Krishna
Wait, what? 🙂
Seriously, though, this is one of those fascinating books that give you insight into life in a particular microcosm of society, in this case the life of African Americans in the seventies all across America, in the North as well as the South. There were substantial (at least perceived) differences in the way of life in both places.
The third Macon Dead was called Milkman and his father, the second Macon Dead, was, in the words of Ginger, Milkman’s friend ‘A black man pretending to be white man’. The book is not all about racial differences though. It is about the family that contained Ruth, mother of Milkman (who was the cause of his getting the nickname), her sister Pilate, her daughter Hagar, who, though a cousin, fell for Milkman in a big way).
It is also about Ginger and his friends whose simmering anger about the injustices in this world is seething just under the surface, ready to explode at the slightest provocation. It is about the uneasy, love-but-mostly-hate relationship between
Milkman’s parents. It is about how the half crazed Pilate, who is unpredictable ‘saved Milkman’s life even before he was born’, how he saved his hide when he got arrested in questionable circumstances.
It is also about the putative excessive love for Milkmsn’s mother for HER father, the man who dared and achieved the dream of being a Doctor against all odds. When Milkman goes on to find about his ancestry (while searching for something which, for him, was much more tangible and useful) he turns up astonishing facts about the family members that makes him see them in a new light.
Toni Morrison has a lovely style of storytelling and she uses a kind of a time-pause technique to devastating effect. You read the story and you are with the characters but suddenly one of the characters end up doing a completely incomprehensible thing – Like Milkman waiting calmly for his killer, whom you never know existed).
You go ‘Huh?’ but read on. The author then fills in the gaps in a kind of reverie of the character that brings you up to date. It tends to get a bit repetitive if you get used to it, but I found it still kept your interest till the very end.
A very satisfying read, not in the same league as the Poisonwood Bible, though (already reviewed in this group).
Let us say, a 8/10.
— Krishna