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Beloved (Plume Contemporary Fiction)
by: Toni Morrison |
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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780452264465 Edition: First Edition ISBN: 0452264464 Label: Longman Manufacturer: Longman Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 288 Publication Date: September 08, 1998 Publisher: Longman Studio: Longman |
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| Customer Reviews | ||
  - Past, Present, and Future.Dealing with the past: In the most abstract, non-contextual, sense, Toni Morrison explores the issue of dealing with the past. Beloved is a story about former slaves. From here, you see the destroyed identities these characters have due to slavery and their own inability to cope with the past and past actions. It inhibits one to form a coherent self-identity, thus an inability to learn how to deal with traumas and go forward. Lastly, there is something to be said about community. Community is needed. It provides solidarity, the connections that people need for social support, whatever it might be. Sethe's past actions cut that support from the community. However, the community is also at fault for their view of Sethe and Baby Suggs. Both sides eventually reconcile and that is what Morrison explores. Dealing with the past: You must reconcile what has happened with what is happening in order to have a better feature. However, you cannot do that without knowing what has happened. This is what the character Denver represents, someone willing to ignore the past and thus unable to reconcile herself and her current situation. When she is confronted with knowledge of the past and learning what has happened instead of ignoring history, she starts to reconcile her family with the community. In turn, the community begins to reconcile with the residents of 124 and make up for their past mistakes Make no mistake though, this is about the destruction slavery has caused and while sad and depressing, the end provides an idea of hope: That eventually we can reconcile what has happened with what is happening and build a better future. Lastly, I applaud Morrison for her use of the supernatural. Whether drawn from African Culture or use of Christian Symbolism, it adds to the story because it implies there is something greater than ourselves that will make us confront that which we do not want to confront. Rating:  - Do not buy Audio version if hard of hearingI tried to listen to the CD version of this book. Morrison reads it herself. She should have hired a professional. I listen to books in my car. There is road noise. Even with my hearing aids and the volume turned to max I could not understand much of what she was saying -- even when the car was stopped. She talks in this breathless, whispering, trailing off at the end of words sort of way. Those of you with hearing issues know what I am talking about. Get the written version if you want to read this book. Rating: - Quite boringI must admit I was a little bored with this book. Of course it properly has some litteray qualities, which the litteraty people dig, but my god, some of the books these people like, especially the contemporary ones, I just sometimes find absolutely and utterly endless boring! Well apparently Beloved is a ghost. The setting is some black guys who are slaves in the middle of the 19th. century. What I also found boring about this book is that these black guys don't really seem to be going anywhere. Admittedly, it's properly hard to live an inspired life if you are a slave, but anyway... So in this book, this ghost Beloved appear from time to time and otherwise the book descripe the everyday life of the black people. As said they don't really appear to go anywhere, so the book is much about what they do in their daily life, like having dinner. I think it is something like 10 times during the book that their meals are described. A somewhat surprising reference coming to mind concerning this book is the Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata. Belowed has some of the same indirectness in the language as Yasunari Kawabata employ in his book Snow Country. I think the greatest strength of Beloved is the poetic and rhythmic language. I guess the author has a musical talent, so perhaps I would have enjoyed her more if she had employed her talent in music rather than litterature. Rating:  - Very hard to followThis story jumps from current time to past time and narrating person to narrating person so it is confusing. I love books about slavery, civil war but this was very disappointing. Rating: - Very Moving (4.5 Stars)It's difficult to write a review of Beloved without issuing spoiler warnings. The plot does not really have unexpected twists but rather things are slowly revealed. It leads you places and finally confirms your suspicions. This is a story of slavery but is very originally structured and adds a lot more. The main character is Sethe, a very strong woman who has conviction in her opinions despite being shunned by others for something that she does. Others see her actions as deranged but for her, they are the ultimate expression of a mother's love. She is a very powerful and complex character. This novel is not straightforward and adds magical details as if they are quite normal. It's like One Hundred Years of Solitude or Midnight's Children in that sense. There are a couple of passages that are very simple but made me feel some of the pain of the characters. The scene where Paul D is bound with a bit in his mouth and is looking at a rooster and realizes that the rooster believes itself to superior to him causes him shame. It is a simple scene and I found it to be heartbreaking. Moreso than just describe the cruelty of slavery, Beloved describes how it made human beings feel. This is far more powerful than just descriptions of inhumanity. This was a very powerful novel thematically and had wonderful moments. I didn't really love some of the scenes with the character Beloved. In 2006, the NY Times book review asked several critics, pundits, experts etc. what the best American novel of the last 25 years was. Beloved was the most mentioned novel. I can certainly see it in the running but my opinion of it is just short of that. I definitely recommend it though for its emotional power and originality. |
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