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Beloved

3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 · rating details · 135,654 ratings · 4,214 reviews

Terrible, unspeakable things happened to Sethe at Sweet Home, the farm where she lived as a slave for so many years until she escaped to Ohio. Her new life is full of hope but eighteen years later she is still not free. Sethe's new home is not only haunted by the memories of her past but also by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with...more

Paperback, 324 pages

Published December 6th 2007 by Vintage Classics (first published 1987)

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World Book Night 2011 (UK)

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Jan 26, 2009 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: makes a nice mother's day present

Recommended to Jessica by: "recommended" is putting it mildly

Shelves: crazy-ladies, kind-of-depressing, crime-and-punishment, love-and-other-indoor-sports

Beloved is the Great American Horror Novel. Sorry Stephen King: evil clowns and alcoholic would-be writers are pretty creepy, but they just got nothing on the terrifying specter of American slavery! I literally got chills -- physical chills -- over and over while reading this book. To me, great horror has the scary element (e.g., a ghost) and then, lurking behind it, something so vast and evil that trying to think about it can make you go insane. Beloved did that! It worked as horror! And then a...more Beloved is the Great American Horror Novel. Sorry Stephen King: evil clowns and alcoholic would-be writers are pretty creepy, but they just got nothing on the terrifying specter of American slavery! I literally got chills -- physical chills -- over and over while reading this book. To me, great horror has the scary element (e.g., a ghost) and then, lurking behind it, something so vast and evil that trying to think about it can make you go insane. Beloved did that! It worked as horror! And then also, even more, it worked as great American literature. I don't think in these terms too often, but it does seem like there's such a thing as national novels. I'm sure there's a better, fancier way to talk about what I mean, which is books that are so specifically about "The American Experience" that being an American reading them feels very special and intimate, as if it's a book about my own family. That feels like a strange and dorky thing for me to say, but it's how I felt. Slavery is such an essential part of all our heritage that reading this treatment of it felt very personal, like listening to secrets about your grandparents. Beloved really worked on something at the heart of the American experience, and while I don't usually think in those terms this book forced me to, which is one of many reasons why it did affect me so much.

I feel like Morrison has a certain reputation and associations that are completely at odds with what her work is actually like. Maybe it's the Toni-with-an-i thing; it's definitely the Oprah connection and the fact that she's a lady author, but whatever the reasons, I feel like people who haven't read her believe that Morrison writes these lovely, lyrical, ladylike books that will soften the heart and elevate the soul.... and I mean, I guess in a way she does, but these lovely books will give you seriously deranged nightmares. Toni Morrison is out of her MIND! I mean, she really must be in order to write these things. I can't imagine what it would be like to have this incredibly twisted stuff come out of my brain.... Of course, the most horrific parts of the book aren't invented; Morrison clearly spent a lot of time researching the historical record of slavery and thinking about its effects and meaning, and her ability to wrest a novel like this out of that past is just incomprehensible.... because in fact Beloved really is lovely and lyrical, but it's about the most disturbing shit imaginable. It's interesting to see how divided people on this site are about Morrison. A lot of people just LOATHE her! I think that's pretty understandable when you consider her subject matter. Some girl on here was like, "UGH! Beastiality, rape, torture, infanticide.... Toni Morrison is DISGUSTING!" And I mean, well, that girl's got a point, this book was pretty icky.... but it's about kind of an icky topic, ya know?

In a weird way, this felt a bit like the anti-Proust: it's about memory, but instead of being a plotless, enchanting, European meander through a picturesque past, Beloved is a brutal and ruthless American cousin with rough, bloody hands, running through the woods screaming. The book is about the problem of memory, specifically the memory of trauma, both on a personal and national level. I feel like everyone always wants to write these great books about the most terrible shit, but the fact is that doing so right is incredibly hard, which is maybe why there're so many bad books about tragedy and so many good books about boring people's mundane little problems. You really have to know what you're doing to write about the most terrible shit well, and Morrison picked THE most terrible shit in America's past, then wrote an original and organic ghost story that deserves its hallowed place in American literature.... Ya know, one thing we think about in social work school (or that I thought about, anyway) is the relationship between macro events or phenomena (e.g., a war, or racism) and its micro effects on individuals. This book depicts the effects of slavery on people -- individually and collectively -- with, just, well, shattering genius. But don't try this at home, folks! She is a lady of unusual talent and skills, and in most people's clumsy hands this effort'd be dangerous.

