey and his women, there are also other storylines in the novel that make it all that much richer. Through out the book, Romen, Vida's grandson, is becoming a man. He tries to find his place in a world that he does not understand. While I didn't particularly care for characters like the devious Christine, characters like Romen and Junior made the book far more enjoyable than it would have been without them.

The only downside to "Love" is the negative way it looks at love. There is no happy love in this book; there are barely any happy moments either. It would be a depressing novel if it weren't so beautifully written. Also, Morrison's writing style is a little annoying. She takes her time explaining who people are in this book; you don't know until well into it who all the people are, but perhaps this is part of the book's mystery.

"Love" is a wonderful book, despite its darkness. It is rare that an author will look at the darker side of an emotion such as love and Morrison has outdone herself. "Love" is an amazing achievement that, though dark, is well worth the read.

Listening to Toni Morrison read Love is like watching melted butter and honey flow out the crack in a steaming buttermilk biscuit, like watching chocolate syrup run down a dollop of ice cream. While this master writer covers the history of a particular people, she also digs deep into the universal truths, relationships and emotions that color our individual journeys, no matter what our race or time.

I've only read two Toni Morrison books so far, and she writes weird. Like the past is more important than the present in her novels. Love takes us to every aspect of the characters' past that could possibly be a factor in their present personalities. I mean, leave something to the readers. I found there was too much yucky sex references. Blah! Stuff that's not fit to print here. The characters are very complex, though, so kudos for that.