A Measure of Last Resort: Limerence and the Geometrical Shape of Community in Love

Abstract

In this chapter, we turn to Toni Morrison’s eighth novel, Love (2003), which is set in the town of Silk, South Carolina. There, Bill Cosey is the sole proprietor of Cosey’s Resort and benefactor of Silk’s black population. Even when he is not physically present, Cosey embodies Sula Peace’s observation that black men are “the envy of the world” (104). But reading Love requires sustained attention to issues of space and place, especially as they relate to the concept of leverage. Where Jazz took place in a smaller section of the metropolis, events unfold in Love against the backdrop of the town.

My playhouse is underneath

Our house, & I hear people

Telling each other secrets.

—Yusef Komunyakaa, “Venus Fly-Traps”