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Claire MessudClaire Messud's new novel, The Woman Upstairs, is fiercely intelligent and urgently intimate, written with precision, humor, and an incredible... Continue »
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5 Burnside Literature- A to Z

Love

by

Love Cover

ISBN13: 9781400078479
ISBN10: 1400078474
Condition: Standard
All Product Details

 

Review-A-Day

"Some people, who probably haven't read Morrison in the first place, have a tendency to dismiss her as a propagandist, a victimologist, a knee-jerk uplifter of the race. As a Nobel laureate and the most celebrated black writer in history, she makes a large and satisfying target. But while Love is indeed, in some large sense, a novel about the damaging legacy of slavery and racism, there is nothing simplistic anywhere in it. In no way does Morrison provide ideological excuses for Bill Cosey or the warring women around him, or apologize for the rape and murder, the petty torment and the money-grubbing and the malicious arson fires and the corruption that have poisoned the Cosey resort and the Cosey world." Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com (read the entire Salon review)

"At times, Love reads like notes for a novel ? 'Christine accepted his invitation to dinner. By dessert they had plans . . . . As couplehood goes, it had its moments. As marriage goes, it was ridiculous' ? at other times like notes for a by now predictable lecture....The reader of a disassembled story reasonably expects to come across something solid, around which it coheres. What is there in Love? Homilies galore, of both the pragmatic and metaphorical kind..." James Campbell, Times Literary Supplement (read the entire TLS review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrisons spellbinding new novel is a Faulknerian symphony of passion and hatred, power and perversity, color and class that spans three generations of black women in a fading beach town.

In life, Bill Cosey enjoyed the affections of many women, who would do almost anything to gain his favor. In death his hold on them may be even stronger. Wife, daughter, granddaughter, employee, mistress: As Morrisons protagonists stake their furious claim on Coseys memory and estate, using everything from intrigue to outright violence, she creates a work that is shrewd, funny, erotic, and heartwrenching.

Review:

"[A]n elegantly shaped epic...a rich symbolic mystery that grows steadily more eloquent and disturbing as its meanings clarify and grip the reader. One of Morrison's finest, and a heartening return to Nobel-worthy form." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Review:

"[A] dense, dark star of a novel, seemingly eccentric, secretly shapely, with Faulknerian passions and Nabokovian layers of lies and misdirection, the 19th- century device of a disputed will and some 20th-century social history — and with Morrison...writing at the top of her game." Newsweek

Review:

"Despite the simplicity of its title, Love is a profound novel....[A]s a vivid painter of human emotions, Morrison is without peer, her impressions rendered in an exquisitely metaphoric but comfortably open style." Brad Hooper, Booklist (Starred Review)

Review:

"[O]ne of her slighter efforts....[W]hile there are some beautifully observed passages in this book, where the author's distinctive style...takes over, the story as a whole reads like a gothic soap opera..." Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

Review:

"Love seduces with Toni Morrison's signature lush prose and colorfully complex, textured scenes of human longing, scheming, suffering, and loss." Lisa Shea, Elle

Review:

"Majestically written, fitfully beautiful, and fundamentally trivial....In this minor gothic soap opera, Morrison's storytelling gifts haven't failed her, but her material has. (Grade: B)" Jennifer Reese, Entertainment Weekly
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About the Author

Toni Morrison is the Robert F. Goheen Professor of Humanities at Princeton University. She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She lives in Rockland County, New York, and Princeton, New Jersey.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
cainslegal, April 12, 2007 (view all comments by cainslegal)
This book is of such high literary calibre. Ms Morrison has taken a relatively basic storyline and seduces and intrigues the reader with its character's descriptive perspective, emotions, actions and actions' analysis. One then has to alert and remind one's self that not only is this a literary piece with which you could so easily identify with Cosey or indeed one of the women who shared his affections, legally or not; but the reader can almost understand and excuse some of the less morally acceptable behaviour therein.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781400078479
Author:
Morrison, Toni
Publisher:
Vintage Books USA
Subject:
Literary
Subject:
Death
Subject:
Hotelkeepers
Subject:
Psychological fiction
Subject:
Literature-A to Z
Copyright:
2005
Edition Description:
Trade paper
Series:
Vintage
Publication Date:
20050131
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
224
Dimensions:
8.00x5.40x.60 in. .52 lbs.
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Related Subjects

» Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z

Love Used Trade Paper
0 stars - 0 reviews
$7.95 In Stock
Product details 224 pages Vintage Books USA - English 9781400078479 Reviews:
"Review A Day" by , "Some people, who probably haven't read Morrison in the first place, have a tendency to dismiss her as a propagandist, a victimologist, a knee-jerk uplifter of the race. As a Nobel laureate and the most celebrated black writer in history, she makes a large and satisfying target. But while Love is indeed, in some large sense, a novel about the damaging legacy of slavery and racism, there is nothing simplistic anywhere in it. In no way does Morrison provide ideological excuses for Bill Cosey or the warring women around him, or apologize for the rape and murder, the petty torment and the money-grubbing and the malicious arson fires and the corruption that have poisoned the Cosey resort and the Cosey world." (read the entire Salon review)
"Review A Day" by , "At times, Love reads like notes for a novel ? 'Christine accepted his invitation to dinner. By dessert they had plans . . . . As couplehood goes, it had its moments. As marriage goes, it was ridiculous' ? at other times like notes for a by now predictable lecture....The reader of a disassembled story reasonably expects to come across something solid, around which it coheres. What is there in Love? Homilies galore, of both the pragmatic and metaphorical kind..." (read the entire TLS review)
"Review" by , "[A]n elegantly shaped epic...a rich symbolic mystery that grows steadily more eloquent and disturbing as its meanings clarify and grip the reader. One of Morrison's finest, and a heartening return to Nobel-worthy form."
"Review" by , "[A] dense, dark star of a novel, seemingly eccentric, secretly shapely, with Faulknerian passions and Nabokovian layers of lies and misdirection, the 19th- century device of a disputed will and some 20th-century social history — and with Morrison...writing at the top of her game."
"Review" by , "Despite the simplicity of its title, Love is a profound novel....[A]s a vivid painter of human emotions, Morrison is without peer, her impressions rendered in an exquisitely metaphoric but comfortably open style."
"Review" by , "[O]ne of her slighter efforts....[W]hile there are some beautifully observed passages in this book, where the author's distinctive style...takes over, the story as a whole reads like a gothic soap opera..."
"Review" by , "Love seduces with Toni Morrison's signature lush prose and colorfully complex, textured scenes of human longing, scheming, suffering, and loss."
"Review" by , "Majestically written, fitfully beautiful, and fundamentally trivial....In this minor gothic soap opera, Morrison's storytelling gifts haven't failed her, but her material has. (Grade: B)"
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