My grandmother says she brought it on herself. Live the life; pay the price, she said.” 

Morrison allows us to intimately meet each character, their prior lives before moving to the city and even a glimpse of their upbringing. Violet a mobile hairdresser and Joe a door to door beauty salesman. We see their current situation, their lives in the country where they were completely different people. 

I really enjoyed the depth of this story. How it showed that our upbringing shapes some of who we are, and no matter how you try to run from it - the unhealed and unresolved parts always find a way to show up in other relationships. 

Violet wasn’t chosen in childhood and thought that if she chose the love, it would stay. The same with Joe. Though both seemed to choose each other for different reasons. Joe chose Violet because of him not being chosen in his earlier years. To me, a lot of this story seemed to be a big trauma bond, being that each of these people had something in common, some void that they couldn’t fill but stuffed with someone who they felt understood them.