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Rating:  -
This is a book about a woman who killed one of her children to keep them from being a slave. (Why did she kill that particular child and not the others?) Later the child comes back, fully living in adult form because of how much they loved each other, or something like that. Get out of here. That's so ridiculous I can't even suspend my disbelief. The mother and the revived ghost-daughter end up being co-dependent and obsessed with each other, and some other drama ensues. The grammar is purposely very poor and some of the chapters were done entirely in poems with a lot of symbolism that didn't really fit into the story, and seemed to be there just because of how it sounded.
There were some good parts to the book, like some of the characters and the talking about the past, but I really think this book is highly overrated, and I'm someone who loves to read; classics, modern books, junk books, you name it. I'm going to be very controversial and say that whatever judges decide books are "great" have a bias: if a black person writes about slavery, the book is automatically considered a classic, just because of the subject matter. (And maybe it's like this with other historic horrors too.) Well I'm sorry, but I still think a book needs to be well-written, regardless of the subject matter. To Kill A Mockingbird was an excellent book about racism, and Amy Tan writes a lot of great books about the lives of Chinese immigrants. These books are about heavy subjects, but the writers actually took the effort and told a real story with a strong plot. I'm sure there are also great books about slavery and that I will find them, but this a mediocre book that just happens to be about slavery.
Rating:  -
Beloved is a riveting story, a page-turner. It reminds me of The Turn of the Screw in that you are never certain what was real and what wasn't. Do you believe in the supernatural or is it mental distress? Awesome review of slavery every white American should read. But the story is the thing - and it is really something!
Rating:  -
Admittedly, I was lost at times while reading this, read many a chapter and sentence over and over, but by the end, I found the effort more than worth it. I can't pretend to know what it must have been like for women/slaves like Sethe, but if I've now gleaned even an inkling, this was the story that did it.
Much like after reading the Color Purple, I found myself thinking about this story again and again, and would highly recommend it for anyone with the patience to see it through. The pay off is well worth it.
Rating: -
I'm always trying to read books that are hailed as good, hoping to enjoy them as much as everyone else does. I'm sad to say that this book didn't agree with me. This isn't to say that it isn't a good book- after all, this review is just my opinion.
Much of the book confused me because the book went back and forth in time in paragraphs. On one page, the first paragraph would be twenty years in the past, and the next paragraph would be five years in the past, and the third paragraph would be in the present. (by present I mean late 1800's).
Sometimes even in one paragraph the story would go through several different events over several different years. This confused me to the point where I had no idea what was going on! So I didn't enjoy it very much. But oh, how I wanted to! It seemed like it would be a book I would enjoy.
Rating: -
I have to admit, I approached this novel with quite a bit of trepidation. It was an Oprah's book club pick, which generally means depressing, and I tend to be leery of "highly acclaimed" books. Maybe a bit of reverse snobbishness. But I've been making a point lately of ignoring my knee-jerk reactions and trying to check things out before I judge them.
If you haven't heard anything about it, Beloved is the story of Sethe and her daughter Denver, who live alone with a ghost now that her mother-in-law has died and her two sons have left home. A man from Sethe's past shows up, Paul D., and then a young woman, Beloved, who becomes ever more demanding.
Through a series of flashbacks and memories, we get the picture of Sethe's life, and how and why it culminated in her killing one of her children and attempting to kill the others. I'd been forewarned about that, so it wasn't as much of a shock as it might have been.
Beloved is a powerful novel. I can't really express it any other way. It provides an unvarnished look at a period in history that would be more comfortable to forget. But if that were all it was, I wouldn't have liked it so much. I'm not one to hide my head in the sand, but I don't see the point of dwelling on the horrors people inflict on each other, either. I like to know and then move on.
It's also a story of community, and how people react as groups. Sethe was rejected by her community, not as much because she'd killed her child, but because she was too independent. It's an interesting concept, and one that applies very much to me as well--like Sethe, I find it shameful to ask for help, preferring to do without than to reach out. So the story hit me on that level as well.
But for me, mostly, it was a story of guilt, and how Sethe's guilt manifested itself (literally), and how she needed to accept help to forgive herself. And that's what really made the story for me.
I doubt I'll re-read this, at least not for a long time, but I'm very glad I did.
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