Love: A Novel

Toni Morrison’s novel Love was published in 2003. Like many of Morrison’s works, it is told in a nonlinear style and focuses on the lives and experiences of Black Americans. Love follows the lives of several women and their relationship to a charismatic and troubled hotelier, Bill Cosey. Morrison’s body of work is highly regarded by critics, and she is considered one of the foremost novelists of the Black experience. Love is her eighth novel and was generally well received by readers but was not as critically acclaimed as some of her other works, especially Beloved (1987). Love contains some supernatural elements, including a character who feels the presence of ghosts, but it is a work of literary fiction. Through multiple narrators, the novel recounts the life of Bill Cosey and the fight over his home and wealth after his death. His house is inhabited by his granddaughter, Christine, and his former child bride, Heed, each of whom believes that she is the rightful heir to the estate. Through their narration and the viewpoints of other characters, Morrison reveals the legacy of trauma in the women’s lives.

This study guide refers to the e-book version of the 2005 First Vintage International Edition.

Content Warning: This guide discusses racism, sexual assault, child abuse, child marriage, pregnancy loss, and violence.

Plot Summary

The Prologue is narrated in the first person by L., the former cook for a resort run by Bill Cosey that catered to wealthy Black guests. L. knew Cosey and his family well: his son, Billy Boy, his daughter-in-law, May, their daughter, Christine, and Cosey’s second wife, Heed. The Prologue takes places in the 1990s when the resort is closed and the hotel is abandoned. L. worries about Christine and Heed, who live alone in Cosey’s house in their old age. They hate each other, and the town hates them, so L. thinks that they might kill each other and no one would know.

Sandler Gibbons and his wife, Vida, are former employees of Cosey who live in town near his house. Their grandson, Romen, is a freshman in high school and does odd jobs for Christine and Heed. Sandler meets a young woman, Junior, who is answering a “help wanted” ad for Heed. Junior meets Christine, who is suspicious of her, and Heed, who eventually hires her. Junior realizes that Christine and Heed hate each other and rarely speak. Junior is relieved and happy to be at the Cosey residence, since she recently left correctional school (part of a rehabilitative program for juvenile detention centers) and needs a job, though she hides this from Heed. She is attracted to the man in the portrait above Heed’s bed, Bill Cosey.

Vida remembers her time working the front desk at Cosey’s resort, thinking of Cosey as a charming, generous host and employer. She believes that his death was due to poison but can’t imagine who killed him, since the only people present at his death besides herself were the fiercely loyal L. and a waiter. Sandler also thinks about his memories of Cosey, which are notably less rosy than his wife’s. He and Cosey were fishing buddies, and though Sandler liked the man, he is aware of the ways that he misused his wealth and status. Meanwhile, Romen remembers an incident at a party during which his friends gang-raped a girl from their high school. Romen rescued her and feels ashamed that he couldn’t exploit her like the others. His former friends beat him up in retaliation, and he accepts this punishment as evidence that he is weak.

Junior recounts her past growing up in the poor community of the Settlement. She ran away from an abusive home and was sent to reform school and then the correctional institute. She is currently happy at Cosey’s house and has begun to win over Heed. She also notices Romen and begins to flirt with him. L. thinks about her life after the hotel, where she worked at a diner called Maceo’s. She sees Junior come in to eat and watches her refuse the advances of Maceo’s son, who was one of Romen’s former friends.

Heed and Christine each plot to take control of the estate. Heed plans to have Junior help her fake a new will, which will leave everything to her and get rid of Christine. Christine has hired a young Black attorney, Gwendolyn East, to help her contest the will. When she visits East, the attorney tells Christine that she thinks the situation won’t work out in her favor. Christine fires her and, thinking of her mother’s life trajectory, is determined to take control of her destiny and make the situation work in her favor.

Vida and Sandler realize that Romen is dating Junior and are worried about him. Romen, on the other hand, is thrilled and feels more confident than he ever has before. Junior is also happy with her life and reflects on her lucky trajectory that landed her here and her unlucky past in reform school and the correctional institute. She is especially happy because she believes that the house is haunted by Cosey’s ghost and that he is in love with her.

The characters remember the early years of Heed’s marriage to Cosey. Heed was embarrassed by May and Christine at Christine’s birthday party and Cosey publicly spanked her when she threw a glass in retaliation. L. threatened to leave if Cosey hurt Heed again. In the present, Heed tells Junior that she needs to take a trip to the hotel, planning to have Junior create the fake will once they are there. Christine tells Junior about Cosey’s child marriage and that she and Heed are only eight months apart in age.

Vida convinces Sandler to caution Romen about his relationship with Junior. Sandler speaks to him about following his instincts and not being afraid to walk away if the situation calls for it. Though Sandler believes that the conversation went well, Romen is not listening to him but thinking of sex with Junior. Meanwhile, Junior fantasizes about Cosey saving her when she ran away from home at 11. She imagines herself in Heed’s place, protected by a powerful man, and romanticizes their relationship.

Heed and Junior go to the hotel to fake the new will. Christine interrupts them in the attic of the hotel and Junior takes advantage of Heed’s distraction to move a carpet covering a hole in the floorboards. Heed falls through and is badly hurt. Junior flees the hotel and goes back to the house, where she lies to Romen about the women’s whereabouts and convinces him to have sex with her. When she finally confesses what happened at the hotel, Romen rushes there to help Heed and Christine.

Heed and Christine reconcile as the former is dying. They remember their childhoods and recognize that Cosey and the other adults were at fault for Heed’s marriage and Christine’s isolation. Arriving at the hotel, Romen finds Heed dead and Christine waiting with her body. He takes Heed’s body to the mortuary while Christine decides what to do with Junior. L. confesses to killing Cosey because his will would have left everything to his mistress, Celestial, and turned his family out onto the street. She refuses to pass judgment on him, calling him a mixture of good and bad. The novel ends with a memory of her sitting at his grave with Celestial while the two of them sing.