Beloved isn't flawless, and it's not one of my all-time favorite books or anything. However, it is a great classic, and I think everyone who hasn't already should read it.... well, actually, let me amend that. A lot of people on here, as noted, hate this book. If you struggle to follow a slightly nonlinear narrative or are white and feel personally affronted by descriptions of historical wrongs perpetrated by white people on black people, you might chose another book club selection. Everyone else, though, I think should give this a go, especially if you love ghost stories!

P.S. I just had a really fun idea for a literary double date, which would be Cathy from Wuthering Heights with Beloved, and Medea with Sethe. They could all go on the Oprah show together and talk about their traumatic experiences! I would definitely, definitely watch that, and I bet other people would too.(less)

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Jul 31, 2007 Mark Stone rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: nobody.

I don't give books low marks lightly. If anything, I am prone to being carried away by the author's enthusaism and rate books more highly than they deserve. I am an aspiring author, myself, and that also leads me to be kind to the books.

That being said, I really hated this book.

I like fantasy and magical realism. I find the dreams and allegories that live just underneath the skin of the world we can more readily see and touch endlessly fascinating. I like my stories intense and emotional, and I...more

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Nov 07, 2009 Valerie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic, historical-fiction

I hate this book. But I guess I should say why. Some might say that I was too young to read this book since I read it when I was 15 but I'm a few years older now and I still hate it with seething anger. I heard that Toni Morrison was a good writer so when we had to pick a book from this long list I decided to read it. BIG MISTAKE!

I didn't like any of the character -at all-or the plot. I know the book is supposed to give you a view on the cruel treatment of slaves but after I finished I actually...more

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Dec 03, 2012 Samadrita rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone with 'human' emotions

Shelves: american-literature, historical, nobel-laureates, afrocentric-racism-slavery, pulitzer-prize-winners, magical-realism-surrealism, masterpieces, cherished, tear-jerkers, modern-classics, 1001-and-more, psychological, re-readable, melancholia, awesomesauce, amazing-characterization, by-women-who-matter

"Beloved

You are my sister

You are my daughter

You are my face; you are me

I have found you again; you have come back to me

You are my beloved

You are mine

You are mine"

It's 6 o'clock in the morning and I have finished with one of the best books I have ever read in the course of my short life.
I am sleepless and I need a moment to organize my thoughts, sort out my feelings. Come back to real life. But I can't.

A part of me is still with Sethe and her daughters, Denver and Beloved at 124. A part of me i...more

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Jan 28, 2009 brian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Nov 11, 2012 Daniel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

After "Cloud Atlas" knocked me around, I looked over my groaning to-read shelf in search of another chewy, thoughtful read. I picked "Beloved" out of the bunch and read over Toni Morrison's name and I knew that I was in good hands.

Here is another book that stormed my psyche and dosed me with emotions and impressions that shifted parts of me with tectonic force. From page one, Morrison throws you into the lives of black women and men who grew up as slaves and suffered unimaginable acts of cruelty...more After "Cloud Atlas" knocked me around, I looked over my groaning to-read shelf in search of another chewy, thoughtful read. I picked "Beloved" out of the bunch and read over Toni Morrison's name and I knew that I was in good hands.

Here is another book that stormed my psyche and dosed me with emotions and impressions that shifted parts of me with tectonic force. From page one, Morrison throws you into the lives of black women and men who grew up as slaves and suffered unimaginable acts of cruelty at the hands of their captors and slave-owners. Now living as free citizens in 1873 in a post-Emancipation Proclamation society, these individuals try to keep their lives and families together even as the pain and dehumanizing that dominated their early lives continue to haunt and hurt their minds and bodies.

I was stunned by this book countless times. Morrison revives memories of atrocious acts without preamble and writes about them with minimal words and language. Sometimes I would read a paragraph and feel senses of shock and disbelief seconds later; and sometimes, passages stayed with me for days after I read them. Even now, some of the torture that Sethe, Paul D, Sixo, and the others suffered at the hands of their captors brushes by my thoughts like cold air sneaking past warm layers to touch bare skin.

What Morrison has created in this novel astounds me. The question that Morrison asks here is simple and yet so chilling that it horrifies me: granted that the institution of slavery was a terrible practice in our country's history, how did American slaves actually live? How did they raise children when they were not allowed to parent their own? How did they love one another when they were never allowed privacy, let alone the opportunity to speak freely? How did they learn about themselves, when those in authority refused to recognize slaves as individuals? What is left in a person's life if that life is largely filled with pain and humiliation? How do you live free if you have never been free before?

Reading this book, I felt like Alyosha, sitting in the tavern with Ivan, listening to the latter's account of the many violent and horrible acts that humans regularly commit against one another. It's out there, sunk into our history like blood into soil; delivered at the end of a gun, a knife, a hand, a voice, cutting into flesh and belief and identity with the sole intent of reaping and killing. It is a curse, a haunting, a legacy that every child bears upon entering this world; it is the worst story that humanity has ever conceived of--and worst of all is the long line of hands, tongues and minds that stand poised to continue the tale.

