Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading... Home (original 2012; edition 2012)by Toni Morrison
Work InformationHome by Toni Morrison (2012)
Loading...
Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on audiobook from the library. Thoughts: This was well done and poetically written. It's a historical fiction about a Korean War vet who gets called back to his home town in Georgia to rescue his sister. He thought he had left the awful racism of Georgia behind, but is now forced to face it again with both the pain and good memories it brings. This was beautifully written and beautifully narrated by the author. It was an excellent look at the 1950's and in particular the racism of the era (which although better now is still sadly present). It also looks at veterans of that era and how PTSD left many veterans mentally wounded without any help being offered. I enjoyed watching Frank's journey through the American countryside on his way back to Georgia. Although, the casual violence him and his fellow African Americans faced was shocking and heartbreaking. Even more so because a lot of this violence endures even now, even though it's not as blatant. Reading about what his poor sister went through in his absence was just as heart-wrenching. I did enjoy that the ending gave some hope and peace to both of theses characters. My Summary (4/5): Overall this was a beautifully written novel about a PTDS stricken Korean War vet trying to make his way through a racist America back to his sister and the home he hates. While it isn't something I plan to reread, I am glad I read it once. If you are interested in 1950's historical fiction that focuses on veterans and racism, I would recommend picking this up. It's engaging and interesting. I listened to this short book. Some of the text is set in italic, which I wouldn't have known, but the intent was clear enough from Toni Morrison's classic, slow, deliberate reading. Is this a book about the effects of the Korean war? Some. Is it about the effects of Jim Crow in the south? Some. Also a young man's trip through trauma to manhood, and the bonds of siblings, and the call of home. Listen to it if you can. I recommend it.
Like a Toni Morrison primer, Home is a compression of many of the Nobel laureate’s perennial themes of memory, love and loss, uprooting and homecoming. Morrison’s characters struggle to overcome disturbing inner rhythms, caught between trying to exist freely in the world and being captivated by internal demons.... Home does not have the grand, sweeping narrative of Morrison’s best fiction. The story’s many brutal acts... are placed before the reader with so little fanfare as to detract from their power. The book is also much more linguistically subdued than most of her work, and her grand themes of redemption, homecoming, and self-ownership do not work best on a small scale. Still, slice it anywhere and you will find striking moments, dialogue that sings with life, and the mythic American landscape and its people surviving within it. “Home” is unusual, not only in that it features a male protagonist but that it’s so fiercely focused on the problem of manhood. The novel opens with a childhood memory of horses that “stood like men.” And as Money makes his way across the country to rescue his sister, he’s haunted by what it means to be a man. “Who am I without her,” he wonders, “that underfed girl with the sad, waiting eyes?” Are acts of violence essentially masculine, or are they an abdication of manliness? Is it possible, the novel finally asks, to consider the manhood implicit in sacrifice, in laying down one’s life? What Money eventually does to help his sister and to quiet his demons is just as surprising and quietly profound as everything else in this novel. Despite all the old horrors that Morrison faces in these pages with weary recognition, “Home” is a daringly hopeful story about the possibility of healing — or at least surviving in a shadow of peace. [I]f Morrison had finished writing the novel she so carefully began, it might have been one of her best in years. But at well under 200 pages with wide margins, Home barely begins before it ends.... Home should be relentless, unsparing, but Morrison relents halfway through, and spares everyone – most of all herself. Belongs to Publisher SeriesKeltainen kirjasto (450) AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
"The story of a Korean war veteran on a quest to save his younger sister"-- No library descriptions found.
|
Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
Is this you?Become a LibraryThing Author. |
"Gorgeous and intense, brutal yet heartwarming. . . . Accessible, tightly composed and visceral as anything Morrison has yet written. . . . [A] devastating, deeply humane--and ever-relevant--book."
It is pretty devastating, and very moving, and still hopeful amongst its relentless sadness. More direct and concise than others of hers I've read — I prefer the longer works, but the impact of this is undeniable. ( )