Wow. Through chapters of love, portrait, friend, stranger, benefactor, lover, husband, guardian, father and phantom, the stories of a couple of characters are gradually drawn to eventually become a breathtaking painting.

Starting from a present-day situation, the reader is given more and more details about each character. They are not only three dimensional, they are flesh and blood and memories and feelings, reminiscing about hardships and traumas with an indifference, probably to protect themselves. However, these shields fall away once they open themselves up to vulnerability again.

There are only two instances of disturbing events happening in the time of the narration, not remembered. These two are absolutely gut-wrenching, all the others are told as memories, sometimes decades old, other times happening only a few years before, with an emotional and temporal distance keeping the characters and the readers safe from emotions not easily contained.

Nothing is certain, no one is good or bad, it is impossible to root for anyone but one character, who doesn't even play the most central part. They are human, with flaws and virtues, strengths and weaknesses, very well understood and accepted and loved by the overwhelming empathy of the author. I will certainly miss this wise calm voice for some time. ( )

Love is the story of several women whose lives were tied to Bill Cosey, owner of a seaside resort hotel catering to Black clientele. Cosey is dead and the hotel is no longer a going concern. His widow, Heed, daughter-in-law May, and granddaughter Christine now live in the hotel and wage constant battles for power over one another. Heed has also hired a young woman named Junior as her secretary to help write a book about her life, a project the other two women simultaneously scorn and fear. A woman named “L,” part of the resort in the old days, appears occasionally to provide insight on the lives of the characters.

Love unfolds in a non-linear and often disjointed fashion in Morrison’s trademark style. Reading her work is like doing a jigsaw puzzle, starting with a jumble of disconnected pieces and gradually finding the connections and binding it all together around the edge. That’s what makes her books so interesting, so I won’t reveal any of those connections in this review. Her language is exquisite, and the “reveals” expertly done. I love when a book elicits an “aha” response, and this one did that.

And yet, I struggled to identify the central theme of the work and the meaning of the title. There were many forms of love in evidence, some healthier than others. The bonds between the women were powerful in their unique way. Morrison also wove in commentary on civil rights issues. But after thinking about it for a few days, I just can’t quite tie it all together. ( )

In [Love], Morrison slowly reveals the relationships of multiple women with each other and with a successful Black man and hotel owner named Bill Cosey. The women are his child-wife, his granddaughter, and his daughter-in-law. At heart of the novel is everyone's relationship with the deceased Bill Cosey, but more importantly to me, their relationships with each other. Cosey's wife, Heed, and his granddaughter Christine are the same age and were friends before Cosey took Heed as his wife. Their relationship is central to the book.

This is a brief novel, only 200 pages, and there are still things I didn't quite understand. I'm hoping our group discussion will help me sort some of it out. I also felt that, because it was brief, though Morrison put in some larger cultural issues like the Civil Rights movement and correctional/prison systems, those didn't get explored as deeply as she explores greater societal issues in other novels.

I also was a little perplexed by the title. I don't see much Love in this novel - more abuse, jealousy, and possessiveness. Maybe it was ironic.

I always enjoy and respect Morrison's writing, but this novel will rank in the middle for me. It's no [Beloved], or [Paradise], or [Song of Solomon]. ( )

I always seems to struggle a bit at the start of a Morrison novel. She often drops the reader into the heart of the story, introducing elements and characters, without making the connections or providing the context one needs for a coherent picture. But what she is so good at is writing a novel where these pieces are slowly teased out, threads of a story meet up with others, characters develop, connections are illuminated, and the reader finally begins to see and understand the complex web she is weaving as a whole.

Love took a bit longer than usual to show itself to me to the point where I felt like I was "getting" it. But once I did, the book was difficult to put down. At heart, it's about the various forms of love that can shape and distort a life, and about the opposite face of the same coin - the enmity and hatred that can do the same. It's a story of several women who orbit around one man and how they are both drawn to and repulsed by him, and what those conflicting emotions do to them and to their relationship with each other.

It is barely 200 pages in length but Morrison can do more in those pages than most authors do in twice the number. ( )

2015
https://www.librarything.com/topic/191940#5250976
(link goes to an LT page with my review) ( )