Oh My God! She Did it Again.

The Honorable Toni Morrison

I just finished reading Toni Morrison's new novel titled Home, and all that I can say is that she did it again. I mean "She really did it again." As I was reading the novel and now, as I am writing this post, my heart is truly on fire. I can't say how much I love the writings of Toni Morrison. I really believe that her writings portray her most private thoughts, and I really want to meet and get to know Toni Morrison. Toni Morrison, Toni Morrison, Toni Morrison........There is something GREAT and SPECIAL about this lady, mother, writer, professor, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner etc.

With the reading of Home, I am convinced that Toni thinks a lot about the importance of taking a figurative and/or literal journey, women doing some type of self discovery, and she definitely thinks about why people are the way that they are.

In Home, the main characters Frank and his sister, Ycidra, known as Cee, both took a journey that had to be taken for their growth. The only way to really understand themselves and their lives was by taking a life journey. Their stories portray that through the pain comes peace. I know that sounds like another cliche, but when we think about our lives, some of the growth that we are forced to have comes from pain. I remember when my father died, through that pain, I learned that I could stand on my own and take care of myself, and I did not need my safety net, my dad, as much as I thought that I did. I was ready to fly on my own!

When Ycindra, known as Cee, was coming back from her life journey, Ethel Fordham, a lady "which soothed and strengthened her the most" told her over a plate of oven hot biscuits and a jar of blackberry jam:

"See what I mean? Look to yourself. You Free. Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you. Seed your own land. You young and a woman and there's serious limitation in both, but you a person too. Don't let Lenore or some trifling boyfriend and certainly no devil doctor decide who you are. That's slavery. Somewhere inside you is that free person I'm talking about. Locate her and let her do some good in the world."

Ethel and other women in the novel serve as guides for Cee to self-discovery.

If you saw the movie Beloved or read the book, the above quote reminded me of the speech that was given by Baby Suggs when she tries to teach her followers to love their voices, bodies, and minds.

Baby Suggs from Beloved.

Home is only 102 pages and in these few pages, the reader learns a lot about Frank and Cee. Toni develops these characters and many other secondary characters in 102 pages, and it's a lot of information but not too much. It's just enough too make the reader really understand why the characters do what they do. Developing characters through different characters' perspectives is something that Toni does in quite a few of her novels, and it really makes us love and identify with the characters, even the bad guys. Frank, one of the main characters in Home, did something really bad in the Korean war, but with the way that Toni explains why he did what he did, it just doesn't seem that bad.

Everything, and I mean everything, in Toni Morrison's books are important. She is a master with words and every word should be read with care. Read and reread Home and think and grow.

I am only scratching the surface of what is in the 102 pages of Toni Morrison's Home! You've got to experience Home for yourself.......

On a side note, Toni is 81 years old and is still doing what she loves. We must find what we love to do, and do it until we die.

"Suck All the Marrow Out of Life!" (Henry David Thoreau)

I had to add Stephanie Mills singing Home, because that's what's on my mind.