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Beloved
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Ooh! I read this last year, or rather, I listened to the author read it on audiobook. If you can get it that way, I HIGHLY recommend that version!
Jennifer W wrote: "Ooh! I read this last year, or rather, I listened to the author read it on audiobook. If you can get it that way, I HIGHLY recommend that version!"She has a lovely voice but it's too soft. I listen to audiobooks while I'm out and about and I really struggled to hear what she was saying even on a quiet street with no traffic.
I was listening to Sula and Jazz though, so maybe Beloved has better sound editing.
She's quiet on this one, too. I listened to it while I was laying in bed.
I found this book to be extremely powerful. As an Australian, we never really learnt very much about America and slavery in school. I was shocked by the way white people spoke about the slaves like they were animals and that these people were being seen as less than human. The fact that the African Americans had tbeir humanity stripped away, families destroyed and self worth governed by their ability to work. Even the white people who were "kind" still treated them like they were trained gorillas. I was also shocked by how valuable freedom was for them. It was quite heartbreaking to read about how unimaginable stoked Paul D was when he was able to buy turnips for himself and was treated like a person.
This is a re-read for me, having read it in high school. Re-reading it some 20 years later and it still moves me, although this time reading it, I noticed something about the idea of freedom. Sure, this book is about slavery and what it means to be free, but are the characters really free? In reading it, I found that the characters were still chained to something, even though they were no longer slaves. Sethe was "haunted" by the daughter she left behind. Paul D is consistently chained, bound by the remembrance of his time so that he can't even really function in a free society. Denver retreats to her cubby, away from the world to hide, rather than being free to live normally. These things I think Morrison wanted to show could be overcome with family and love, although I think what she's really shown is that the effects of something so brutal on a person will affect not only their history but their future and that of their children and children's children. Certainly a theme we are dealing with in U.S. society today!
It was interesting to me that this story was inspired by the story of a real woman who killed her child rather than allow the child to be sent back into slavery. The author turned that inspiration into a really moving novel that delved into the horrors that were endured by those escaped slaves and how they coped with their experiences later in life, and also the impact it had on the next generation. The descriptions of Beloved's experiences after her death and her later personification were both confusing and fascinating to me.
Beloved is such an interesting character because she is the spirit of Sethe's murdered daughter, but in Chapter 22 it is obvious that she also represents the collective spirit of the unnamed slaves who were forced from their African homes into the holds of slave ships and brought to America where they were sold like chattel. In Chapter 22, Beloved talks about the memory of crouching in a hot place where people are crowded together and dying of thirst. (a slave ship) Beloved remembers Sethe's mother's experience when she came from Africa in a slave ship, so Beloved is not only Sethe's daughter but her mother's as well. Beloved is not just an individual character but also acts as a supernatural force. Toni Morrison dedicates the book to "Sixty Million and more," an estimated number of people who died in slavery, and Beloved represents these unnamed, beloved people. I see William Faulkner's influence (as in As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury), especially with the circular narrative, the stream-of-consciousness technique, and the theme of human bondage, which did not end with the surrender of the South at Appomattox.
I am reminded of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw with Morrison's ghost, who manipulates Sethe and the other characters and refuses to allow them a normal life.
A major theme is how women negotiate between nurturing their families and obligations that are larger than they are. Sethe confronts evil in herself and in the institution of slavery, but motherhood brings her back from madness, shame, guilt.
Another theme is history. The main characters are haunted by their personal histories and by the history of their people. Morrison demonstrates how focusing on the past can be detrimental by having Sethe nearly lose her identity and life through her obsession with Beloved and the past, which can be consuming and destructive. Sethe begins to regain her life when she discovers that she has a future with Paul D. With the healing love of Paul D., Denver, and the black community, Sethe can let go of the tragic history that has defined her and create a new beginning.
What a powerful book!
It took a while but I finally started to enjoy this book about a third of the way once, once some of the threads started to come together.Beloved was definitely more of a physical force than a single person which is likely why I couldn't relate to her character; the long passage inside her head, although revealing, didn't speak to me in the same way as the Sethe and Denver sections did. They were human, with human thoughts and concerns; Beloved was just too otherworldly.
COLETTEGI really wanted to enjoy this book. It has been on my to read shelf forever. She had a great story to tell but her writing was atrocious. It was confusing and pretentious. I had to go back on more than one occasion to see if I was on the right track. I don't find that enjoyable in a book. Poetry, songs, bouncing narrators, bouncing timelines, stream of consciousness, allegory... just too much. A will written story it was not and it had the opportunity to convey so much instead of leaving many of us guessing what the hell was going on.
