Review: BELOVED

Beloved by Toni Morrison

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ever since I read the phrase, “124 was spiteful,” I’ve wanted to be like Toni Morrison. I was in college then and a fairly young reader. I read the first page of BELOVED six times, maybe more, before I felt like I could turn it.

Truth be told, the first time through BELOVED I had no idea what I was reading. But it was already my favorite book–long before I was sophisticated enough to comprehend its contents.

I wrote my own stories, and as my craft matured, I came to realize that I could never be like Toni Morrison. I realized that I would have to admire her from a distance.

The only thing I’ve read better than BELOVED is Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech. I weep every time I hear her read that story. The old woman. What I’d give for a conversation with a blind old woman like that.

The characters I came to know in BELOVED still live with me two decades after I first met them. Their joy. Their grief. The wisdom I received. Their mistakes teach me how to live my own life. Their strength, their grit, inspire me to push through when times are hard.

Hard times...BELOVED puts all that into perspective.

I owe a lot to Toni Morrison’s work. She is my mentor, and she is with me every time I sit down to write.



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