"Love"

When I first started reading Love I found it to be confusing. The idea of love is very confusing and is hard to pin point to one definition so I thought the title was suited well for this book. The definition of Love can be shown through intimate relationships, friendships, and families.

Bill Cosey, 52 chose to marry Heed, 11. This relationship was one that many of us are not used to. Going back to Walker's article Lusting for Freedom, how does Heed know at such a young age what she wants- especially making a lifetime commitment to a man who could be her father. It was very weird how Cosey would spank Heed to discipline her. This shows how juvenile their relationship is. Marriage is the idea of joint communication. It seems like Cosey saw himself as a nurtering figure for Heed as well as a husband.

This marriage becomes very tough on the relationship between Christine and Heed, which was once very close. I cannot imagine having a friend of mine who is younger becoming my grandma. The marriage for Christine is very unfortunate because she is always getting sent away to try and solve issues that arise between Heed and Christine.

Christine and her mother, May, have a very distant relationship. The only thing they have in common is hating Heed after Cosey and her get married. I found it to be very sad that May did not realize how close of a relationship Heed and Christine had before the marriage.

Junior, a girl who comes from "the settlement," works for Heed. It seems like they had similar lives growing up. Heed realizes Junior doesn't have much and feels a connection with Heed. Junior is in a tough situation because she picks up on the tension between Heed and Christine. I liked how the ending showed Christine and Heed talking and going through past memories.

I think the relationships throughout this book showed different views of love. The main one was between Heed and Christine. Their relationship was realistic to me. There are times when we are best friends with someone but choose to dislike them because something happens. It would be very hard to be in Christine's shoes and ever forgive Heed. Christine should not have had to suffer each time a fight started between Heed, May, and Christine. I think May would send Christine away to show Cosey that she was not the one causing problems, it was her daughter. In reality May was the one who was always envious of Heed because she thought she deserved the house and money when Cosey died. Christine sided with her mom naturally which ended up backfiring on her.

Overrall, I thought this book was okay. It was hard to follow and I didn't understand the italicized writing at first. I did figure it out to be L's writing. I think the title is one that is simple but holds a lot of meaning.