Home

Toni Morrison has this way of turning an otherwise-ordinary story into something extraordinary. Home follows the life of Frank Money (who doesn’t have any), a veteran of the Korean War who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He struggles in his relationships, and he’s ashamed to return home. But when he gets word of his sister’s illness, he makes the long trek to Georgia from the West Coast, trying tirelessly to block out the images of war that plague him, to bring color back to his world. The beauty of Home is in the way Morrison chooses to tell the story, alternating between characters and points of view, weaving her words together like an elaborate, poetic tapestry. Morrison, a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner, is known for her ability to capture the nuances of the African-American experience, and Home continues in the same tradition. Her newest novel never mentions skin color, however, leaving it up to the reader to decide, based on speech and perspective, a character’s background. I appreciate her trust in her audience, but I do have one criticism: I wish she’d given us more time to get to know the characters, to figure them out and really care about their lives and how their stories end.