Beloved

Rating:
Summary: Morrison's Beloved
Review: I am currently an undergraduate at Princeton University where Toni Morrison is a teacher. She is not a very kind person. In any event, this book is overwritten and generally insults my intelligence. I recommend reading Faulkner instead of this plagiarizing trash. Huzzah!

Rating:
Summary: Absolutly Terrible
Review: I read this book at the suggestion of a brilliant teacher, but was lost from the first page. I would never reccommend this book to anyone, unless they need something to cure their insomnia. This book was the wort book I've ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: Beloved is a truly beautiful book. Part history, part ghost story, Beloved is based on an actual incident and concerns themes of love and family and the legacy of slavery in the United States. The characters are all highly symbolic and it is no accident that no one's memory extends further back than the beginning of slavery in America.

Toni Morrison wrote Beloved in an experimental style which she began in The Bluest Eye. This narrative style is deliberately filled with holes and spaces and calls for much reader participation, something I think caused many readers to dislike this masterful book.

The film version of Beloved was a box office failure. Those who didn't like this book point to that to justify, in part, their feelings. To me, the failure of the film simply points out that Beloved is a uniquely literary work and one that cannot be translated to another medium. Fiction has come a long way from the traditional and Toni Morrison is one of the world's best writers, possibly the greatest living female writer.

Approach Beloved with an open, willing mind and you certainly won't be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Story
Review: I was skeptical about Toni Morrison's greatness before I read any of her books. Beloved is a beautiful book. The lyrical narrative flows well with the story, which draws you in. The horrors of slavery and the prints it leaves on the human spirit are explored through recollection and memory. After you have heard everyone's story, it is hard to judge anyone in the book and to choose heroes and villains. This is what bondage does. Can we retain our humanity when everyone and everything in our lives treats us like animals? Think about Sethe and decide for yourself.

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Summary: A Ghost Story Unlike Any You've Read
Review: The story of Beloved unfolds not chronologically, but concentrically, opening layer after layer of narrative around one central event: a former slave's murder of her daughter, Beloved. This design makes for some confusion at the beginning of the text, and especially on a first read. But because the action at the heart of the novel, the infanticide, is so horrific, it seems Toni Morrison wanted to approach it slowly, indirectly. Indeed, we find out much more about the aftermath of the murder, and the events of the mother Sethe's life leading up to it, before fully comprehending the events that take place in the barn at 124 Bluestone Road. The way Morrison tells the story mimics the manner in which Sethe deals with this moment of her past, where central events are danced around, moved in on.

I'm fascinated by the way Toni Morrison has been able to create, within the context of a ghost story, a novel about the inheritance of culture, and how today, we might grapple with the history of slavery we all share. The characters in this novel straddle two worlds, one of freedom and one of former slavery, life in Ohio and bondage in Kentucky. The first section is preceded by two epigraphs-"Sixty Million and more," and on a separate page, a quote from Romans 9:25, "I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved." Indeed, the Beloved that appears in the story is a ghost and feels she has not been loved right. The novel opens in the house that Beloved haunts. "124 was spiteful," and as a result, Sethe's sons, Howard and Buglar, have fled (the took off when the ghost stuck its hands in a cake). Baby Suggs, Sethe's mother in law, has died. And the only living relative at 124 is Sethe's daughter, Denver. The house, its moods and shifting atmospheres take prominence at the opening of each of the three sections of the novel.

Beloved deals pointedly with the atrocities of slavery; so much so, that the reader may begin to debate whether Sethe's "prideful" act to keep her daughter from it was actually a merciful one. The most devastating bargain Sethe, her mother-in-law, Baby Suggs, and others who have come out of slave life in Sweet Home make, is that they will not love anything too much in order to survive. In a climate where children are taken from their mothers, husbands separated from their wives at slaveowners' will, the characters guard themselves to simply maintain their sanity. But when a gentle man by the name of Paul D reappears in Sethe's life, she cannot suppress her desire for a family.

