Review: Home

Home Author: Toni Morrison Genre: Adult Fiction Publisher:  Random House Audio Release Date: May 8, 2012 Audiobook: 4 hours and 29 minutes Narrator: Toni Morrison Source:  Free from E-Library

Book Description

America’s most celebrated novelist, Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison extends her profound take on our history with this twentieth-century tale of redemption: a taut and tortured story about one man’s desperate search for himself in a world disfigured by war.
Frank Money is an angry, self-loathing veteran of the Korean War who, after traumatic experiences on the front lines, finds himself back in racist America with more than just physical scars. His home may seem alien to him, but he is shocked out of his crippling apathy by the need to rescue his medically abused younger sister and take her back to the small Georgia town they come from and that he’s hated all his life. As Frank revisits his memories from childhood and the war that have left him questioning his sense of self, he discovers a profound courage he had thought he could never possess again.
A deeply moving novel about an apparently defeated man finding his manhood—and his home.

Review

I picked this book up from the e-library because heck, everyone else has read it.  Yes, I picked this up just because everyone else did it.  And I am a bit embarrassed to say this but this was my first ever Toni Morrison book.  Yes!  I should have my black girl card revoked but it's true.  I started Beloved years ago and I couldn't get into it.  So I never picked up another Toni Morrison book.  EVER!  Until now.  
This short novel centers around the Korean War vet Frank Money, who comes back to the racist and segregated South with (what we call now) PTSD.  Frank Money started as most joining the army to get out of their small towns and as a way to get out of the deep poverty they were living in.  Frank only finds himself on the front lines witnessing the deaths of his close friends.  When he comes home only his body and vises are in tack.
I am not much for reading about war, death, or the horrors of killing.  So this book lost me when that seemed to be the focus.  For me the rave reviews of the New York Times seems to get overshadowed by the graphic nature of the violent acts.  I understand that bad things happen and that writers are writers because they can tell you about it and make you feel like you were there.  But... yuck!  I can't handle it.  Toni Morrison is a good writer.  I am not talking anything away from her writing style and ability.  I am just not into the subject matter of this particular book I think. I was hoping for something much more redeeming and something with high pie in the sky feel goodness.  I don't know why but I was.  
This audiobook was narrated by the author herself.  I have found that most authors who read their own work are not as good as a professional narrator.  There are a few exceptions to that rule.  Toni Morrison did a good job but since the book was centered around a male main character I would have liked to have the audiobook narrated by a man.  Not being sexiest!!! Just saying.  If the main character was a middle aged women than I would have liked to her Toni Morrison's voice.   

Reviews by Other Bloggers

Between the Covers

Savidge Reads

Recommendations

I recommend this book to adults due to the graphic nature of the sexual and violent scenes.

Challenges

This book is number 14 in my Diversity on the Shelf Reading Challenge
This book is number 26 in my Audiobook Reading Challenge
This book is number 35 in my Goodreads Reading Challenge