“…you build a life where you can shine in the world and still be eager, always, to get back home.”
But Where’s Home? by Toni Ann Johnson poses a question within its title. Its answer highly varies depending upon a multitude of factors such as gender, race, and the circumstances of your living situation and setting to name a few. However, in reading this collection I found that the most interesting factor, the one that truly surpassed with a reach to which no physical, earthly item could measure, was time.
Time was a factor within this short story collection. It functions to fashion ideas that may be found within our past yet resurrected to our current, present-day. Toni Ann Johnson treats time within this collection like a full-length fur coat that neither cares about the weather, the politics, or the person. In its closet, it is allowed to stay pristine and unquestionable daring its continued preservation or change. For Johnson’s character’s, this is all up to them to decide.
But Where’s Home?, for women? Fashion and time would suggest, a house.
But Where’s Home?, for men? Fashion and time would suggest, wherever there are women (in and out of a home).
Time, in its current state, doesn’t seem inclined to those who identify as other, as all, as in-between. And if time’s greatest power is trends, ones that last, it has to be as simple as possible to appeal to as much of the masses as possible. Whiteness is simple and chic. Blackness, Black-womanness, queerness, and otherness much too couture, costly, and complex for the greater good to afford.
Today, with the resurgence of traditional, American values which may be applied to how we approach dating, style of dress, and what roles are to be held inside of a home, But Where’s Home by Johnson’s feels incredibly timely as it reaches back to the 1960s, and all the way up to 2022. The author tenderly gives through the selection of stories told from the third perspective, and respectfully withholds through the use of stories and in the first perspective. From Maddie, to Phil, Livia, Velma and others, Johnson creates a world that has neither heroes of the highest order, a few villains of the lowest depths, but generally are all utterly, and simply humans who make decisions. In those decisions, the various kinds of homes that are sought after? Are made, broken, revisited, or set-aside.
Toni Ann Johnson’s thematic, thesis-statement of a title But Where’s Home? invites a hypothesis, research and results. As a reader, naturally the most interesting subjects are the most immediate family members—Livia, Maddie, Velma and Phil.
Livia: Home stopped existing upon her parent’s divorce. She is forced to accept the limited home of her father’s (Phil) love, abandoned by him for a new wife (Velma), and new daughter (Maddie).
Maddie: Livia’s half-sister could be considered homeless. For reasons, neither the glorious and luxurious home that her parents provide, nor her parents, provide much comfort and acceptance. Even Maddie’s body rejects itself as a home.
Velma: Beauty is home. (And “Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.” Donna Tartt, The Secret History.)
Phil: Whiteness is home. So much so, that he is in constant search for it in the women he chooses to date, the places he frequents and vacations, and even in his style of clothes, pet, and drink.
But Where’s Home? showcases that it is not the subject, or the structure of the home that may shape us in the best ways, but almost exclusively by the people we share those homes with. A home made of gold can either be beautiful or its glint can be blinding, scaring the eyes and creating a false belief that all other homes function as such—ones that steal our eyesight, that may fool us into a belief. Such as to Johnson’s characters, we search with that scarred sight in mind. Attracted to that gauging-like glint in the partners we choose, jobs we settle for, and the friendships we fight to keep. Gold, if not warm by nature, is exceptionally warm in tone but when wielded by an abusive hand, it may as well be as allusively-cold as silver’s complexion.
By the end of But Where’s Home?, I began to wonder (not worry) about the fashion of time, and its hold. It is the most sustainable piece of fashion, allowing the trends of a country and prejudices to extend for decades, centuries. For many, it may even function as a god. To argue, if people are the ones to give God power, the trends that time may decide to protect may only do so if that’s what we choose. Fashion is not a dictator. Only an accessory, a series of stories.
In the worst of homes, and the worst of families, it seems imperative to think of them as accessories as well. As something that we may gently set aside when the wear and tear exposes us cruelly to the elements, their materials scratching at the skin instead of taking care of us. We may do this because as human beings, the longest home that we may all live in is our bodies.
Inside those bodies live our muscles, hearts and minds.
Inside those minds, the stories that we tell ourselves, and to others.
And if that’s the truth? Why not tell ourselves the sweetest, kindest, most good stories of all?
Creating a home, and homes with fantasy-like levels of happily-ever-afters.
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