Rating: 
Summary: FANTASTIC!
Review: Ms. Morrison pulled it off! A story of pain and suffering integrated with the supernatural - just as if the supernatural was a "natural" everyday occurrence. For many, the supernatural is a natural part of life. In many a poor person's life, especially one who has suffered as Sethe has, there is terrible loneliness, a horrible sadness, and a heightened sense of the presence of those we have loved and lost in death. You cannot hold them, you cannot hug them, nor caress them. Our "beloveds" are just there - beyond our physical reach. I saw TRUE supernatural events as experienced by my mother, father, aunts and uncles, as part of my family history, (and yes, as experienced by my own person) come to life within this book. No one has ever captured this experience as Ms. Morrison has, and many, including myself, will testify that the experience is real. The red light filled with confusion and sadness...walking through it...feeling the sadness and confusion. This is an added twist to love being stronger than the grave. I read this book a few years ago, and it still haunts me. TEN STARS!!
Rating: 
Summary: A Bunch of Nonsense
Review: I thought this book was the weirdest think I had ever set my eyes on. I was confused in the beginning and then I became bored with the whole story.
Rating:
Summary: Beloved; be good!
Review: This is a haunting tale of one woman's battle to save her children. Sethe tries to save her children a number of times throughout the book, but at what costs? Going back in time, Sethe was a slave and pregnant with 3 other children at her coat tales, she wanted to escape her life at Sweet Home of slavery and mistreatment and sets off for Ohio. She sends her children ahead of her to her mother-in-law, who is already in Ohio and her and her husband were to follow. He doesn't make it (which she never understands why) but she ultimately gets there with a little help and arrives with her newborn Denver, whom she had on her travels. Life is wonderful now and things are happy over in Ohio. It wasn't until one day, that everything at that house changed all of their lives for the worse. One day it's happy times, filled with her family and the next it's just her and Denver.I can't explain why I like this book, but I do. It kept my attention the whole time. It can be a bit confusing, I must admit, but I actually think I got it. I enjoyed this book and it's one of my all time favorites. I can see why some people criticize it and put it down, but I would suggest giving it a chance, if you have the patience to read it.
Rating: 
Summary: South(ern) America Magic Realism
Review: A powerful book that resembles putting a puzzle together much more so than many so-called mysteries--you get a glimpse of the completed puzzle early on in the novel, as if you were peeking at the box top before dumping the pieces on the table, then you promptly forget it as you painstakingly examine each piece to try and put it in its proper place. Some pieces you have to pick up and put down again because you don't have enough of the puzzle created to understand where they go. And some pieces you just stare at endlessly, caught up in the vision of this small part of the picture that you might have ignored had you the whole thing in front of you. It is not a new way to write a novel, but Morrison's subject is aptly suited for such treatment. The subject, in case you have not followed some of the literature on this critically acclaimed novel and missed the movie, is slavery and its aftermath. Morrison's goal is the reconstruction of a slave narrative through the form of a novel. While I think that Morrison succeeds in this goal, I found that the novel was not quite as affecting as it could have been, mainly because it is set in 1873 and earlier. The effect of slavery in the U.S. is still with us today and, while Morrison recreates the past, it seems all too simple to dismiss it as the sins of our grandfathers. To return to the method used in the telling, which I was much more impressed by, Morrison's events benefit from the slow uncovering of the facts. Supposedly, the novel grew from a newspaper clipping that Morrison ran across (and the same, I'm guessing, that provides the climax of Part One). The clipping, as mentioned by the characters, was likely intended for the titillation and scandal of the white people who were its likely audience. By recasting the story in the manner which she does, Morrison saves it from its sensationalism and reveals it as the tragedy--for all involved--that it truly was. Finally, regarding the supernatural elements, I have to agree with the critics that link this novel to the tradition of South American magical realism. Why? Basically because the characters treat the fantastic only as another part of life--rather than questioning its existence, they embrace it or deal with it. Their attitude towards it is active. I'm somewhat interested in Morrison's other work, especially something set in the present, to see if this approach to fantasy is contained therein as well.
