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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 be dead if you tarry,” and must find his way home. There are barriers to be overcome, people who will help, and memories to be relived. One mystery that propels the tale is what happened to cause Frank...
Toni Morrison’s new novel, Home, begins with two children witnessing a man being buried – presumably alive. It’s a strong opening. ‘We could not see the faces of the men doing the burying, only their trousers; but we saw the edge of a spade drive the jerking foot down to join the rest of itself.’ But it’s also a testament to this unsubtle book’s endless litany of atrocities that by the end, I’d almost totally forgotten about the man being buried alive. Think about that for a moment: the book is
I wanted to dislike this book for its dismal "mood." Hesitant, I wondered whether to continue reading this now, or abandon it for later, when I could bear the thought of stepping back into time with the main character as he visited a traumatic past. I don't quite know how to welcome hopelessness as a thematic undertone and overtone, so this week especially, I didn't know whether I could suffer with Frank as he faced the world with an outlook of disdain and pure agony, remembering when he had no
This is one of Toni's last books and, I believe, one of her best. It is highly condensed (only 140 pages), but wonderfully written. It is the story of a black veteran of the Korean War with undiagnosed PTSD and his voyage home to a small Georgia town. He meets violence and racism on his way and nearly doesn't make it and when he gets there, he discovers that his sister has had huge issues of her own. What I especially loved, besides the typical awesome writing of Morrison, was the speech that hi...
3.5 starsRereadLike the two children they are at the beginning of Frank’s narration, he and his sister Cee are clueless to much around them, even as they get older, and especially in comparison to the reader. For example, the reader knows what the titles of the books that Cee encounters at her new job at a doctor’s home office mean and becomes fearful for what will happen to her, though she is happy and hopeful. The reader is spared viewing the actual horror of what does happens, as the book the...
Nobel Prize winner, Toni Morrison, has a tremendous gift for writing novels that possess an 'in your face' quality. She takes the African American experience throughout United States history and forces you to really SEE and FEEL that experience .... no matter the discomfort it causes or the sense of horror and revulsion you feel. In her novel, Home, she writes a story about angry and dejected Korean War veteran , Frank Money and his younger sister, Cee. This story, Frank and Cee's story, doesn't...
This was my first encounter with Toni Morrison. I knew her as the voice of Black America and that she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Now I know why. It was by chance that I picked this novel, because I happened to record a reading on the radio. After a couple of minutes of listening the story captivated my attention. Yes, I knew about the Korean War and the racism in the US in the 50s, but following the fate of specific people transforms this general knowledge to personal engagement...
At this point I've read all of TM's novels, save one -- Paradise -- and that was a novel I at least started and wanted to get through but life got in the way. (Maybe, also, I'd gotten far enough to know it wasn't going to be my scene). As well, I've seen her read three times -- once from A Mercy a year before it was published and again shortly after it was released, with the memories of that earlier reading still ringing fresh in my ears. The final time I heard her read it was from this novel, H...
What does Home mean? How does one get there? How can one call home to a place that alienates and drains and degrades individuals? Morrison takes the reader on a pilgrimage to unlock the mysteries of that misleading word. Destitute Frank Money, an allegorical surname in which Morrison exposes her refined irony to view, felt more at home in a desegregated army fighting for survival than in the racially torn Lotus, his hometown in Georgia. A year has passed since he came back home from Korea and he...
Toni Morrison proves with this 2012 novel that she still has it. This one may not be as "beloved" as some of her earlier writing but it is still undeniably unique, undeniably Toni Morrison. This short novel tells the story of a returning Korean War veteran, an African-American from Georgia, who realizes that bigotry and racial prejudice still exists, even for those who served our country in war. Sadly, that is still true today, and not just for African-Americans, but for many other religious and...
