Reader, I'm already three Guinnesses in, and I've been in a contemplative state all day. I'm generally in a particular mood, so I might as well confess. Going into "Love," I didn't have the highest expectations. I only picked it up because it was the one Toni Morrison book I hadn't read yet. I kept putting it off, convinced that while Morrison had her hit list, this couldn't possibly be one of them. The fact that I'd read some of her books that didn't quite make the hit list, like "Home" and "God Help the Child," really drove home my procrastination.

It was the jacket summary that got to me. What can I say? The publishing people had a gothic investigation of the past, the kind of book Morrison excels at and reinvented, but they marketed it as a soap opera. "Six women, one man... you'll never believe what hijinks they get up to!" Well, this isn't that book at all. And yes, I should've had an inkling that she was going to pull something off, that the one man (Bill Cosey) meant something radically different to each of the six women (Heed, Christine, Junior, Vida, L, and the mysterious Celestial). I guess I just thought Morrison wrote it on a bad day. We all have those.

But no, she wrote it on one of her better days. Go figure. The plot basically goes like this. A young woman named Junior escapes from reform school, hopefully on a motorcycle, and finds herself in a beach town that's more or less like Silent Hill. Luckily, she doesn't have to deal with Pyramid Head's stuff, but instead finds herself working for Heed. Heed is an older woman trying to get rid of her memories of her ex-husband Bill Cosey. She lives with another older woman, Christine, but they really shouldn't live together as it's not working at all.

As Junior delves into the memories, we get to know some people. We learn about Christine and Heed's friendship, which has been completely damaged over the years. We learn about Cosey himself, a generous but brutal womanizer, the epitome of the guy who's fun to drink with at the bar until he starts talking about women. He runs a nightclub that was once a popular spot, and we get to know two of his employees. Vida, the cook, is wise and ghostly, sometimes a bit too flowery but mostly with the classic "Toni Morrison first person narrator voice" that you just can't miss. Meanwhile, Vida seems to be the one who sees Cosey's shittiness for what it really is.

So it's not a soap opera at all. It's another rich tapestry of lives that Morrison was leaning towards in this period, like "Paradise," which also features a troubled community of women. But this is different from "Paradise." It's haunted by the past, an excavation worthy of "Absalom, Absalom!" but also more committed to that book's ending. In that way, it calls back to "Beloved," raising questions about the stories we pass on.

Reverberations. That's the key. When books switch between past and present timelines, they sometimes mess up because the reverberations aren't there. I've criticized Philip Roth for dropping the ball on "I Married a Communist." But it's different with Toni Morrison. You really feel the significance and weight of Bill Cosey, the strange and unexpected ways life intersects, the things we set aside and the things we can't ignore. It's a true book. Isn't it always with Toni Morrison?

And I mean, it's just so deliciously gothic. You have intrigue, suspicion, secrets, arson, people who aren't ghosts but might as well be, and the climax happens in the attic. Oh man, talk about transforming tropes into something bigger and using them to tell a compelling story. It takes you on this crazy ride and then boom, you're left in stunned silence, and then wham, you get hit with the cricket bat of raw human truth. It's really something.

So why not five stars? Besides some overwritten passages, these are the kinds of wonders that I think Morrison can produce effortlessly. I mean, let's face it, there was no way she was going to mess this up, but she doesn't quite take the big leaps into the unknown like she did with "Beloved," "Paradise," and especially "Song of Solomon." It's the kind of casual wonder she can just write. Anyone else would give their kidneys to write a novel like this.

I am unable to express a clear judgment on this novel for several reasons. Primarily, when I reached the last page, there were far too many unresolved questions about the characters, too many doubts regarding their relationships and connections.

Just to mention a few: Who is L? Who is Celestial? Are they the same person? Are they alive or dead? And who is Junior? Is she Celestial's daughter? And how does she get to know Will Cosey if he died even before she was born? And does Christine tell the whole truth or are there things she has kept hidden?

I don't know... I think it would be better if I read something else by this author to clarify my thoughts.

Perhaps with a different work, I will be able to gain a better understanding of the author's writing style and the themes she explores. Maybe then, I will be able to form a more definite opinion about this particular novel.

This was truly a strange one!

This book delves into the lives of various women and their complex obsessions or relationships with a man named Bill Cosey. There are indeed some other male characters in the story, but they pale in significance compared to Bill.

Just like in any Toni Morrison novel, you won't have a clue what you're reading until the very last page. And even then, you might walk away scratching your head and thinking, "What did I just read?" That's precisely how I feel at this moment.

Although the book began decently enough, it unfortunately failed to maintain my interest throughout. Now that I know all there is to know, it is actually an interesting story. However, it was extremely difficult to read and fully comprehend. Overall, I would rate it 3 stars.

Perhaps with a second reading, I might gain a deeper understanding and appreciation for the intricacies of this unique tale.