Love is the story of two women, bonded first by friendship and then by hatred, tied together by one man. Heed Johnson and Christine Cosey are childhood friends. Christine, the granddaughter of a wealthy black hotel owner, and Heed, the daughter of a poor, disreputable family, become fast friends, despite Christine's mother's disapproval at her daughter's fondness for the impoverished Heed. All is well until Bill Cosey, Christine's grandfather, decides to take an 11-year-old Heed as his new wife. While Heed celebrates her "good" fortune, Christine and her mother begin to see her as a threat. Thus begins a feud that outlasts Bill Cosey, the hotel he owned, and most of the late 20th century. In the end, the two women are left with nothing but a decaying house and their hatred towards each other.
Of course, I say in the end, but in actuality Morrison begins the novel when the women are old. The narrative flows back and forth through time effortlessly. This non-linear storytelling is a hallmark of most of Morrison's writing. She also returns to one of her strongest themes for this novel, that of the relationships between women and how they are affected by race and class and sexism. Heed and Christine are surrounded by a cast of characters each with a specific purpose. Bill Cosey represents the "new" class of coloreds that rose up in the 1940s, when his upscale hotel drew black performers and celebrities alike. He also represents the oppression that still existed for black women within their communities, even as some of their men began to gain wealth and power. Of course, Bill Cosey also represents the idea of "separate but equal", as his goal was never to create an integrated resort, and indeed the white town leaders with whom he became so chummy would not have stood for it if he had. Christine's mother May represented the fear and anxiety that struck the black community in the wake of the Civil Rights movement. Convinced that the sweeping social changes taking place in the country were going to make the whites come and run them out, she took to hiding important papers, food, and supplies all over the small Florida community where they lived. Celestial, Bill Cosey's mistress, represented both the myth of the oversexed woman, as well as the idea of freedom and licence. The fact was that the other women in the community judged her harshly for her sexual freedom, and she just didn't care. And there was Junior, a recently released ex-con from a juvenile detention center, convicted of killing her warden when she was 11 when he tried to sexually assault her. Junior comes into the tense standoff between Heed and Christine and immediately tries to find ways to take advantage of their long-standing feud, picking both sides in the battle to inherit Bill Cosey's home so whatever happens, she'll be on the winning side.
This is a short novel, but it is rich in beauty and meaning. Anyone familiar with Toni Morrison's work will immediately recognize everything that makes her writing so superlative-excellent characters, lyrical prose, and the ability to call attention to the subtle ways in which people are affected by repression and oppression.
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