Toni Morrison found a magic that is her own, and she sculpted this incredible talent into a written work that is art: a part of the world, a part of us, and something else entirely.(less)

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Sep 12, 2008 Jason Pettus rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: postmodernism, classic, personal-favorite

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the label

Book #23: Beloved, by Toni Morrison (1987)

The story in a nutshell:
To understand the importance of 1987's Beloved, you need to understand that before this first...more

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Aug 25, 2008 Harpal rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: No one

Shelves: school

This is probably my least favorite book I have ever read. I think I hate it even more because so many people like it so much. Unlike really trashy novels, people actually try to argue that this is a great book. But it definitely embodies all the things that make me hate books. It's heavy handed with its message, which ultimately ruins some pretty spectacular imagery. Its also just a giant pastiche of people who can actually write, which makes it just feel disjointed and annoying since it switche...more

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Feb 14, 2008 Kecia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer_prize, times_100_best, nobel_laureates, nbcca_finalist, 1001-books, banned-books

I have long believed in ghosts, but not in the supernatual or paranormal sense. I believe ghosts are memories or what Toni Morrison names as "rememory." I heard on NPR this week a man say that he was the grandchild of slaves and when he went into the voting booth and cast his ballot for Senator Obama he saw his grandparents faces, rememory. I once went to Auschwitz in Poland and my friend said to me as we walked thru the sadness, "they are looking at us, they are in the flowers," rememory. I hav...more

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Jul 19, 2007 Peter Neely rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of Morrison

Unfortunately, I just could not get into this book. I tried reading it as a class assignment and again on my own, but alas. It wasn't the writing style, which was...a cute attempt for creativeness but resulted in harming the progress of the story (much like Faulkner's Sound and the Fury actually). Don't misunderstand me, I love being exposed to different styles such as stream-of-consciousness, magical realism or what have you - but I feel that this book fails, miserably. I am also not a fan of M...more

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Jul 15, 2010 K.D. Oliveros rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: TIME Magazine's Best 100 Novels, 500 Must Read Books, Pulitzer Winner, Oprah Selection, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, 501, apartheid

My first book by Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in 1931), the first black Nobel (1993) laureate for literature. Published in 1998 and many considered as her greatest work, Beloved won that year's Pulitzer award.

This is also my 124th book included in the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die 2010 edition and I say that there is absolutely nothing like this. The theme is multi-layered: pointblank, it looks like a plain ghost story. But if you dig deeper, it is an anti-racial novel in...more

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Feb 21, 2008 Shane Malcolm rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of Toni Morrison, fans of contemporary fiction, fans of the written word

Shelves: novels-and-novellas

Toni Morrison may be my favorite contemporary author. She is certainly in my Top 5. Each and every one of her novels is extraordinary. Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and although it's not quite my personal favorite, it's probably her masterpiece as well as one of the greatest creations in the history of the written word. Morrison's prose is exquisite, which makes reading her books pure joy. If she was simply writing nonsense, the pleasure would still be all ours. However, she weaves...more

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Nov 27, 2010 Misty rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I hated this book. There's just no nicer way to put it. Toni Morrison is definitely NOT my favorite author. I got stuck reading this for a book report my junior year of high school and I wanted to take it outside and burn it. If it wouldn't have been a library copy, I probably would have. I don't know what else to say. I won't go into grand detail about all the things that made this book awful because I would be here all night. Needless to say, I will never pick up another book from her. Before...more

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Oct 17, 2007 leighcia rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

If it weren't for a long plane ride, I probably wouldn't have gotten past the first 30 or so pages of this novel. But I'm glad I did because the novel is very beautifully written and well-constructed, though not necessarily a page-turner. The prose is very lyrical and dream-like, as it weaves the reader in and out of the past, but can also be confusing, especially if you read the novel in short chunks on the subway. The book basically explores the return of Paul D., a slave who once worked for t...more

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Feb 17, 2012 Tanu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

White people believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a way . . . they were right. . . . But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place. . . . It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew. It spread . . . until it invaded the whites who had made it. . . . Made them bloody, silly, worse than even they wanted to be, so s...more

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Apr 13, 2010 KFed rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: graduate-school-reading-year-one, 2010, favorites

Is Beloved a Great Novel? Certainly it is a very good one, holding as it does the unique distinction of being one of the few eminently popular 'serious' novels that appeal equally, which is not to say universally, to casual, serious and professional readers alike. But is it Great? Is it one of the greatest? Or isn't it?

