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the man and his sister who come home together

🏡 I love lit fic. Which I’ve re-termed realism just as there is magical realism. Every genre has its advantages and lit fic (realism) offers us complexity, a thousand colors (some muted, some vibrant), the quest for authenticity, layer upon layer of life and truth and discovery - and pain that must be felt in order to remain alive now and long after.

Toni brings us all this and much more in her “semi stream of consciousness�� style. I settled into this story prepared to be rewarded in my imagination but also aware there would be the stab point and shock point of pain as there was in Beloved. For that is one of the conundrums of life and Toni specializes in life, in real life.

Frank is a vet returning to Georgia from the Korean War. We learn about his life before the war, during the war (via flashbacks of intense trauma), and what happens once he is back in America.

His sister Cee carries the other major POV in this novel. A lot has happened to crush her spirit. She is almost dead when Frank returns and finds her.

Frank has returned from hell to help Cee out of hell. And in doing so realizes he needs release from his own hell. Not only from what the war did to him, but from what he did himself, a harsh and killing truth he has suppressed.

Beautiful writing. Powerful writing. But strong drink. Yet brother and sister come home together and start to find resolution.

🤲🏼 “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.�� Langston Hughes