But just when Paul D and Sethe and Denver seem to be cohering, a stranger appears leaning on a tree stump at 124, a young woman who has come out of the marsh, dressed in a wet black dress, who is thirsty and sporting new shoes and smooth, wrinkleless skin. The book deals intelligently and in the most startling prose with this conflict between a life one might want to construct for oneself in the future and the choking tendrils of the past. Sethes returns from the carnival with her "family" in hand and meets this specter of a woman, her baby ghost-in-the-flesh, and at once the conflict begins.

Rating:
Summary: My review of Beloved
Review: Toni Morrison has written a compelling novel. She uses flashbacks to represent teh things that have helped to shape the characters. This story is set right after the Civil War is about 1873. The themes that I feel are bieng conveyed are if you work hard enough you'll survive, and never do anything that you'll regret becouse it will come back to haunt you.

The book's protagonist is Sethe, who has to deal with running away from slavery, being pregnant while runnign, having a ghost of the baby she killed in the house and many other things.

The antagonists are Denver, Sethe's daughter, and Paul D., Sethe's boyfriend.

I thought this book was very good. I absolutely loved it and couldn't out it down.

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Summary: Beloved praise
Review: Set in post-Civil War Ohio, Beloved focuses on the life of Sethe, a mother of three and a slave. Out of love for her family, she runs away from her owners in pursuit of a better life and a future for her children, but when she is caught, she makes the decision that death must be better than the life of a slave. "Out of love" she tries to take the lives of her children, succeeding in only one. This decision comes back to haunt her as Beloved, the ghost of her baby daughter. In this novel, Sethe battles with guilt put on her conscience by Beloved and is willing to lose everything to regain the love of this lost child.

Toni Morrison has beautifully constructed this rather unique story of maternal love. She has a captivating style that is both heartwrenching and uplifting. Her creative use of flashbacks and changing point-of-view unfolds this story in such a way that it relentlessly grabs and pulls the reader along. Also, through Beloved Morrison reminds us, though useless to combat the past, the present must be embraced.

Rating:
Summary: Dearly Beloved
Review: A mother's act of love, by all conventional measure horrendous, is the source of conflict in Toni Morrison's Beloved. Determined to protect her children, Sethe does the unthinkable--an act which poses serious questions in terms of morality. Her actions create nearly unbearable consequences for not only herself, but her teenage daughter Denver as well. Their home, once filled with love and constant companionship becomes inhabited by the spirit of an angry baby lamenting her premature death. Strangely, the dead baby holds so much control over Sethe and Denver, and succeeds in making them miserable and nervous, even from the other side of the grave. Skillfully, Toni Morrison enters the realm of the super-natural, transporting her reader to a lonely house where strange visions, inexplicable occurrences, and constant terror are commonplace. But somehow, in the midst of these unusual and frightening events, Beloved maintains a power of meaning and sense of reality.

Unusual events are the driving forces behind the novel's success. Beloved's return nineteen years after Sethe held her in her arms as a baby is a major turning point in the novel, as Beloved has power over everything that she wishes. Beloved's control over Denver and Sethe raises so many questions in terms of what she is capable of. Her physical presence alters the dynamics of the family so dramatically that Denver, Beloved's sister, must intervene to avoid certain harm. Beloved's strange presence introduces an entirely new element to the novel, as the reader unravels the mystery of her origin and purpose.

Another level of Morrison's storytelling power relates to a recurring theme. Interspersed throughout the novel are references to Sethe's uncontrollable "rememory." These are the memories that Sethe feels obliged to carry, even though they cause her great pain. For whatever reason, she feels the responsibility to keep them alive. In her dedication to the

preservation of these memories at whatever cost to her, Sethe is immediately established as a loving mother tragically consumed with love for her children. She seems unable to control herself any time that her kin are involved. She wants so desperately to be a family, or at the very least, she hopes to create one. It is only through Beloved's return that Sethe is able to feel relief about the decision that she made so many years ago and finally let go to the most painful parts of her rememory. This powerful creation allows us access to the source Sethe's secret sadness.