I ask because I get the sense that Beloved's status as a/(the?) Great (American) Novel tends to garner a range of support less unequivocal than that of, say, Moby Dick, or works b...more

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view all 8 comments

Bram Great, great post. I didn't know that about Morrison's PhD work, and your speculations on the intentional connection to Faulkner's style already make...more Great, great post. I didn't know that about Morrison's PhD work, and your speculations on the intentional connection to Faulkner's style already make me want to reappraise the prose.

I'm realizing, as I train to become a professor, that I have to start thinking about books in this multi-tiered way -- on the levels of personal enjoyment and/versus broader cultural importance and/versus some other degree of usefulness.

As someone outside of academia, I haven't thought about this much, but everything you're saying re: stars/evaluations makes complete sense to me. I often struggle with rewarding stars for classics that I find less than engaging, and since I don't feel like I can make any legitimate claims about the book's importance without further study, I've simply decided to go with my subjective response. This is particularly limiting, however, when I consider how much I'm influenced by current life conditions, previously or concomitantly read books, and a general lack of appropriate knowledge needed to place a given book in its larger sphere of cultural, historical, or literary importance.

All of which is to say that I wish I could follow your literary path vicariously (I guess I can somewhat via Goodreads).

To get back to Beloved, one thing that I love about the book (and your review for discussing it so well) is Morrison's ability to keep the story personal, as well as her unwillingness to give in to feel-goody universalism. Every time it seems she might head down this broad path, she slaps us right back into reality with regard to the specific racial actualities in the book. I have a suspicion that this is the primary reason that the book can elicit such strong negative reactions from people (all of whom, from my admittedly limited looking-around, seem to be white). Morrison doesn't give white America the 'out' (of racial reconciliation/hopefulness) that many people are probably expecting from this personal story. She's always reaching deeper into what feels like real experience, as painful as it may be to read and contemplate. And despite eschewing cumbaya universalism, Morrison's still written a book that resonates with millions and millions of people, which I think speaks to the Truth that's embedded in her work--people can feel that these people, these emotions, these scenarios, are real in a way that perhaps only fiction can elucidate.(less)
updated Apr 15, 2010 06:28am

KFed I think that's a great, great reading of the text. Why not just make it part of your review?

And, hey, I actually think that opinions on books that ar...more
Apr 15, 2010 07:01pm

Feb 14, 2008 Christy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: african-american-lit-and-history, books-for-teaching, readinglist1, 20th-century-american-lit

Every time I read this book I love it more.
Eventually I'll be able to write about it and feel I'm doing it justice.
In the meantime, here are a few thoughts, beginning with a favorite scene, one that is at the heart of Beloved--Baby Suggs' sermon in the Clearing:

"She did not tell them to clean up their lives or to go and sin no more. She di dnot tell them they were the blessed of the earth, its inheriting meek or its glorybound pure.

"She told them that the only grace they could have was the grace...more Every time I read this book I love it more.
Eventually I'll be able to write about it and feel I'm doing it justice.
In the meantime, here are a few thoughts, beginning with a favorite scene, one that is at the heart of Beloved--Baby Suggs' sermon in the Clearing:

"She did not tell them to clean up their lives or to go and sin no more. She di dnot tell them they were the blessed of the earth, its inheriting meek or its glorybound pure.

"She told them that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. That if they could not see it, they would not have it.

"'Here,' she said, 'in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on bare feet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it. They don't love your eyes; they'd just as soon pick em out. No more do they love the skin on your back. Yonder they flay it. And O my people they do not love your hands. Those they only use, tie, bind, chop off and leave empty. Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face 'cause they don't love that either. You got to love it, you! And no, they ain't in love with your mouth. Yonder, out there, they will see it broken and break it again. What you say out of it they will not heed. What you scream from it they do not hear. What you put into it to nourish your body they will snatch away and give you leavins instead. No, they don't love your mouth. You got to love it. This is flesh I'm talking about here. flesh that needs to be loved. Feet that neet to rest and to dance; backs that need support; shoulders that need arms, strong arms I'm telling you. And O my people, out yonder, hear me, they do not love your neck unnoosed and straight. So love your neck; put a hand on it, grace it, stroke it and hold it up. And all your inside parts that they'd just as soon slop for hogs, you got to love them. The dark, dark liver--love it, love it, and the beat and beating heart, love that too. More than eyes or feet. More than lungs that have yet to draw free air. more than your life-holding womb and your life-giving private parts, hear me now, love your heart. For this is the prize.' Saying no more, she stood up then and danced with her twisted hip the rest of what her heart had to say while the others opened their mouths and gave her the music. Long notes held until the four-part harmony was perfect enough for their deeply loved flesh." (88-89)

It is this ethic of self-love that makes possible the love for others and the strength of community that permeates Beloved.

