Rating: 
Summary: A powerful premise undercut by perversity, excess.
Review: Although Toni Morrision displays great skill asand sensitivity in her evocation of character and setting, her sense of judgement seems less developed than her stylistic excellence.Having found a heartbreaking and provocative premise -- a woman kills her daughter rather than sentence her to live as a slave-- she seems to think that this alone is insufficent to have an impact on the reader. To maximize the reader's sympathy for the heroine and to convey the horror of slavery, she submerges the reader in constant and excructiatingly graphic descriptions of brutality and suffering. Hardly a chapter goes by without a description of some act of sadism, usually sexual in nature. The impact of the central theme is then lost in favor of sensationalist wallowing in the grotesque, the effect of which is (ironically) to desensitize the reader to the horror she seeks to convey. What could have been shattering is sabotaged by this lack of self discipline and made to seem merely repet! itive and repulsive. If she had chosen a pth of greater subtlety and reserve, this book could have been profound instead of disgusting.
Rating: 
Summary: T. M. writes w/ confidence, insight, and a gift for language
Review: I'm looking forward to reading more from Toni Morrison. Beloved boldly addresses issues that we modern Americans easily toss to the bottom of our internal skeleton closet after the high school history unit on "Reconstruction". And WITH the importance of the questions posed in the novel, Morrison has given us a generous helping of poetry. This book sings. Read and re-read the paragraph about the corn-silk. the story line may be hard to follow if you dislike the stream of consciousness clip that the book takes. Think "To the Lighthouse" but with a much more enthralling plot.
Rating:
Summary: Shockingly overrated.
Review: Beloved has been garnering accolades from so many critics - this reader has only one question : why? There is nothing exceptional about Beloved. It is pretentious, self-righteous, and sanctimonious. The characters are amazingly one-dimensional, and the self-congratulatory structure makes it almost painfully difficult to read. From a thematic point of view, it explores almost nothing new and lacks originality. Overall, an irritating novel which doesn't deserve a single measure of the superfluous praise it has received.
Rating:
Summary: Stop swimming in the shallow end of the pool. Read Beloved.
Review: No boys and girls, this is not DR. Seuss. The words don't rhyme, the pieces don't all fit together, and sometimes you will feel like you've been spinning in a chair and you've come to an abrupt and dizzying stop... but read on. Morrison is not for people that have no sense of a world beyond the superficial. Her characters are spirits , souls and the essence of a person. Her plots consist of the numerous forces acting upon the root of their beings. When you read this book it is almost like awakening from a dream. You think some of the memories were weird, unusual, and hauting, but you get the point that they were making. Beloved is the story of a woman who had lived the life of a slave in America. Morrison treats Sethe like a real person, with a spirit and love interests, and sorrow and hope. She kills her child so that the baby will not have to endure the life of a slave. Though some understand her motivation, the baby does not. This book raises the question, what would you do if you knew you're child would suffer a life time and you could do nothing to save her? Would you kill her, or allow her to live in a misery that is hardly bearable for you? This child wants to drain the life out of her mother in compensation for her own. In the end, there is a battle between Sethe's two daughters for her life. Morrison has touched upon a concept that I don't believe any other author has, and she'll take you on this mystifying journey between the many dimensions of life and death... if you're game. Yes children, this is what Pulitzer Prizes are made of. This book possess the ability to move your mind, imagination and spirit with ink and paper. It is indeed amazing.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful, mind-shattering book
Review: I once read that this book is like a mirror that has been smashed into a thousand disjointed pieces. As the reader puts those pieces together, they experience the raw beauty of the writing of Toni Morrison. Beloved teaches us about history and human experience. It is a book that will live forever.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best novels I've ever had the pleasure to read.
Review: While I enjoy reading these book reviews, I've not taken the time to add my own comments, until now. The bad reviews listed here for Beloved make me ANGRY. This book was brilliantly written, the characters were complex and complete, the story unique and SO important, it baffles me that a literate person would find it difficult and disappointing. Perhaps these folks got lost in the library and should head back to the easy-reading section, or should try Howard Stern's new book. Beloved is a beautiful, inspiring, wonderful trip I'm proud to have taken. Every person should read this wonderful book.
Rating: 
Summary: A compelling novel of sheer talent!
Review: As a scholar of English Literature, I was compelled to read a nobel prize winner such as Morrison. It was an outstanding piece of work and I am sure that it will be admired for many years to come. Recently I was priviliged to experience one of her lectures in Lausanne, Switzerland and it was very intreeging learning how she perceives her work, and how different it was to the sheer amount of critics who are unable to crawl into her complex recipe of thought and excellence. Beloved is, however a novel, for a reader willing to spend alot of time annalysing the deapth of her historical research and experience. It's a classic!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Stunning
Review: After having been forced to read this book for an English Lit class, I thought it was going to be boring like many of my other setworks. Not So! From the first page this book grabs your attention and doesn't let go for a second. It is absolutely amazing and was even more so on the second reading.
Rating:
Summary: Incredibly confusing, but good
Review: I just finished reading this book for my English 10 GT class. My first reaction to it was that it wasn't that good. I was very confused on many issues. I thought that there were a lot of open ends. But, I asked my teacher what Beloved symbolized, and she said "Freedom from slavery". As soon as she said that, all of the open ends immidiatly closed and the pieces fit together. But I find it frustrating not being able to understand what is going on while I read. It changes the effect of the book. It was very sad, though, reading about what the slaves went through, and some still are (though - thank your God not as many). Over all - a good book
Rating:
Summary: This book is a must to read.
Review: Beloved, a book written by Toni Morrison, truly is a fascinating piece of literature. Throughout the book, Morrison truly depicts the reality of slave life in the 1800s. Sethe, the main character, Denver, Paul D., and the ghost (Sethe's dead baby) Beloved, work together to mix a fascinating ghost story filled with action and suspense, with a story showing the life of a group of slaves on the Sweet Home plantation. The story of Beloved unwinds slowly and methodically with much detail and imagery. Personally, Beloved is a wonderful story which I hope you read. You too will experience the satisfaction of a truly extraordinary piece of literature.
|
