Beloved

Rating:
Summary: Should be mandatory reading material for all
Review: Very few writings have provoked me to an extent where even months later they cloud my thoughts. However these works generally revolve around one person, Toni Morrison. After reading each of the six novels, I felt as if the inside of me had been ripped apart. But the novel that wields her weapon most effectively is Beloved. Mrs. Morrison conveys the anguish of sixty million slaves in the space of its few hundred pages. But she does it without preaching; not once does she blame anyone. Instead her magic lies in the realistic pain and suffering relayed by the main character, Sethe. I felt so helpless as I was reading, angry at myself for not being able to do anything. Each time Sethe was hurt, I would flinch. I felt humiliation when she was called an animal, and fear when her owner came after her. Beloved's power lay in this ability to reach beyond the material pages of the book. It raised awareness in me of what enslavement creates. It taught me how powerful love can be. I know that I will never truly understand nor feel the amount of pain the slaves did, but Beloved shed light on what I had not seen before.

Rating:
Summary: Disturbing
Review: The way this book paints the picture of slavery is magnificent, and it really makes you think of what kind of animals some people were. But the way it is painted is the only good thing. This book is quite disturbing and almost terrifying. The character of Beloved is a stupid side plot. What she represents is good but keep it that way. I don't need all the sidebars about her beating Sethe and screaming in the nude, and having relations with Paul D. If you like that kind of stuff then its perfect for you, but maybe you should settle for Roots.

Rating:
Summary: As soon as I figured out how to read the book I was taken in
Review: I was astontished and fasninated by the writings of Toni Morrison. She made every aspect of my whole being come alive with her deep imagery and masterful words. Everyone who needs to be touched by a powerful force needs to read "Beloved"

Rating:
Summary: Form your own opinion!
Review: At the end of the book PaulD said, "Well, if you want my opinion-" Denver said, "I don't." I think the author is asking to form your own opinion. I think the author is saying that Beloved is slavery and that she is in Sethe's mind. Even after body is free of slavery the mind is not. Also Beloved is about loneliness.

Rating:
Summary: Coexsistence with guilt cultivates chaos within the soul.
Review: "Beloved" was I think was didactically evil and good spirit that plauged Sethie as an earthly spirit and not in flesh. It was perceived by the other people as real but only because Sethie had made it this way. When Halle comes to visit the house, this is where one of the core themes of the book starts. Sethie can live only with guilt of her lost child. She feels that she doesn't deserve the right to be truly free in life and for her children's sake. Halle becomes a "Diversion" so to speak. He becomes a symbol of freedom for Sethie. Sethie is able to feel love? She is able to vaguely forget or Disremember what has happend to her and condone Halle's love. Halle symbolizes freedom in this book and freedom comes to free Sethie's guilt from bereavement. The spirit appears in some sort of surrealistic form to relapse and plauge Sethie's guilt. Just read the book on my own and this is my own opinion or general jist of what the book was about. I think this woman is spectacularly witty and completely engorges my intellect. I really don't understand a lot of her symbolism that she uses, but I want to learn more. If anyone would like to reply I would love to hear from you thanks.

Rating:
Summary: I've Read it Five Times!
Review: I am an avid, long-time fan of Toni Morrison. Each and every word she has published up until now sits on my bookshelf permanently, except when I take down a book to re-read it. Beloved, like the title, is my first and favorite Morrison. At first read, I found it extremely difficult. Thankfully, a college literature course forced me to read it again. It is an emotional labyrinth that draws you in deeper and deeper, dangerously close to your own psyche. In this one novel, Morrison teaches more about slavery, culture, humanity, and spirituality than any history, sociology or religion course could ever aim to. And if you're not into that stuff, trust me--it's a phenominal, suspensful story, too.

Rating:
Summary: This isn't even Morrison's Best .......
Review: While there are some really fine things here expressed in memorable phrases and images, the tone is righteous and stilted. Some passages are so silly or pompous that it's embarrassing.

I'd like to think that if she had to treat this theme again, Toni Morrison would write a different book. Having read other things by her, she's certainly capable of writing a better book...

Rating:
Summary: I hope the book has more info than the movie.
Review: Actually , I have not read the book yet but I haved endured the movie. The movie was very complicated yet it was entertaining. The only problem that I had was that it was hard to understand the entire film once it was pieced together. I think some of the major "pieces" were left out for whatever reasons. Hopefully the book will go more indepth.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting and unforgettable...a must read
Review: It is hard for me to put into words the depth of my feelings about this book, "Beloved". I found it so moving, so enlightening, so fiercely honest, that it rocked me to my bones. Poetic and dreamlike, Toni Morrrison's language weaves around the reader in a wash of color and texture you can taste.Brilliant, simply, authentic and profound. I want more more and more Morrison.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful,wonderfully "uncomfortable" and sadly avoided.
Review: As I read the reader's comments, I am sadly reminded of my own book discussion of Beloved a few months ago, where a white woman began the discussion by announcing that she wanted to discuss the book, but she didn't want to talk about slavery because it "made her feel bad." Other white people in the group nodded in agreement. I simply explained to them that slavery is at the very core of the novel; afterall, Sethe's motivation for killing her daughter . . you know why. Naturally, the book discussion went badly, for despite my efforts to convince folks to put aside their need to avoid what makes them uncomfortable (i.e., the very tired "white guilt" thing that I'm sure we've all heard of)and have a serious dialogue about the novel. Some of the comments that I have read today makes me question the reader's motivation -- were readers dismissing the novel out of a need to dismiss a subject that makes people (both black & white) squirm, or were the claims legitimate? One reader described the novel as "wallowing in grotesque", "repetitive and repulsing," and "disgusting". Well, what do you think slavery was? Not everyone on the plantation had cute lil names like Kizzy & Chicken George nor did they dance and sing 'round the plantation with a fiddle. If you're disgusted with the "peculiar institution", then great(!) -- we all should be, for the true horror of slavery wasn't that it was unpaid labor. Get disgusted with slavery, but don't blame the novel if you are. Some readers have commented that the characters weren't sympathetic enough. Sethe was a proud woman, proud to the point where she participated in her own isolation in the black community. A woman like that certanly wouldn't want a reader's sympathy. Why readers think Sethe needs sympathy because she was enslaved is beyond me -- I think that Morrison was trying to show that Sethe is human with human characteristics and flaws (her excessive pride being one). My point is that Sethe(and her descendants) want and need your sympathy about as much as we want and need your guilt. Now I am not one to bash people for having an opinion -- fine, think what you want. But I challenge readers to be honest about what they're challenging. To negatively criticize a book because the subject matter isn't the stuff that skips down the yellow brick road isn't really about the novel at all. Toni Morrison is a master story teller (I've been a fan long before Oprah) who opens the too-long silence of the black woman's experience in America. Here we are with an opportunity to have an open dialogue about the "S" word and the aftereffects that we are still experiencing. We have an chance to really break through some very old,painful barriers, but we're still playing hide-and-seek because true commnuication and healing runs the risks of making us "feel bad." Pity. Perhaps you'll dismiss me as another whining, preachy and angry black woman. Now I offer my sympathy.