"You your own best thing," Paul D tells Sethe. This is a hard lesson to learn, especially for a woman who has never truly known herself or owned herself. Sethe and Denver both have to learn to see themselves as individuals, learn to see themselves and value themselves. Without this, they will disintegrate or be smothered by a too-thick love. After all, "For a used-to-be-slave woman to love anything that much was dangerous, especially if it was her children she had settled on to love. The best thing, [Paul D] knew, was to love just a little bit; everything, just a little bit, so when they broke its back, or shoved it in a croaker sack, well, maybe you'd have a little love left over for the next one" (45).

Free from slavery, however, free from the threat of losing children to beatings and slavers, this dangerous, too-thick love can give them strength to find themselves. Sethe insists, "Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't no love at all" (165), and Denver draws on her love for her mother to find the courage to venture into the dangerous world outside of their home and get help. A love that puts another's needs before one's own is still dangerous, as the relationship between Sethe and Beloved attests to, however, which is precisely why self-love and love for others must go hand in hand. (less)

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May 03, 2011 Jeffrey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: toptenfiction

Toni Morrison's Beloved is one of the greatest achievements of the 20th Century. Studying the present state of African-American existence and slavery's long reach into people's lives today in the United States, Beloved gets a constantly discussed and debated social and political message across through the use of surrealism. The aspect of Beloved that is truly profound is not the character development (which is deep and well-crafted) or the presentation of Morrison's main intent (which is both e...more

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Jan 06, 2008 Gadabyte rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: your meth-addicted uncle chester

confusing, boring, and pretentious, this is the book that convinced me that the pulitzer doesn't mean shit.

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Jan 21, 2013 Ginny rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Amatissimo
Romanzo di straordinaria intensità, che apre uno squarcio brutale e al contempo delicato e poetico sulla condizione degli schiavi neri d’America nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento.
Le violenze fisiche e psicologiche perpetrate ai danni di un intero popolo, umiliato e tormentato per secoli, vengono trasfigurate da una forte simbologia, talora di sapore fiabesco, che sortisce inaspettatamente l’effetto di renderle ancora più crude e strazianti che se fossero descritte in modo realistico e...more Amatissimo
Romanzo di straordinaria intensità, che apre uno squarcio brutale e al contempo delicato e poetico sulla condizione degli schiavi neri d’America nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento.
Le violenze fisiche e psicologiche perpetrate ai danni di un intero popolo, umiliato e tormentato per secoli, vengono trasfigurate da una forte simbologia, talora di sapore fiabesco, che sortisce inaspettatamente l’effetto di renderle ancora più crude e strazianti che se fossero descritte in modo realistico e dettagliato.
Le cicatrici indelebilmente impresse nel corpo e nell’animo di intere generazioni di individui, che hanno sempre visto prevalere l’egoismo e la spietata ottusità dei bianchi sulla considerazione e il rispetto a cui avrebbero diritto in quanto esseri umani, inquinano ogni scala di valutazione e sgretolano ogni sentimento positivo: l’autostima, la coscienza di sé, la fiducia, la solidarietà con i propri simili…In tali condizioni, comprensibilmente anche il temperamento più fiero si riduce allo stato di bestia braccata o di automa privo di volontà e di desideri propri, se non addirittura alla pazzia.
Persino l’amore viene contagiato da questa esplosione di crudeltà e di soprusi, divenendo malato, doloroso, sconvolgente, mortale. Ma proprio l’amore, quando è consapevole e soprattutto libero, può trionfare di ogni timore o aberrazione.
Il racconto dei fatti non segue un andamento lineare: presente e passato si intersecano continuamente, come a voler significare che gli orrori e le ferite del passato restano vividi nella memoria, ritornando a dolere e opprimere pur in un presente che ha finalmente assistito allo spezzarsi delle catene.
Anche lo stile subisce frequenti variazioni di registro, a seconda dei personaggi, degli stati d’animo e dei momenti ritratti, passando con maestria da una esposizione narrante tradizionale al lirismo più ardito e frammentato, una sorta di flusso di coscienza visionario che risulta particolarmente toccante e suggestivo.
Per me questo romanzo è un capolavoro.(less)

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Apr 24, 2013 Daniel Otto Jack Petersen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Man. Having finished this novel, the need to Repent somehow feels more urgent than the need to Review. This is a devastating work of art.

