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Summary: Morrison wrote a winner
Review: By far the most amazing and influential book that has some of out American literature this century. Morrison's nack for writing characters that feel so you feel, they touch and you touch, is uncanny and superb. Sethe's dilemna is one we hope to never face, and she handles it with such dignity and fearlessness, as only a mother could. A haunting, riveting page turner that is Ms. Morrison at her best.
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Summary: "This Book Unites The Mind And The Soul"
Review: She settled into a lifetime of residence on the Avenue of Contradiction. Telling herself -knawing into her thoughts what had already been ingrained in her heart- "Only a little! Never allow yourself to take in as much love as your heart can hold." And yet, it was that same heart that loved her children so much that she would take her own hand against them rather than see schoolteacher profit from their flesh. Even with the jagged handsaw as her accomplice, Sethe could not sever the intent for unity that flourished within the umbilical cord, and so, she and Beloved remained on one accord in the Here and After. Sethe threw ice-cold stones from her Yesterdays at my back while I ran through the pages of her Tomorrows in Post-War Ohio. She worried my soul the whole time I was there. I'm glad I'm home now.
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Summary: Scattered and Cold
Review: While the prose is masterful, Beloved failed to inspire any sort of sympathy. The period has been so extensively covered that it is difficult to form any kind of emotive reality--even when laid down in such poetic language. Themes are scattered--almost beyond hope of faithful reconstruction. I admired Morrison's style, yet the fragmented and familiar feel precluded any enjoyment.
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Summary: Liked the book
Review: Well written with very graphic and emotional messages throughout. Overall, easy to come away with the desperation some people must have felt.
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Summary: Toni Morrison's express great emotion in her writings.
Review: Beloved was one of the most outspoken novels I have read in my eighteen years of life. Toni Morrison is a writer of thorough expression and has earn her title as one of the world's best authors. Morrison's writings possess originality, personality, and an incredible sense of reality. She deserves five stars.
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Summary: Grow With Morrison Or Remain Thwarted
Review: Read a master of literature. Read books written by Toni Morrison. Beware! The experience will be challenging, rewarding and profound. The books will touch you where you don't want to be touched. Morrison makes you uncomfortable sometimes because she tells you a bold, brave and courageous truth. In an interview on PBS with Charlie Rose, he asked her: "Why do you always write about marginal people?" Morrison responded, "You mean, I should write about important people?" He nodded affirmatively. "You mean white people." She added and he nodded affirmatively. Morrison went on to say something like the marginal people have something to say and they say it loud and they say it best. Morrison's characters are loud and humble at the same time. They are "marginal" after all. Now that is a reason to be loud. Morrison spoke about her ancestry immediate, like in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s when they were washed down the street and beaten, bitten and killed just for trying to vote in THEIR country. And she spoke about the ones who were held in bondage as slaves. She said she has a debt to pay. She knows but by their sweat and blood and death she had no claim to America. But because --she has a very large claim, a 100% claim. I read a lot of the reviews here and they are excellent. But I do want to say that they seem to swing from people who areNOT aware that they are reading an American master of prose and a master of story telling. They are not aware that Morrison is a rich learning experience. The other end of the spectrum are those readers who do know the uncommon importance of Morrison's expression. And they reach joyfully for the rich challenge she offers. But what gets my goat and makes me angry, in fact rageful, is the reader who speaks as if the symbolism in Beloved has nothing to do with real American history. It is American history. Beloved is a novel based on true, real, American history. People weren't slaves though. People were held as slaves. We refer to "the slaves". They weren't slaves. They were Tom, Mary, Betty and so on. They were people held as slaves. If we never call them "people" we will never understand and realize what American ancestry did to them and what we do to them today. We do not acknowledge that they were really AMERICAN CITIZENS on July 4, 1776. They fought for freedom in the American Revolution and ever since. I get angry when people talk as if the people held in slavery held themselves. They talk about "the slaves" but do not mention the slaveowners who were our American ancestry. Novels like Beloved reminds us of something we would rather forget but just like the little baby, the past comes back to haunt us---and it should! To not read Morrison is to miss one of the finer purposes of reading --to experience the wordsmith. " Morrison does with prose what Bassie did with jazz," somebody said. Or Piccaso, or Michael Angelo with painting. Morrison is a master.
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Summary: I read it in one sitting.
Review: Two months? I read this book in 4 hours! It enthralled me from the very beginning, and as each facet of the long and sometimes twisted story revealed itself, I found myself unable to stop until I had read each precious word. The story isn't pretty, certainly. The utter physical, emotional, and spiritual agony of each character was so carefully written. Morrison's style is very different, but this story begs for that. I do understand that this might be a difficult book for high schoolers, but as a nursing mother myself, I agonized along with Sethe over the separation from her nurslings and the physical ways that separation manifests itself. Perhaps this is a book that should be returned to later in life, after much experience, perhaps after parenthood.
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Summary: This Movie Is Education and Slavery and Love
Review: After I seen Bloved and Read the Book, I never though that African American were treated very badly and neasty. This Movie made me remind of something that I never heard of it. Besicly this movie was about a dead child and her two run away sons.
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Summary: How do I, if I ever want to, escape the complete hold on me.
Review: I first pulled Toni Morrison's book off the shelf of a used bookstore and thought -- I'd really like to read this. Then in getting busy, I had forgotten I had it, until the film was released. By that time, I had forgotten anything I ever knew about what the story was about. So I went to the film as a virgin, and was emotionally, intellectually, and virtually completely pulled into a story so intense and touching, that I have now found it hard to escape. I am back to the book (which I bought again, not knowing for sure where the original book was). I feel like Beloved with her candy and sweets, I can't get enough, and each time I think about it (which is several times a day) I understand and feel more. What a tremendous writer Ms. Morrison is -- unbelievable. And I must say that Ms Winfrey's dedication to doing the film version appears a pure and sincere as I have seen under the circumstances. Anyone who can play that role has a lot of unstated feeling and depth we will unfortunately never know. I look for ward to the audio version, with Ms. Morrison, and Lynn Whitfield as being yet another venue I can explore with my loving obsession. Thank you, and...BRAVO ALL!
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Summary: Beloved-Absolutely mesmerizing
Review: This was my first foray into the world of Toni Morrison. I had heard so much negative press on how completely unreadable "Paradise" was that I was somewhat intimidated about picking it up. A review of the film on Oprah convinced me to give it a try, and I will be forever grateful. This is simply one of the finest American novels ever written. I loved Morrison's style of unfolding the story bit by bit. As you read, you know in a very general way what the basic story line is, but the details are witheld until the author is ready to divulge her secrets entirely. It leaves you breathless to turn the pages. You are literally propelled through this book at a breakneck pace, in all its terrible beauty. The characters are unforgettable. Their suffering is gut wrenching. This is a very visceral book, and it is not for the squeamish or weak at heart. It takes courage and preseverance to read "Beloved". It is not for the average reader because it goes beyond armchair entertainment. This book was written to impact the reader profoundlly and it does. Read it and weep-then rejoice that fiction as good as this exists!
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