Home is my first book by Toni Morrison: I picked it because it was the easiest to find at the library, and I kept seeing the author's name in my friends reviews. I believe I've stumbled upon something good. If I go by the ratings and the mixed reviews here at Goodreads, I expect I will run out of stars to give when I get to her more notorious novels, seeing as I couldn't give less than five stars on my first experience of the author's work. I could find no real fault with the presentation. Som
When I need a dose of lyrical prose to just wash over me, I know I can turn to Toni Morrison. Morrison always delivers something beautifully rendered, even if heart-rending, such as a Korean War vet whose having a damn hard time finding his way home. Home jumps about from place to place, person to person. Home is, as they say, where the heart is, and Home is full of heart, albeit an often sad heart.Do not come to this book expecting a linear story following a single character with a sole purpose...
Catching up here on reads from a few months back. I can’t let my 8th rewarding read of her work pass without saying something. Why keep coming back to her well? Yes, all her work reflects on issues of racism, on its many varieties and its pervasiveness, destructiveness, and insidiousness. But her prose, storytelling, and contribution to understanding human nature in its broad aspects makes her a consistently reliable source for great reading.Here we get the story of Frank, a black Korean War vet...
I worship this woman and think of Paradise as an almost ideal novel (and not only cuz I lived all up in there), but this latest one is utterly disappointing throwaway fluff. Unless you're a completist fan, DO NOT BOTHER. If you have never read her, I absolutely FORBID you to start with this one.She stated that she intended to show how hard it was for black soldiers coming back from the Korean war. Yeah, that woulda been cool if she'd given us the tiniest glimpse of that instead of an utterly cha...
[Edited 3/15/2022]A Black man recently released from the Korean War is heading back home across the United States. He is traveling from the West Coast to a town in rural Georgia where his sister is in some kind of trouble. The man has PTSD. He has ‘incidents.’ In fact he just escaped from a mental hospital where he was thrown in after one such unidentified incident. He is traveling south by train and bus, getting money from ministers of black churches. The south is still segregated so he often h...
A different view of 1950's America than given by Hollywood's clean 'Doris Day' version. This is a dirtier, poorer America where we meet traumatized, Korean War veteran Frank returning home from the war. Returning to an America who had not accepted him or his colour before and moreso now, eventhough he has more than paid his dues. His America is an America that even makes it difficult for him to travel from one place or another, a place without any wall of safety where he can rest a bit. I real...
“Lotus, Georgia, is the worst place in the world, worse than any battlefield. At least on the field there is a goal, excitement, daring, and some chance of winning along with many chances of losing. Death is a sure thing but life is just as certain. Problem is you can’t know in advance.” - Toni Morrison, HomeThe above are the words of an African-American Korean War vet, Frank Money. This novel is about Frank’s journey ‘home’ to Lotus, GA, a place he swore he would never go to again, to rescue hi...
Toni Morrison never takes the easy way out. She rarely offers closure, she never spares the reader the pain, violence and disappointment that have shaped the black experience in America. Yet her books are never without slices of redemption, compassion and even moments of joy that make the intolerable somehow bearable.Home, barely weighing in as a novel at 145 pages, packs every one of Morrison's literary themes into its compact format: Jim Crow, sharecropping, strong, independent female characte...
Isn't it strange that even as hungry as we readers are for the written word, some authors still manage to elude us for years? Believe it or not, this is my first experience reading the beautiful writing of Toni Morrison. A novella, more than a novel, "Home" explores a veteran of the Korean War, Frank, and his sister, Cee. Frank is experiencing what we would refer to as PTSD , flashes of his time on the battlefield and the death of his comrades, including two of his childhood best friends haunts
This is a book worth a deeper dig so I've reread it on my Kindle for its highlighting ability. I highly recommend Home to readers and classrooms. Below is a small bit of why I chose it to book review at the Paris Public Library (this Thursday at 6:30, hope you can join me), beginning with the opening quote:“Whose house is this?Whose night keeps out the lightIn here? Say, who owns this house?It’s not mine. I dreamed another, sweeter, brighterWith a view of lakes crossed in painted boats;Of fields...