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Nobel Prize winner, Toni Morrison, has a tremendous gift for writing novels that possess an 'in your face' quality. She takes the African American experience throughout United States history and forces you to really SEE and FEEL that experience .... no matter the discomfort it causes or the sense of horror and revulsion you feel. In her novel, Home, she writes a story about angry and dejected Korean War veteran , Frank Money and his younger sister, Cee.

This story, Frank and Cee's story, doesn't BEGIN after the Korean War. Instead, the Korean War becomes a sort of catalyst for Frank and Cee to face the horrors of their past. One of Frank's earliest memories is of living in Texas. He remembers his family's flight from Bandera County to Louisiana when the entire town was forced to evacuate the town within 24 hours or be killed. Cee was born right after their forced exile and Frank, from that time forward, became her sole protector.. he was entirely devoted to her. Frank and Cee's parents eked out a meager existence working torturously long and back breaking hours in the fields. Frank and Cee loved running through those fields until one night they became witnesses to an event that would change both of them forever. Although this event wasn't clear or explained until the end of the book, the horrors that they observed has stuck in my mind and is something I won't forget......

"... we saw them pull a body from a wheelbarrow and throw it into a hole already waiting. One foot stuck up over the edge and quivered , as though it could get out, as though with a little effort it could break the dirt being shoveled in. We could not see the faces of the men doing the burying, only their trousers; but we saw the edge of the spade drive the jerking foot down to join the rest of itself."

The two never talked about having witnessed a man being buried alive but it was always there.. hanging in the air between them. Frank and a couple of his friends left for the Korean War and Cee.... well, she was drifting. She was a young woman looking for someone to love and protect her; and with Frank's absence, she became involved with a man who would ultimately use her and break her heart. Without Frank's protection, she was vulnerable and this vulnerability is what led her to work for a doctor.. a doctor who seemed so kindly and solicitous and whom Cee believed wanted to protect her.What this doctor was actually doing, however,was his own sick form of eugenics.. he was systematically sterilizing young black women and Cee happened to be his latest victim.

At the same time that Cee was being experimented on,Frank returned from Korea. Dealing with the deaths of his friends during the war and his own guilt and self-loathing over his part in the war, Frank was wandering around California .... homeless and suffering from PTSD. He received word that Cee was near death and ever her protector, he made his way back to her... hoping to heal her and perhaps in doing so, he could find a way to heal and save himself.

Things hadn't changed much while Frank was gone, but Frank realized that HE had changed. He realized that he could no longer protect Cee from the world. He took her to some of the women of the community who used their home remedies and lots of prayers to nurse her back to health. While Cee was recovering, both Frank and she did a great deal of thinking. Frank finally had to deal with the ghosts from his past..both from his childhood and Korea. Cee realized that her problems stemmed from never feeling valued. She didn't feel valued by others but most importantly, she didn't value herself. She realized that although Frank valued her, "his devotion shielded her but did not strengthen her. She wanted to be the person who who would never again need rescue.. she wanted to be the one who rescued her own self."

After reading this story, the first thing I was struck by was that this incredibly moving story was contained in a book which was lass than 150 pages.Toni Morrison, through her novels,manages to present the African American experience in a way that not only educates you but makes you actually feel and experience all of the indignities and horrors that the characters experience. In the end, you come away from the story feeling not only hopeful... but somehow stronger. Frank's and Cee's story was one of people discovering their own worth ... a worth that had nothing to do with how others saw them or treated them and through this discovery, they became stronger. This incredible story reminded me of an Ernest Hemingway quote from his novel, A Farewell to Arms.... "The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places."

If you haven't read any of Toni Morrison's wonderful books, then might I suggest that you start with this one?