While I'm more prone to prefer the style and approach of, say, Cormac McCarthy, Morrison's work compares very favourably with his in certain respects - and also contrasts favourably as well. Hers, like his, is the kind of prose that from start to finish places you right down deep (bewilderingly deep, until you get acclimated) into the psychological and ontolog...more Man. Having finished this novel, the need to Repent somehow feels more urgent than the need to Review. This is a devastating work of art.

While I'm more prone to prefer the style and approach of, say, Cormac McCarthy, Morrison's work compares very favourably with his in certain respects - and also contrasts favourably as well. Hers, like his, is the kind of prose that from start to finish places you right down deep (bewilderingly deep, until you get acclimated) into the psychological and ontological and ecological world of the narrator and characters. But hers, unlike his, is a form of storytelling that packs a very, very deep emotional punch in terms of the treatment of persons. (McCarthy is more apt to create ecological awe than relational, his novel The Road [2006] being an exception with its strong emotional connection to the main characters.) Both are writers of a certain kind of literary horror - palpably haunted and full of unspeakable violence. You could perhaps say, however, that McCarthy focuses more on the inhuman and Morrison more on the human. That's what makes the latter's portrayal of dehumanisation (the attitudes and actions of white slave owners toward black slaves in this case) so bowel-churningly unbearable to read. In McCarthy you flinch at the sickening violence because it comes across as a twisted carnival of bestial degradation. In Morrison you flinch because she has made you know for sure that these are real, genuine human beings who are being *literally* treated as mere beasts. Less than beasts. This novel has made the atrocity of slavery in the USA, with all its permanent debasing effects, more real for me than anything else has in my life so far. I am ashamed and aghast anew.

Beloved (1987) is satisfyingly 'magical realist' in the nature of its tale, with a genuine haunting by a genuine ghost (you know this from page one, so no plot spoilers here). But the innovation that haunting takes on as the novel proceeds seems highly original and very powerful. (Maybe others have done it or it comes from a folk tradition, but I haven't run into it before, and I read a fair bit of supernatural fiction.) Yet the utterly convincing 19th century world of slavery and runaway slaves trying to make a new life in the North makes it anything but a genre fantasy story (not that genre fantasy can't be serious, gritty, and profound - but it usually does so in a very different way than Morrison's novel). It's worth mentioning too that Beloved makes a very interesting companion piece to William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936), the two overlapping in their treatment of race and a haunting, looping, layered sense of time and narration. (I believe Morrison professes to be an admirer of Faulkner's work and her prose is a good muscular match to his, though different.)

The only other novel I've read by Morrison so far is Sula (1973) and I can say without doubt that she is one of the best ever American authors at the sheer craft of writing, a wonder-worker. That earlier work left me slightly frustrated at the philosophical level. It felt unjustifiably bleak in its view of men and women's relationships to one another and their children. Beloved rectifies that for me. It is even more harrowing than Sula (a dark novel indeed) but also more humanising. And I think cautiously hopeful and redemptive too. I would recommend Morrison's fiction without hesitation and I look forward to acquainting myself with the rest of her oeuvre.(less)

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Mar 11, 2008 Steven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001, pulitzer, warishell, race, time-100

I chose to read this novel for a variety of reasons. For many years now, I have heard of the brilliance of this book. This book has been billed as the “best work of fiction of the last 30 years” by the NY Times and has also been placed within the top 10 of various lists of best fiction of the 20th Century. With praise like that, it is almost impossible not to disappoint, but for a lot of reasons, I though this book was very much a four-star book instead of a five-star book.

The story concerns Set...more I chose to read this novel for a variety of reasons. For many years now, I have heard of the brilliance of this book. This book has been billed as the “best work of fiction of the last 30 years” by the NY Times and has also been placed within the top 10 of various lists of best fiction of the 20th Century. With praise like that, it is almost impossible not to disappoint, but for a lot of reasons, I though this book was very much a four-star book instead of a five-star book.

The story concerns Sethe, an escaped slave living in Ohio after the Civil War. As one can imagine, she has suffered quite a bit and her body bears the marks of rape, torture, etc. More than the physical abuse she has suffered, though, she is haunted by her memories. In the course of learning about all sorts of brutal things in this book, we learn that Sethe killed her two-year-old daughter, Beloved, rather that risking the child’s return to the plantation in Kentucky from which she escaped. The bad thing is, though, Beloved has come back, and it is pretty hard for Sethe to move on with the incarnation of her deceased daughter living in the house.

Make no mistake, I thought the novel was very good and it is likely one that will stay with me for an incredibly long time. To rate something in the top 10 of the 20th Century, though, I think I expected a bit more.