Rating:
Summary: Unique and Powerful Book
Review: How to write a review for a book which thousands of articles and reviews have been written on? I'll try to stick to the primary highlights and pros and cons, and let you be the judge. Set in the US after the Civil War, blacks are technically free, but not really as they is still oppression from the white majority. However, in Beloved, that's only one aspect of the oppression, as it also comes in the form of the black community within its self, within people's personal lives, and from... a ghost. A very unique, but powerful form of prose that Morrison uses is that the storyline is not linear. Meaning you jump around from present to past and from different points of view almost constantly. It works, but you can read it like a regular book and will have to read more slowly. It can be worth it, but it can also be frustrated at times. But by the end, you realize it couldn't have been written any other way, and still have the impact it leaves upon you.Now let me say right now that my description above is a VERY shallow scratching of the surface. There are tons of issues throughout this book for the read to think upon, which is why this book earned both a Pulitzer and the National Book Award. So do not classify this as a "ghost story" as it's much, much more. Indeed, it is more of a post-Civil War story on the black experience than anything else, if you can believe that. In that sense, the "ghost story" seems out of place at first, but it definitely lends itself to the ex-slavery aspect very strongly as you continue reading. One thing to note that I did not care for, and others may not, is the rather animalistic portrayal and graphicness of the sexual tones throughout the book. It may be accurate of the times, though I don't know, but it is disturbing regardless. All in all, a very good read, and I can see why it's fated to be an instant classic. For that reason, I probably should have given it 5 stars, but I can't say it's my favorite type of book personally. But for any literary critic out there, or anyone interested in the black experience after the civil war, this is a must-read.
Rating: 
Summary: Faulkner it isn't
Review: She writes so much like him I couldn't help but compare her to him, and, like almost anyone would, she suffers in the comparison. I'd recommend Absalom, Absalom instead.
Rating:
Summary: Not my style, at all
Review: I take nothing away from Toni Morisson's ability to write, she is exceptional. Her style of writing is just not one that I enjoy reading. Beloved's subject matter is important but Morrison's message is so obscured by the sentimentality and ambiguity of her narrative that I feel this is a book written more for Morrison than the reader. I can see why some love it and others hate it. Personally, I found the 'payoff' for the energy spent deciphering this book to be disappointing. Would not recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Beloved: Toni Morrison's Most Complicated Book
Review: "Beloved" was an intense book. Toni Morrison has once again succeeded with an extremely complicated story, one that most authors couldn't pull off with such ease. The book's main protagonist is an escaped slave by the name of Sethe. Sethe lives with her daughter Denver in Ohio, several years after the end of the civil war. One day Sethe and Denver receive a visitor by the name of Beloved, who doesn't know where she came from or even her last name. The story revolves around the complex relationship that forms between the three women and the terrible secrets that develop. "Beloved" is definfitely not an easy read, as I even had trouble understanding the basic story. Morrison often goes back and forth in the stream of consciousness and switches the narrator from a third person omniscent character, to Sethe, to Denver, to Beloved. Going back once or twice is a technique a reader will need to develop before venturing into this classic book.
Rating:
Summary: Depicting the undepictable
Review: Similar to "The Colour Purple", "Beloved" takes you to a time and place where the unimaginable did happen. Toni Morrison manages to capture many moments of madness, sadness and extreme cruelty. Taking the reader deep into the psyche of a mother living through slavery harship, the impact of the era on people's minds and stability and the variety of views that surrounded the actions of the plot, Toni Morrison really has told the unimaginable. Not alone does the story attempt to tell a tale that would better be untold, but it tells a story that everyone would rather forget. The point of this story is, history should not be forgotten. Much literature surrounding this book would advocate that this story is more "her story" than "his story", attempting to take a different angle on issues that people have preconceptions about. Sometimes you really do have to read between the lines, but when you do, the book becomes a pop-up book in terms of the images it conjures up. I had to read this book six years ago for my degree. I found it intriguing then, and even more so now six years on. Remarkably, whilst the story tells a tragic tale, it is not a book of pure doom and gloom, but a captivating read. I would highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Not an easy read
Review: As nearly every reviewer of this book has commented, it is not an easy novel to get through. The plot meanders where it will and it can be difficult to even know who is talking at many points. However, there is method behind the madness. There are several extraordinarily moving scenes showing exactly how much slavery was able to cripple human beings emotionally, and also how even freed slaves were not necessarily united in solidarity all the time. My biggest complaint would be the distracting presence of the supernatural, especially at the outset of the novel. Also, it is very domestic, occurring almost entirely at the residence at 124 and focusing largely on the female characters. But select moments are so good that it is easily worth reading the book en toto just to experience them. Probably too difficult for young readers, or readers who do not like to be overly challenged by material. For those that want to put in the work, there is a serious payoff.
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