Changes

|title=Home

|author=Toni Morrison

|borrow=Yes

|isbn=9780701186074

|pages=160

|publisher=Chatto & Windus

|date=May 2012

|website=

|video=

|summary=An elegant and moving novella set in post Korean war America. This is sublime writing from one of the best American writers.

}}

Toni Morrison's ''Home'' is simply a beautifully crafted novella. Set in post Korean war America, it features some familiar Morrison characteristics. Veteran Frank is suffering from what we would now call post-traumatic stress disorder, but is released from service with no treatment as so many were, especially if they were black no doubt. But at least he has survived unlike his two friends whom he grew up with. Frank is troubled and has his flaws, but also has dignity. He finds himself returning to the Georgia home, Lotus, he longed to escape from as a child, another typical Morrison settlement with nothing going for it apart from the goodness and dignity of the people who live there. What draws him back is the news that his younger sister, Cee, is suffering from the aftermath of some medical experimentation. It sounds grim stuff, but while life is hard, it's not a traumatically difficult read.

There's no denying the tough conditions of the lives of Morrison's protagonists. As she says of the ladies of Lotus who 'practiced what they had been taught by their mothers during the period the rich people called the Depression and they called life'. You can almost hear Morgan Freeman in his best ''The Shawshank Redemption'' voice saying that. It's a brutal world but there's an earthy quality to her characters and their story. It's a stunning piece of writing.

For a very different view of 1950s America, [[Indignation by Philip Roth]] is worth reading. You may also enjoy [[Nightwoods by Charles Frazier]].

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