The first page of Toni Morrison's novel Love is a soft introduction to a narrator who pulls you in with her version of a tale of the ocean-side community of Up Beach, a once popular ocean resort. Morrison introduces an enclave of people who react to one man--Bill Cosey--and to each other as they tell of his affect on generations of characters living in the seaside community.
One clear truth here, told time and again, is how folks love and hate each other and the myriad ways it's manifested; these versions of humanity are seen in almost every line. Monsters and ghosts creep into young girls' dreams and around corners and then return to staid ladies' lives as they age and remember friendships and cold battles.
Men and women--Heed, Romen, Junior, Christine, Celestial, and the rest of Morrison's cast--cry and sing out their weaknesses and strengths in rotating perspectives. Sandler, a Cosey employee, is a brilliant agent of Morrison's descriptions of human behavior, "Then, in a sudden shift of subject that children and heavy drinkers enjoy, 'My son, Billy was about your age. When he died, I mean.'" And Romen is allowed to play hero by saving a young girl from a brutal gang rape, while at the same time, he battles disgust like no superhuman would be caught dead feeling.
Though slim in pages, Morrison constructs Love with a precision and elegance that shows her characters' flaws and fears with brutal accuracy. Love may be less complex than others in the grand Morrison oeuvre, but not because Morrison performs literary hand-holding. Readers will experience in this smooth, sharp-eyed gem another instance of the Toni Morrison craftsmanship: she enters your mind, hangs a tale or two there, and leaves just as quietly as she came. --E. Brooke Gilbert --
Read the complete review at: http://www.amazon.com/Love-TONI-MORRISON/dp/B0007IN2W8/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205720909&sr=1-1
"Do they still call it infatuation? That magic ax that chops away the world in one blow, leaving only the couple standing there trembling? Whatever they call it, it leaps over anything, takes the biggest chair, the largest slice, rules the ground wherever it walks, from a mansion to a swamp, and its selfishness is its beauty.... People with no imagination feed it with sex -- the clown of love. They don't know the real kinds, the better kinds, where losses are cut and everybody benefits. It takes a certain intelligence to love like that -- softly, without props."Love by Toni Morrison
For more quotes go to: http://www.notable-quotes.com/m/morrison_toni.html
Nobel Prize in Literature
Toni Morrison was the first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. She is recognized on the Distinguished Women of the Past and Present page.
To get more background on her childhood and her accomplishments go to:
http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html
To get more background on her childhood and her accomplishments go to:
http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html
Discussion Questions
1. Why did the author choose Love as the title? How is the book about Love? What kinds of Love affect and afflict its characters? How can love be seen through the novel?
2. L claims she needs "something better" than an "old folks' tale to draw on... Like a story that shows how brazen women can take a good man down," (p. 10). Is this about love? Is Cosey brought down by brazen women? Would L think he was?
3. "But he knew who it was. It was the real Romen who had sabotaged the newly chiseled, dangerous one," (p. 49). Where is Romen torn between lust and compassion? What does he finally decide?
4. How does Mr. Cosey "contradict history"? What history is contradicted?
5. Why is family often considered a source of misery? Is this relatable in real life or other novels?
6. What hurts the friendship between Heed and Christine? How are they able to reconcile at the end of the novel?
7. What is the relationship between Mr. Cosey and Celestial, the prostitute? Why would he think of leaving everything to her?
8. Christine tells Heed, "…it's like we started out being sold, got free of it, then sold ourselves to the highest bidder." Heed says, "Who you mean 'we'? Black people? Women? You mean me and you?" (p. 185) Who do you think she means?
9. Morrison describes "police-heads" as "dirty things with big hats who shoot up out of the ocean to harm loose women and eat disobedient children" (5). What are these "police-heads"? Do they have a literal or symbolic meaning, or both?
10. Elaborate on the relationship that Christine's description of home as "a familiar place, that when you left, kept changing behind your back" (86) has with the novel's overall themes of change.
2. L claims she needs "something better" than an "old folks' tale to draw on... Like a story that shows how brazen women can take a good man down," (p. 10). Is this about love? Is Cosey brought down by brazen women? Would L think he was?
3. "But he knew who it was. It was the real Romen who had sabotaged the newly chiseled, dangerous one," (p. 49). Where is Romen torn between lust and compassion? What does he finally decide?
4. How does Mr. Cosey "contradict history"? What history is contradicted?
5. Why is family often considered a source of misery? Is this relatable in real life or other novels?
6. What hurts the friendship between Heed and Christine? How are they able to reconcile at the end of the novel?
7. What is the relationship between Mr. Cosey and Celestial, the prostitute? Why would he think of leaving everything to her?
8. Christine tells Heed, "…it's like we started out being sold, got free of it, then sold ourselves to the highest bidder." Heed says, "Who you mean 'we'? Black people? Women? You mean me and you?" (p. 185) Who do you think she means?
9. Morrison describes "police-heads" as "dirty things with big hats who shoot up out of the ocean to harm loose women and eat disobedient children" (5). What are these "police-heads"? Do they have a literal or symbolic meaning, or both?
10. Elaborate on the relationship that Christine's description of home as "a familiar place, that when you left, kept changing behind your back" (86) has with the novel's overall themes of change.
Fun Facts according to Barnes and Nobel
Chloe Anthony Wofford chose to publish her first novel under the name Toni Morrison because she believed that Toni was easier to pronounce than Chloe. Morrison later regretted assuming the nom de plume.
In 1986, the first production of Morrison's sole play Dreaming Emmett was staged. The play was based on the story of Emmett Till, a black teen murdered by racists in 1955.
Morrison's prestigious status is not limited to her revered novels or her multitude of awards. She also holds a chair at Princeton University.
In 1986, the first production of Morrison's sole play Dreaming Emmett was staged. The play was based on the story of Emmett Till, a black teen murdered by racists in 1955.
Morrison's prestigious status is not limited to her revered novels or her multitude of awards. She also holds a chair at Princeton University.
Monday, March 24, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Bibliography
http://www.amazon.com/Love-TONI-MORRISON/dp/B0007IN2W8/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205720909&sr=1-1
http://barnesandnobel.com/
http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-bio.html
http://www.notable-quotes.com/m/morrison_toni.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E7D91430F932A05753C1A9659C8B63&scp=1&sq=toni+morrison+love&st=nyt
http://thebestreviews.com/review17623
http://barnesandnobel.com/
http://www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/morrison.html
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/morrison-bio.html
http://www.notable-quotes.com/m/morrison_toni.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C03E7D91430F932A05753C1A9659C8B63&scp=1&sq=toni+morrison+love&st=nyt
http://thebestreviews.com/review17623
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-77828276.html
http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/morrison-tonihttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
http://www.brocku.ca/english/courses/2F55/post-mod-attrib.htmlhttp://webdoc.gwdg.de/edoc/ia/eese/artic27/schaller/2_2007.html
http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/narratology/modules/barthescodes.html
No comments:
Post a Comment