Beloved

Rating:
Summary: abstract artist of the written word
Review: I just finished reading Beloved and I enjoyed it very much although I understand the difficulty many readers might have with this book. In my opinion it is a wonderful piece of abstract art of the written word. It does not flow and make sense in the way most novels do, in the same way as an abstract painting doesn't make immediate sense but I think the author was trying to create a mood, to capture one facet of a horrific situation and she does this extremely well. It gave me a real sense of how terrible a thing slavery was, so terrible that it is hard to believe that one human could do that to another. In my opinion, I think that white Americans have to accept that this was truely an unforgivable act and no reparation can erase the harm that was done. Sometimes we have to live with the fact that we can't have forgiveness but have to live with perpetual atonement. My only dissapointment with this book was the slightly Hollywood happy ending; ghost gets kicked out, Sethe lives happily with Paul D, Denver gets thin, gets a job and a man and they all live happily ever after.

Rating:
Summary: Intruiging
Review: This was my first attempt at a Toni Morrison work and I must say, I wasn't really disappointed. Ms. Morrison rights in such a style that you actually hear the hooves of the approaching horses, see the frantic scrambling of the desperate slave, and picture the blood-soaked bodies of her children.

Probably the one thing that I regret about this book is the fact that I listened to it on tape, as opposed to actually reading it in print. This caused a little confusion as I reached 3/4 of the way through the book and I tried to relate to characters and scenes that had been briefly described in earlier chapters who were now front and center.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book and I'll certainly seek out Ms. Morrison's other works for enjoyment.

Rating:
Summary: You be the Judge
Review: That Beloved is a difficult read depends on the ability of the reader. Still, many good readers find Beloved difficult to follow. However, after much patience, its clarity finally comes full circle. I think for Morrison to hear that her story Beloved is dark, disturbing, crass and confusing, is justly satisfying. That her writing is consistent shows that her style is intentional rather than incompetent. Her characters are confused, lost, sick, and beleaguered. It's as if she is literarily attempting to put her reader in a similar state. Understanding this, the flashbacks, sudden changes, twists and turns among her characters can be read with patience. It is a symbolic work in part, the characters, and the style of writing.
I don't think it is a mandatory read, but it does address two fundamental positions in the American dialogue of race relations.
The first is that America has still not reconciled itself with racism and slavery. Even though laws have been written, amendments passed, and equality promoted, this does not answer past injustices. The pain and hurt run too deep, and the injustice felt by descendents of slavery calls for more. The gap is still too wide.
The other position accepts the fact that racism and slavery were ugly and horrible and that there is no excuse good enough for what happened. To understand it like those who suffered it is impossible. However, laws have been made, amendments have been passed, equality is promoted, and change has come and is still coming to pass. The nation dawns a new day and should not live in the pass, but look to the future.
Aside from whether one thinks the book is a good one, or a poor one, it gives one an understanding of those who are proponents of either these two positions. One may find the book lends it self more appropriately to the first, but not entirely.

Rating:
Summary: betrayal
Review: This book was an exhausting read paragraph after paragragh I neither followed nor figured out the story and only did so by reading reviews. My ancestors were house and field slaves in North Carolina, and I have heard many tragic, and triumphant stories told in plain, lyrical, straightforward English; they wanted you to understand and remember their stories, so you could repeat and document them. I would like to know what was Toni Morrisons point for writing Beloved .

Rating:
Summary: Beloved....How about Bewildered
Review: As a reader you feel horribly confused throughout this entire novel. Beloved is a realistic fiction novel about a woman's struggles after being freed from slavery. Toni Morrison, the author, makes it almost impossible to understand what's going on. What made this novel confusing was: never knowing who is talking, having flashbacks at odd moments, and having a very local color language.
The main character Sethe becomes haunted by the spirit of her deceased daughter and her troubled past. Beloved is a novel about a mothers heartache and if she raised her daughter right before she died. And if not was it too late to fix the past.
When I read this book I got lost so many times. Sometimes you have to read things over and over again. Toni Morrison needed to break down her paragraphs into less complex sentences. Most of the paragraphs had too many ideas running through them. With all of these ideas there could be many different interpretations of this book.
Don't read this book ever unless you have to. I would recommend reading The Grapes of Wrath any day over this.

Rating:
Summary: In a nutshell
Review: When suffering is so ugly, can forgetting be beautiful? No, the pain must be slowly exorcised. The civil rights laws commence to cleanse the outer left brain realm. This book works on the right brain. Racism also bleaches the children of masters, who never rest rationalizing the hurting. Racist reflexes root and dye through the generations, into the scalp, the brain, down to the brainstem, heart, and reflexes--mental, physical, emotional. Right brain truths aren't self-evident, except to poets. Those who would deny the past are mental amputees or hijackers. Shock, denial, anger, hurt, acceptance--there's no circumventing the process. This book appears to work at the hurt level. Morrison picks at a scab, but freshly healed skin reveals itself beneath.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome in every way imaginable...
Review: Although I have not yet finished the book, I had to write a review. I am in high school and doing a project on Toni Morrison, and specifically 'Beloved' (although I'll add some things about her other works.) I have only read the reviews on this website, and quite frankly have been helped. I hope you all don't mind if I use a form of what you said. i just hope I don't misinterpret the info. Anyway, this book is astounding. I have never been so drawn into a book yet so appaled by it. I find a struggle within myself before picking it up again to read. The book is confusing to start, but once you get into the flow its easier. I won't say a cinch, but easier.

