Ruby, who returns to her childhood hometown of Liberty after years of living as an artists’ muse and occasional prostitute in New York, is considered a madwoman by the same men who had coveted her when she was a young and beautiful girl. The title character of Bond’s novel is drawn to this second loneliness, an emptiness that she fills by welcoming the souls of lost and murdered children into her body. A dry and spreading thing that makes the sound of one’s own feet going seem to come from a far-off place. It’s an inside kind-wrapped tight like skin. Arms crossed, knees drawn up, holding, holding on, this motion, unlike a ship’s, smooths and contains the rocker. There is a loneliness that can be rocked. In Beloved, Morrison deftly articulates the experience of Bond’s characters: In her debut novel, Cynthia Bond creates a vibrant chorus of voices united by a common struggle against what her characters refer to as “the Lonely.” Drawing heavily from the gritty surrealism of Toni Morrison, Bond paints a vivid portrait of life in the all-black East Texas township of Liberty, a place replete with characters who rage against-and occasionally embrace-an all-consuming loneliness born from lifetimes of labor and tragedy.
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