Beloved

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: There is simply no other book written that conveys the horrors of slavery on such a personal and intense level. Sethe's decision to murder her child is completely real to me, a white woman and mother safely ensconsed in suburbia. Toni Morrison's gorgeous imagery will be foraver seared into my brain.Contrary to other's beliefs this book is not difficult to understand; it is hard to accept the horrors of slavery. I think some people are afraid to face thier own culpability, and use her intricate wording as an excuse to deny the truth of her words.

Rating:
Summary: B-E-L-O-V-E-D
Review: Although set against the atrocities of slavery, "Beloved" is not "about" slavery, as so many people seem to think. No one should enter into "Beloved" with a chip on their shoulder, not that way at least. The story is not about the slave, it's about the human. I think the novel's focus is coming to terms with past actions in the way that Sethe is made to come face to face with having killed her baby, no matter why she did it. The reappearance of Beloved represents an incredible mixture of pain and joy for Sethe, and she becomes practically enlaved to Beloved, just as she is in a sense enslaved to her past. Denver, also, is a wonderfully drawn, fascinating character in that she does and seems to have always lived in the shadow of this brilliant, burning, beautiful thing that her mother has been obsessed with for 18 years.

The sex between Paul D and Beloved is totally functional to the plot, not only to Paul D's character, but especially to Beloved, who is the most basic, hedonistic part of all of us who knows only hot, cold, love, pleasure, pain, warmth, etc. While Beloved is a complete and total handful and at times a real nightmare, she hardly knows REAL wrong. She's like the two year old baby she was when Sethe killed crawling already? girl (another great twist, that the baby was never named).

I absolutely ate the supernatural stuff up. The opening pages about the baby ghost's angry behavior (and the residents of 124's extremely matter of fact explanation of it) was the reason I wanted to keep reading (They actually did a pretty good job conveying this opening in the movie. It was done with a lot of red colors and images. I was loving it up until the animatronic dog playing HereBoy with his eyes hanging out lost my interest a little) When Beloved disappears at the end, you almost wonder if she was ever really there.

Nothing is "thrown in" in Toni Morrison. To say that there's fodder in this book is to imply that pigs fly. Her language is like a finger painting to me. Incredibly beautiful with all kinds of direction, but too messy for some people. As far as I'm concerned, when you cook the raw, you boil the good stuff out.

Rating:
Summary: Memorable
Review: This is a marvelous, unforgettable book. It's not perfect and parts of it were difficult for me to understand, but it was really powerful. Some scenes haunt me to this day, two years after I first read it.

Rating:
Summary: This won a Nobel Prize?
Review: I'm sorry, but I couldn't get past the first chapter. It was dull, hard to understand and the characters were making no impressions on me. How does a book like this win such a great prize? Yes, Toni Morrison is a great author but really, why this book?

Rating:
Summary: Intereseting, but highly over-rated and hard to understand.
Review: PA-tennage reader. I found this book to be a somewhat dissaspointment. I really enjoy Toni Morrison's work, but this one was quite scattered and hard to understand. I am a really good reader, and i figured it was hard for me to understand because of my age, but a lot of adults that I know also had the same problem. I was confused on the signigicance os the "Here Dog", was Beloved reincarnated into it? Overall it was okay, but could've been better.

Rating:
Summary: Beloved not her best novel
Review: I was looking forward to reading another Morrison novel. I truly enjoyed Song of Solomon, Tar Baby, and even got through Paradise thinking it was pretty good. But Beloved lacks the continuity, excitement, and interest of her other novels. The theme is a good one, a person living life after slavery. Ghosts coming out of the closet...good fodder. But much too much time was spent on the ghost, and not enough time on Sethe. I think the hero of the novel is Denver. She is intelligent, open minded and respectful. She can figure things out and has compassion for "Man".

There are too many questions raised concerning the shallow characters of the book. What significance did Paul D. sleeping with the ghost have? Why was it so important? Why was alcohol such a big part of Paul D.'s life? I think they were just used as plot fillers.

To summarize, I believe more time should have been spent developing Sethe's character, putting emotional significance to the acts she performed. Denver and the relationship with Sethe should have been stressed a little greater. Denver is the absolute best character, lest I say angel, of the book.

I cannot say that Beloved is Morrison's best novel. Everything else I have read has been better.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth your time
Review: I have loved all of Oprahs picks but this one waes BORING. The authpr has no flow in this book. Just drags on and on--couldn't wait to get to the end. So tired of hearing about s;avery-- why not the plight of Ellis Island emmigrants. Will never read another book by this author--was a horror just to pick up and continue reading. I guess some readers wrote their review because it was Oprah and a moveie. Give us a break Toni Morrison

Rating:
Summary: Remarkable story.
Review: Remarkable story. You'll feel every emotion there is to feel

Rating:
Summary: This book wasn't as great as I expected.
Review: Beloved was unbelievable and drawn out. The only reason I can figure out it could have got a Nobel prize is because it was written by a black author and had black characters in it. I read a lot of Oprah Winfrey's book club materials and I was disapointed that she selected this one. I had a lot of empathy for the characters tragedies. After I finished the book the characters ordeals stayed in my mind, but overall I was left with a bad feeling. I refuse to even see the movie. This book did not deserve the recognization it received. It was an ok story, but nothing great. Toni Morrison appears to be very prejudiced and biased and it certainly comes out in her writing.

Rating:
Summary: Steals your heart and breaks it!
Review: Beloved, as the title and as the center of Sethe's world, truly tears at your soul. I was left absolutely in awe of Toni Morrison's abililty to portray the horrific lives of the slaves and their families. I couldn't help but to be humbled and angry as this cruelty was truly a part of our nation's history. I was amazed at the author's abitlity to take something mundane - that perhaps I would describe in a few words - and turn it into a poetic paragraph. Yes, I had to reread more than a few pages because of the complexitiy of her writing, but I found it outstanding and compelling