A book more admired than loved, for me. A slow start that tumbled into horror - both of the individual haunting of Sethe and of the endemic atrocities inflicted on slaves (leaving aside the fact of slavery per se being utterly abhorent).I didn't mind the back and forth of the timeline, after the first couple of hops anyway, nor the stream of consciousness -which I think was essential to effectively explore the experience of being a slave, and escaped slave.
Books talking on topics as important as this should be unsettling, prevent an easy glossing of history.
This book has been on my TBR shelf for quite some time. This was a perfect reason to finally get around to reading it.I haven't read much related to slavery in the United States - in fact I think the only other book I've really read was Uncle Tom's Cabin and that was close to 15 years ago. With that being said, I was surprised at the difficulty I had in getting through this book. It took me more time than I anticipated to get through it, and at times, I had struggled to get through more than a few pages at a time.
I tried not to focus on the jumping timeline or the writing style. For me the focus was the terrible things endured by slaves and the lasting effects it caused. It seems almost unthinkable that such acts could be so common. This book will definitely stick with you and leave you a bit unsettled. I'm glad to have finally gotten through this and feel like it was a worthwhile read.
Beloved – Toni Morrison– 4****
This is a challenging book to read (and to listen to) because Morrison uses multiple narrators, switches time frames without notice, and dribbles out clues to what really happened in a way that keeps the reader off balance and unsure where the story is headed. I did think the “atmospheric” writing sometimes got in the way of the storyline. Still, I loved Morrison’s use of language; I felt immersed in the story, the timeframe, the magic, the brutal reality.
Full Review HERE
I honestly have no idea what to think of this book. I didn't even put a rating on it when I added it to my list of books read on Goodreads. The subject matter is incredibly difficult, but at the same time it's important, which makes it hard to give it a rating.I think the main thing that makes me struggle with it is that I've recently determined that magical realism is not a thing I enjoy reading. I have tried several recently, and I just struggle through it every time. That said, I am glad I finally read this one because it has been on my list for quite some time. I will be thinking about it for a long time.
Brooke TXThis is a difficult book, both in style and subject matter. The prose is beautiful but dense, the plot meanders through time, and everything about it is raw and brutal and painful. It's not really a book you "like" or "dislike;" it's one of those stories that just stays with you, lingering in your mind as a constant reminder of both the actual horror that was slavery in America, and the power of literature to exorcise and record that horror.
Beloved has been on my TBR list for ages as it is one of those "important" books one should read to understand a dark and terrible part of American history. I wasn't crazy about the idea of having Beloved as my Summer Group Read but I have already read Middlesex and I am more of a cat person so Katie was not that pealing to me. I like the Group Reads task and try to read at least one of the books for my enlightenment if nothing else. I have to admit I loved the book from the beginning. I didn't find Ms Morrison's prose difficult to read. Her writing is lyrical, soft yet powerful, and I think her treatment of Sethe's story as well as Paul D, Denver and Beloved was well done. The timeline jumping didn't bother me as it told their story and the stories of countless others who were sold into slavery and were forced to endure the horrors of being sold and owned by whites who treated their animals better. It was quite heartbreaking at times because the story holds Truth and sometimes that is hard to take. I love the character of Denver. She was a positive light in this dark world even though she retreated into herself a lot. I can say without hesitation that I think this is an awesome book because of the beautiful, poignant writing and the truth it held, although not pleasant,in the the story that was told, and I am glad I took the time to read it as it enriched my summer reading this year and overall a rewarding experience
DakimelHow funny, so much of what Ceelee wrote could be me, esp the reasons for picking this title for the group read & Denver being the favorite. I have read Beloved before, though - it's been years, but it stuck with me. As you'd expect - it's very much a stick-to-you kind of book.
The weight on Denver, who was herself a weight carried from slavery into freedom, has always affected me. She's born barely over the threshold into freedom (that boat birth scene with Amy, the water pulling at them all, was so raw, especially the way Morrison narrated it in the audiobook), and with every story from the lives born in bondage, the weight on Denver solidifies around her. I admire the way Morrison builds it up.
The Seasonal Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Beloved (other topics)As I Lay Dying (other topics)
The Sound and the Fury (other topics)
The Turn of the Screw (other topics)
Jazz (other topics)
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