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Beloved (Plume Contemporary Fiction)
by: Toni Morrison |
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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780452264465 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 | ||
 - 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. Rating:  - Ghost StoryBeloved by Toni Morrison is a very weird book. It takes place after the Civil War, when slaves were freed by emancipation. Sethe is the main character. She was a slave who escaped and started a new life. And she has a terrible secret. Beloved is narrated in a way that will make you keep reading, whether you like it or not. Some of the scenes are very brutal and to be honest, hard to understand. Maybe it's because I am a middle class white girl or something, but the thought process of the slaves is very hard to grasp sometimes. A lot of times I just could not see the motivations of the characters. As far as books written from an African American's perspective goes, Beloved is very different. It is a ghost story. You'll have to read it to know what I mean because I don't want to spoil anything. Personally, I was surprised with how much I liked this book. It was just strange enough to not be boring. I doubt I will read many more Toni Morrison's novels, but this one was pretty good. Rating:  - A Masterpiece incomparable to anythingI am reading and listening to Beloved for the fourth time. Every time I read this book, I get something new out of it. There is no point into going into the plot as the plot is subservient to the magic of the words that fir together like a dizzying, beautiful, maddening, frightful and dazzling puzzle. Bit by bit the story weaves it's way into a work of such grander and cohesion. The first time I read it, I couldn't read anything else for nearly 6 weeks. Nothing captured my interest. So I read it again, and the second time (since I already knew the taut, suspenseful story) I could really revel in the poetic beauty of the words. I have read so many books on American slavery...and this one is just by so far and away the best. Maybe the only thing that can touch it is The Known World by Edward P. Jones. Sethe is the bravest protagonist I have ever met. Her love burns like a forest fire to the exclusion of all else. Thank you, Toni Morrison for writing this masterpiece. I will return to it again and again. Rating: - Good readThis was my first Toni Morrison book. I got it based on her reputation and a newspaper review I read (in my local newspaper) and while I didn't expect it to he written in this style (which I understand is why some people leave negative reviews for this or Toni's other works) It was a bit hard for me at first because like I said, this was my first Toni Morrison book, so I was unused to the style. But the plot itself was coherent enough for me, and some of the scenes and characterizations are very vivid - this book is NOT for the weak of heart as it describes some of the horrible things done to slaves in a raw manner. The ending was just a bit confusing, I wish there had been more of a real resolution, after all Denver and Sethe had been through at the hands of the dead baby. I also saw the movie, which was very good. ...Oddly enough, I noticed right after I posted this review that my review is number 666 for this book. That's so weird... Rating:  - Slow and confusingI listened to the audiobook version with Toni Morrison as the reader. The story was written in a very tedious matter. The content of the story was very disturbing, overall not a book I would recommend. |
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