“Look to yourself. You free. Nothing and nobody is obliged to save you but you.”

Frank Money is grappling with “normal life” after returning home from the Korean War. Morrison opens the story Frank having one of his many flashbacks from his childhood. The flashback happens while he is in restraints in a mental hospital. The war zone has basically made Frank a wanderer. While in a brief relationship with an ambitious young woman, Lily, Frank gets a cryptic message from his sister that sends him on a trip to try and rescue her before it is too late.

“Frank alone valued her. While his devotion shielded her, it did not strengthen her.”

Frank and Ycidra “Cee” Money were the type of siblings that had that unconditional, mountain moving devotion. Their parents were present physically but not emotionally. A brief stay with a mean grandmother proved to have a lasting effect on both of them. So they grew to only depend on each other. While Frank was in Korea, he lost his two best friends as casualties of war. Cee got married and moved to Atlanta. Cee’s husband ran off and returning to Lotus was not an option for her. When Cee landed a job as a doctor’s assistant with free room and board she was pretty sure it was a good, safe place. This doctor practiced “eugenics” which Cee didn’t understand. Cee was soon the subject of the doctor's experiments. The doctor’s experimentation on Cee brought Frank back to her and sent them both back to Lotus. It was in Lotus that they found the healing and strength to go on.

When I realized I had been chosen to receive an ARC of Toni Morrison’s latest novel, I was ecstatic. There is a lot of Toni’s “invisible ink” in "Home." Overall, I would say that the story was steady and reminded me of,"Song of Solomon." Initially the story was pretty captivating then it leveled off. "Home" had a lot of heart but not much depth.