This was another book I took out from the library to help me get through my whiplash injury and fill my days at home.
I guess I was in a hurry that day to get back to my sofa and medicated, pain free bliss as I remember thinking "One word title - that will do". It may also be due to the medications that I don't really recall much about this book and it's only a couple of months later. Incidentally the French doctors love to give you lots of medicine. I was on Valium (2 per day, which I dropped to one) as well as anti-inflammatories and ibuprofen, so it was no surprise that I felt like a zombie and now can not recall all aspects of this story.
Frank is a returning soldier from the Korean War who has difficulty in re-acclimatising to being back in the US and his sister Cee who is in trouble.
I covered the Korean War during history lessons at school but have to admit that, despite learning all the facts and figures, M*A*S*H provides a more visual reference for me. UK forces were not deployed in any large scale in either Korea or Vietnam so we have no sense of the impact that these wars had on army personnel and their return to civilian life.
I found it difficult to relate to Frank but did find it easier to identify with his sister Cee and found that side of the story more memorable. Cee gets offered a job as a domestic servant with a 'respectable' doctor and becomes his subject for eugenics.
Frank gets a message that she needs help and overcomes his demons to travel home and rescue her. Cee also is given the time to heal and make peace with her past.
It was a very short book (it could have also been in the 'read in one day' category) and the last few chapters seemed a bit rushed and the story finished quickly and could have done with more time to finish off the various story-lines. Toni Morrison normally tackles racism in her books and this was only given a small mention probably due to the issues of displacement that were the bigger themes of the novel.
An interesting book that I felt lost its potential and had only just got going when it ended.
I guess I was in a hurry that day to get back to my sofa and medicated, pain free bliss as I remember thinking "One word title - that will do". It may also be due to the medications that I don't really recall much about this book and it's only a couple of months later. Incidentally the French doctors love to give you lots of medicine. I was on Valium (2 per day, which I dropped to one) as well as anti-inflammatories and ibuprofen, so it was no surprise that I felt like a zombie and now can not recall all aspects of this story.
Frank is a returning soldier from the Korean War who has difficulty in re-acclimatising to being back in the US and his sister Cee who is in trouble.
I covered the Korean War during history lessons at school but have to admit that, despite learning all the facts and figures, M*A*S*H provides a more visual reference for me. UK forces were not deployed in any large scale in either Korea or Vietnam so we have no sense of the impact that these wars had on army personnel and their return to civilian life.
I found it difficult to relate to Frank but did find it easier to identify with his sister Cee and found that side of the story more memorable. Cee gets offered a job as a domestic servant with a 'respectable' doctor and becomes his subject for eugenics.
Frank gets a message that she needs help and overcomes his demons to travel home and rescue her. Cee also is given the time to heal and make peace with her past.
It was a very short book (it could have also been in the 'read in one day' category) and the last few chapters seemed a bit rushed and the story finished quickly and could have done with more time to finish off the various story-lines. Toni Morrison normally tackles racism in her books and this was only given a small mention probably due to the issues of displacement that were the bigger themes of the novel.
An interesting book that I felt lost its potential and had only just got going when it ended.
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