A young woman looking for work as a live-in personal secretary in the Cosey household rekindles memories long since tucked away in the mind of the quiet neighborhood. Within the Cosey household, the arrival of this young woman, Junior Viviane, sparks suspicion and fear. Why has the somewhat familiar Junior – “call me June” – looked for work with Heed Cosey, the “meanest thing on the coast”? How did the isolated and elderly Heed Cosey place an ad in the local newspaper for a personal secretary anyway?
In a house seething with sibling animosity perhaps sparked by past romantic competition, will Junior prove to fit, or will she upset a silently habitual, if indeed cold, existence?
Will Junior, who seems to have secrets embedded in her own run-away appearance and just out of the bus station eagerness, crack the past and bring to light the forgotten lives of the members of the Cosey family? In the job interview, trying to impress her future employer with her charm, if not her questionable resume, Junior winks: startling Heed into a momentary recall of something just out of reach, like a shell snatched by a wave. It may have been a flick of melancholy so sharply felt that made her lean close to the girl and whisper, 'Can you keep a secret?'
What are the ancient secrets to be unraveled in this story brimming with mistrust, layers of deception and a buried past that needn’t be unearthed? And who is this man, this “commanding, beautiful” Bill Cosey, who seems to be at the center of all secrets and memories that haunt the Cosey house and this decaying seaside town? Will memories continue to divide this aging community or will they serve to bring together feuding factions?
In her superb new novel, Love, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison combines her special gift of sensual imagery with well-developed, sympathetic characters, realistic social and historical scenery and a flare for the mystical and otherworldly that grips the imagination. Morrison’s skill at moving seamlessly among the internal emotional and mental lives of various characters fills a book with rich human characters unencumbered by an authoritarian narrator bent on a single perspective.
Textured by the complexity of class and gender relations, there is something unswervingly democratic about the form and feel of this novel, even if the content and plot seem ordinary or simple. This is Toni Morrison at her very best.
Love Toni Morrison New York, Knopf, 2003.