The motif of slavery and the scars that Sethe and others have suffered as a result of slavery are certainly not lost on me. Sadly, I think a lot of people forget that reality of slavery and the abject misery and suffering caused by the most peculiar and evil institution. Whether it is because I live in the South or for whatever reason, I didn’t need the shocking scenes set forth in this novel to let me know how damaging slavery was for all involved, and how much damage the institution still causes today.

Whatever can be said about the plot, little criticism can be lobbed at Morrison’s style and ability. I think this book is as close to any Faulkner, Conrad, Joyce, etc. that I have ever read. The way various pieces to the larger puzzle are dropped throughout the text, often causing me to stop and say, wait, did she really just say what I think she said, is incredible. If you are bothered by scenes of violence (and this book, like the institution of slavery itself, was more violent that anything I have ever read and any movie I have ever seen), this book is not for you.

All in all, an impressive work that I am glad I tackled. I don’t know whether it is quite worth the high praise it receives, but there is no doubt that it is truly a very special book.

(less)

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Jun 20, 2010 Alison rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: so many mixed opinions out there, I couldn't recommend this in good faith--I'll keep it for myself

Recommended to Alison by: RGBC

Shelves: alltime100novel, ew25best

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I had never read anything by Toni Morrison when I started reading Beloved. I had an idea of what it might be like that was kind of a blurring of images in my head--images from The Color Purple on film and stage, Oprah Winfrey, Thandie Newton, women, babies, ghosts--dark ladies in Civil War era clothes, hot and sweaty in the Southern sun. I read a few blips of GoodReads reviews and was surprised that this Putlizer Prize winning piece could inspire such apathy and ire--readers who just didn't "get...more I had never read anything by Toni Morrison when I started reading Beloved. I had an idea of what it might be like that was kind of a blurring of images in my head--images from The Color Purple on film and stage, Oprah Winfrey, Thandie Newton, women, babies, ghosts--dark ladies in Civil War era clothes, hot and sweaty in the Southern sun. I read a few blips of GoodReads reviews and was surprised that this Putlizer Prize winning piece could inspire such apathy and ire--readers who just didn't "get the ghost"...people who found it vile and offensive.

Nothing was to prepare me for what was to come.

I got a tree on my back and a haint in my house, and nothing in between but the daughter I am holding in my arms. No more running — from nothing. I will never run from another thing on this earth. I took one journey and I paid for the ticket, but let me tell you something, Paul D Garner: it cost too much! Do you hear me? It cost too much.

Beloved is the story of a slave woman in 1870's America who kills her infant daughter rather than see her live a life of slavery (loosely based on the true story of American slave Margaret Garner). For years the infant daughter, Beloved, haunts her mother Sethe and her sister Denver as an angry ghost, until finally returning to their place of residence in human form, eighteen years later.

Morrison weaves the story through past and present until we learn of Sethe's years at Sweet Home, a Kentucky plantation, of her marriage, the birth of her children, and of her escape. Beloved is ripe with powerful symbolism that includes the use of colors that add vibrance to the story, allusions to the Bible and Christian motifs, and names, words and language that are deliberately decided and complex.

The most striking aspect of Beloved for me was how amid lyrical, poetic, other-wordly prose, Morrison chose to unexpectedly sprinkle the harshest, most brutal and horrific images of slavery I could ever imagine. I found myself having to re-read a sentence to make sure I understood her correctly. While contemplating a flowing line of narrative, I am suddenly struck with a violent, gut-wrenching detail. It was as if Morrison were telling the reader..."This is what is was really like. A beautiful plantation, a beautiful family...and here, just below the surface look how subtley ugly and cruel it all could be."

Beloved is so many things at the once...it is, like humans, so very complicated. I love the idea it illustrates of people being so multi-faceted...a man is a slave, yet still a man who has real emotions and hopes that he hides away, but eventually must deal with. A woman is a mother, sacrificial in her nurturing, yet still a woman with her own set of physical and emotional needs as well as a past of her own that needs healing.

Make no mistake: Beloved is a beautiful nightmare. It is a harsh and haunting experience, and reading it was a bit of a baptism for me. Once I'd finished it, I felt changed.

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Jul 04, 2008 Melissa Rudder rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: master-s-exam

I'm struggling to write my book review of Toni Morrison's Beloved, which, quite frankly, left me speechless. After turning the last page, I found myself in one of my favorite reading predicaments: there was nothing for me to do but sit there and feel the story wash over me. I couldn't analyze, I could vocalize, I could only be with the narrative. A day later, I still feel like that's all I can do. But I'll try.