Morrison's work is truly masterful. Her characters are complex; existing just beyond that which we know and understand. Exposition is beautifully executed, providing a base for the complicated story of Sethe and Beloved. The narrative is, like the story itself, a model of creativity. The voice changes from an unidentified third person, to Sethe, to Denver, and then to Beloved. The effect of this switch could be achieved in no better way, as Morrison conveys the common goals and concerns of each character. All factors combine to make Beloved the picture of good writing.

Rating:
Summary: To Be Loved By Everyone
Review: This is the first book that I have ever read by Toni Morrison and to my surprise, I really enjoyed her style of writing. Many people that I have talked to about the writing of Toni Morrison were less then thrilled with it, so I approached this novel expecting not to enjoy it.

Boy, was I ever wrong!! After reading this novel I believe that this is a great piece of literature to experience and judging from this single piece of work alone, Toni Morrison is an excellent writer for today's readers.

I absolutely loved this novel! I read the entire book in less then four days because I simply could not put it down. At first the novel is quit slow. The beginning seems to drag a little and I found it very hard to want to continue to reading. However, once I got past the first 6 pages or so, I found myself unable to put this book down.

This novel is a very enticing read, that deals with many vary interesting and somewhat gut wrenching ideas. For example, the idea of slavery and running for freedom or the unlawful deed of murder that is found within the story line. Or what about the idea of ghosts and spirits of the dead, coming back to haunt those who are still alive and thriving in the human world.

This is a book that is immensely hard to follow and takes a lot of concentration to understand where the plot of the story is coming from and where it is going. Morrison uses a style of writing that is very hard to follow because of its constant movement. For example, one moment, the character is physically in one place doing one thing and the reader can see this happening, then the next minute the character is having a flashback and is mentally somewhere else, in another time, doing some other kind of action. Morrison allows this type of movement to happen within her writing without giving any type of warning. These kind of occurrences that happen throughout the novel are liable to cause some confusion for the reader, forcing he or she to stay on their toes at all times while reading this particular book. This presents a real challenge, even for the most experienced critical reader.

This is a great book and I highly recommend that you give it a chance. Granite, it'll be a huge commitment and challenge, but it is definitely worth all of the time and the struggle. Pick it up, read through the first couple of chapters, and then go back and re-read them again, get a feel for the story and begin to understand it. This is definitely a time consuming book, however it is well worth every single minute that you as a critical reader give it.

This book dares you to test your commitment skills, your ability to read critically and most of all your patience. However, in the end you will be rewarded by this extraordinary, well-written piece of contemporary art.

Start reading today...you won't regret it!

Rating:
Summary: An Ingenious Work of Art
Review: I would first like to note that while most of the reviews I have read on this amazing novel asume that their audience has already read Beloved, I will not. It seems to me the object of writing a review is to give a prospective reader an idea of what the book is about. On that note.......

Beloved is the epitome of perfect literature. Reading it is like listening to a Beatles cd or being inside a Van Gogh Painting. It is not only an interesting story of spiritual enslavement, Civil War era African American Culture and mysticism, the human condition, redemption, and time. It is a book full of amazing imagery( beloved's rebirth into Sethe's life), symbolism( beloved is the symbol of the repression Sethe felt from slavery) and language use, such as " grown men whipped like children; children whipped like adults...," a simple, yet very clear statement.

A breif summary: A young woman named Beloved appears upon the doorstep of Sethe, an escaped slave and mother of four. Beloved is a reincarnation(or gohst, some say) of Sethe's first baby girl whom she killed in order to save from the abominations of slavery. Besides her obvious reason for coming back, Beloved ultimately becomes a healing proccess and a redeemer for many.

Also, I wouold like to say, although I understand what Ilana(reviewer a few people down the list) is saying about trying too hard to create symbolism and double entendres, I disagree. When someone's writing does have so much symbolism and creative diction, yet it still flows so freely and fastly, like Morrison's novel, there is no way it was written purely to win the merit it did. So many people search all of their lives to find their purpose in life and never find it, but when someone writes as well as Morrison, it is not only a blessing for her but all of her readers as well.