In any case, you can easily understand what Toni Morrison is trying to write about. A woman's life. Plain and simple. She just happens to be a slave woman trying to escape everything that's happened in her life and also accept it. Baby Suggs telling her to 'let go' and the way she acts around Beloved. I have also noticed that you start reading and you really do feel comfortable and have no idea what you are getting yourself into. Then you start to really understand what is happening and you are just so taken aback by it. I've found that I've had to read things over several times before I actually think about what I've just read, or before I can understand it. Sethe's(and the other characters') thoughts are written so bluntly, you almost HAVE to read it again to know that you have just read about the death of her(Sethe's) child. This story is unnerving, yet I also feel that people should read this book to learn about things that you really can't learn from history books. Oh, and if you don't like the content matter, don't read the book.

By the way, the only reason the book only gets 4 stars is because I haven't finished it yet.

Rating:
Summary: Does Exactly What It Sets Out To Do
Review: There are enough rehashes of plot in the other 400+ reviews that I won't go over it again. Instead, I'd like to share why I think this novel works. As a white person, my ideas about slavery have come from the same sources I would suspect most others have visited: history books, television, and movies. In my experience, these options have diluted the concept of slavery to "it was terrible" and "it's over." Even Roots, groundbreaking for its time, did not for me get to the heart of what slavery might really have been about.

Beloved reached me. It changed me. Why so effective? Because it starts out with a story about slavery that is very Gone With the Wind in tone, very comfortable for white folks to read. And, little by little, the real horrors of slavery are revealed, so incrementally that when you get to the worst of it, you find you are drowning in sorrow without realizing you'd waded in. An immediate in-your-face depiction of the tragedy that is slavery could have been literally shocking - causing the reader to withdraw into a more psychologically secure place, a place where one could say "this is just a book" without truly absorbing the tragedy. Morrison wisely opts for a more subtle, gradual approach that drags you in and reveals exactly why slavery will simply not go away because it has died, but must be actively confronted to be put to rest. For me, that is the metaphor of this more-than-a-ghost story.

After reading this book, I will never again be able to say "slavery is over and we all need to move on." This book has put the cyclical and hereditary tragedy of slavery into the same light as child abuse; how many generations does it take to stamp out the repercussions of abuse? and how many will it take to stamp out the repercussions of the systematic abuse of an entire race?

Morrison doesn't provide the answer, but she finally got me asking the right questions. At the risk of sounding fatally P.C., I really believe all white people should read this book to get an understanding of why we, as a nation, have not "gotten over it and moved on," and will not until we confront what actually happened, instead of what we're comfortable remembering.

Rating:
Summary: Sad...
Review: Just in case you're wondering, I mean sad as in this book is a sad excuse for a piece of literature. I think Toni Morrison is a sick person who has nothing better to do than complain about slavery and the horrible condition of African-Americans in America today. I watched an interview recently with Toni and i was sickened by her prevailing and redundant thoughts that blacks are treated so terrible and that white people are monsters. Yes, you read correctly, she didn't say white people "were" monsters, she said we ARE monsters. I find this very offensive and while I am admittedly embarassed that this nation went through the cruel period of slavery, I was not part of it, nor were any living blacks, including Toni Morrison. Toni is like a disabled person whose only ability in life is writing. I wont argue anyone that the book is written in a brilliant fashion, but the content and subject matter are demented and sick.

Having given my opinion of Morrison herself, I would like to say a few things about this book (since the book is what I'm supposed to be reviewing, I think it would be a good idea for me to put a little bit about it in here). As I have already stated, I think the book is written very well and maybe even deserves the Pulitzer. However, I still believe it is nothing more than an attempt by a liberal black woman to cry bleeding-heart, feel sorry for me, it's all your fault (white people), to a society that treats blacks more than fairly. The whole story this book tells, of a mother killing her child to save it from the horrors of slavery is twisted to say the least. Further more, the book goes on to portray this as the "ultimate act of love by a mother." I think not. I appreciate the debate this arouses, but then again, not really. I do realize that this story is not something Toni thought up herself, but i still dont agree with it. Actually, the only thing I really agree with in the book, is when Toni says, "This is not a story to pass on." Next time a thought crosses your mind to write Toni, take your own advice, and don't.

Rating:
Summary: NOT A CLASSIC
Review: I choose audiobooks for long car trips, but this choice was a mistake -- many times it almost put me to sleep at the wheel. The plot moves as slow as sorghum, and the characters never come to life. Ms. Morrison is a talented writer and a decent narrator, and occasional passages in Beloved sizzle, but mostly this book falls flat. It is not helped by the fact that the narrative can come to a halt while Ms. Morrison ticks off lists of things or events, nor is it helped by verbal tics such as the use of phrases with an adjective preceding "thing," as in "a beautiful thing," "a precious thing," or "a best thing." The clunky writing and uninteresting characters are a strange contrast to the overheated, sensationalistic plot. Perhaps the characters are so flat because Mr. Morrison sacrifices their humanity for the sake of the symbolism she wants to guide the novel.

Despite the novel's obvious pretensions, it is a middlebrow affair, with some passages (as in Baby Suggs's speech in the forrest opening) coming across like the monolog of an earthy... guest...

Also disappointing for a ghost story is that there is nothing creepy or suspenseful about this tale. Some critics might respond that this is meant to capture the fact that many antebellum blacks took for granted that there were ghosts all over the place, so from the perspective of the main characters in Beloved the ghost is not terrifying. But even if that is so, does the ghost have to be so darn boring?

Slavery is a blight on American history that weighs heavily upon the present, and Ms. Morrison is right to sympathize with slavery's victims, but it does not follow that a novel about an important subject is itself important. Like many Nobel Prize-winning novels, Beloved probably will be forgotten within a few decades.