ŷ������

Why did I read this book before reading Beloved and Jazz when it is supposed to complete the trilogy? I'm bummed by that. I couldn't help it, I found the book on my shelf and decided to read it along with The Bluest Eye. Then there I was, reading it and thinking, why was this book not titled, “Beware the Furrow of His Brow,�� or “Furrow of His brow,�� or, “The Oven?�� I won’t spoil it, you will have to read it to see why I say that and you'll probably agree with me (I did hear though, that Toni Morrison wanted to call it, “War�� but her editors disagreed).

(view spoiler)[The story. A group of people settle in Oklahoma during the 1950s, forming an all-black town they name Ruby—after one of the founders who died on the way when she was refused medical attention because of the color of her skin.

When it became clear she needed serious medical help, there was no way to provide it. They drove her to Demby, then further to Middleton. No colored people were allowed in the wards. No regular doctors would attend them. She had lost control, then consciousness by the time they got to the second hospital. She died on the waiting room bench while the nurse tried to find a doctor to examine her. When the brothers learned the nurse had been trying to reach a veterinarian, and they gathered their dead sister in their arms, their shoulders shook all the way home.

At first, Ruby was a conservative town, where the women wore no makeup and went to church regularly. Later, the town faced intergenerational issues: “young people were getting harder to identify and when friends or relatives visited Ruby, they did not always attend services, as people used to do.�� Then in came a mansion-turned-convent that later became housing for women running away from all kinds of issues. Women the town considered wild women.

Oh my, change is hard sooo hard, what do we do about it, oh let’s go on a shooting spree? You get some idea about these men during their town meeting. They don’t like change, want things to remain the way they were decades before. But if their psychotic move had not been introduced at the beginning of the book (like Morrison does in her novels: announce what's going to happen and then tell you later) I would have been like, whaatt just happened? You don’t want people in your town so you come up with a plan to kill them off and hide the bodies? Ok, then.

Every single character had an issue in this book. I didn't mind it. Sure, you all have issues. I get you through your backstory and I empathize. At times. I really do. Then I forget about you once your other friends are introduced. Wait, there you are again, interacting with one of the other characters. But you still haven’t redeemed yourself. And then, whoosh, you’re smashed by yet another character and I’ve forgotten about you again: wait, remind me, what was your background again? Still no redemption?

This wasn’t as lyrical as The Bluest Eye, but the plot between backstory was amazing. I wanted more from the characters though. Examples: more of Consolata (the nun who has an affair with a married man), Billie Delia (the girl painted as the “wild one�� because as a little girl, she wanted to ride a horse so badly, she dropped her panties and lifted her arms for an older man to help her on) and Mavis (the mother who kills her twins by leaving them unattended in a hot car). These characters all had jaw-dropping stories and it made you want to stay with them, hear their stories and see them move the plot forward through their narrations. (hide spoiler)]