Beloved is inspired by the story of a fugitive slave, Margaret Garner, who, to save he...more I'm struggling to write my book review of Toni Morrison's Beloved, which, quite frankly, left me speechless. After turning the last page, I found myself in one of my favorite reading predicaments: there was nothing for me to do but sit there and feel the story wash over me. I couldn't analyze, I could vocalize, I could only be with the narrative. A day later, I still feel like that's all I can do. But I'll try.

Beloved is inspired by the story of a fugitive slave, Margaret Garner, who, to save her children from returning to a life of slavery, tried to kill them and succeeded in killing one of them. Sethe, Morrison's character, struggles with her community's disdain, her children's fear, and her own broken heart after killing her Beloved. Her solution is to suppress memories of the past. However, when Beloved finds a way to reenter Sethe's life, she and her family are forced come to grips with their history.

Virginia Woolf argued that literature should reflect that "Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; but a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end.” Morrison's smoothly executed narrative style, which weaves into the minds and memories of many of her characters, exemplifies this method of stroytelling, slowly illuminating the characters' history and bringing to light their most hidden secrets. Instead of developing in a linear, chronological way, the story of Beloved takes the reader deeper and deeper into the characters' traumatic pasts and pummeled hearts.

It is not an easy journey. As a powerfully written narrative that brings life to historical accounts of slavery's brutality, Beloved confronts its reader with scenes of physical and emotional abuse and images of broken, violated men and women trying to stay whole amidst the crushing realities of slavery, which linger long after the story's characters have crossed to the North. Just as the character Beloved forces Sethe's family to acknowledge and actively work to recover from its tragic past, the novel Beloved, with its eloquent and heart-wrenching accounts, begs America to do the same.

You are my face; I am you. Why did you leave me who am you?(less)

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Aug 26, 2008 Trillian rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: over-educated literati

Shelves: not-worthwhile

This is the worst book that I have ever read. It epitomizes what elite academics love about literature: It is dark and nasty (which, to an academic, means realistic) and it is obscure and incoherent (to an academic, this means deep and profound). This is like the deliberately hideous painting that is called "art" by intellectuals: Common-sense individuals question its merit and are told it is complex, beautiful, and beyond the untrained understanding and crass sensibilities of the uneducated. I...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Katherine rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gave-up

I read about half a dozen pages of this before I chucked it.

The description of the male servants/workers f***ing the cows (poor creatures) because of the girl's good looks totally disgusted me.

I would never have picked it up if it weren't on the reading list for my uni class.

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Apr 05, 2007 Kristina rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: teacher-mandated

Admitting that I am not a fan of this book is a gross understatement. And this, given that I read it before Oprah filmed her genuinely pathetic and ill-conceived movie version. The fact that I am giving this one star has more to do with my respect for Toni Morrison than with any regard or lack thereof that I have for this book. Which is probably antithetical to the very purpose of the rating system, but I persevere nonetheless in bending it to my will. Avoid this book if you value your sanity.

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Aug 14, 2007 Becky rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, yuck

I read this book in college and remember it with sincere hatred. The only reason I am giving this book 2 stars is because the story is incredibly original and Morrison is a truly gifted author (as she tells the stories in characters point of views, using every unique style of speech to convey the story). This has to be one of the most difficult books I have ever read. The book switches narrators without being told who is narrating the story, so you have to figure out either by their style of spe...more

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Jan 19, 2009 Dusty Myers rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. How did Sethe's baby die? As soon as the novel opens we know she and her daughter Denver are haunted by a ghost and that this ghost is the disturbed though not unkind spirit of Sethe's first daughter, who died when she was still a baby. Morrison uses a wandering third-person narrator—not quite omniscient, but freely moving among her characters—throughout the novel and yet it takes about halfway for this central mystery to get solved. And when it does, Morrison gives it an elusive treatment. We a...more

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Dec 23, 2012 charta rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: narrativa, nordamerica

E' un libro che mi ha riempito la testa di interrogativi dato che la lettura è stata una sorta di lotta contro me stessa e non arrivavo a comprenderne il motivo. Non sono riuscita ad apprezzarne la storia corale, di testimonianza, recupero e ricordo, e solo in parte quella fatta di ruscelli individuali.
Se l'intenzione era denunciare l'inumanità e la spoliazione del sé operata contro le donne di colore, se una delle tante nuance di un'opera in cui il simbolismo si utilizza in quantità industriale...more

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About Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison (born Chloe Anthony Wofford), is an American author, editor, and professor who won the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature for being an author "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality."
Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed African American characters; among the best k...more

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Quotes from Beloved

“Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.” — 1,614 people liked it

“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.” — 489 people liked it

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