Beloved - Book Review
Beloved ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Classic, Historican Fiction
Author: Toni Morrison
Published in: September 1987
Buy at: Amazon
“Love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all.” ― Toni Morrison, Beloved
Review
My first book by Toni Morrison and probably not the last - "Beloved" is one horror, heart-wrenching, complex yet powerful book that I am wondering why I didn't read this earlier. All of you who read this book during their college or high school, I am envious of you.
The Pulitzer Prize winner "Beloved" is about slavery, running away from slavery and its aftermath. Set in 1873, Ohio, this book starts with Sethe who is living with her daughter in a house which is desolate and haunted. She ran away with her children from 'Sweet Home' eighteen years ago where she was a slave to a white family. The white men found her, but she tried killing her children so that they avoid slavery. She killed her two-year-old daughter, but neighbours and her mother-in-law saved her other children. The ghost of her two-year-old daughter haunts her house now, and she does not want to run away anymore accepting this desolate life until one day, a girl appears at her door claiming the same name as her dead daughter.
I suck at magical realism, and a combination of it with complicated writing, it is a big turn off for me. Something in the foreword that I read at the beginning of the book was so compelling me and made me persevere throughout the book. Toni Morrison used powerful writing as a metaphorical representation of a slave's consciousness which is full of dark, brutal, intolerable and detestable memories. This book demands effort from a reader to thoroughly understand the perception of a slave.
Beloved has so many disturbing graphic scenes which made me close the book so many times. It is even more frightful that the story is inspired by a real-life story of Margaret Garner, who ran away with her children and husband from slavery. Toni Morrison has portrayed all the characters to their best ability. She didn't sketch all the white men as evil and torturing. Coloured people were portrayed as progressive, hard-working and kind.
Everyone should read this book. This book is a powerful book about shame, desperation, guilt, evil, perseverance and hope. A perfect book for any book club because this spurs a lot of discussions.
The Pulitzer Prize winner "Beloved" is about slavery, running away from slavery and its aftermath. Set in 1873, Ohio, this book starts with Sethe who is living with her daughter in a house which is desolate and haunted. She ran away with her children from 'Sweet Home' eighteen years ago where she was a slave to a white family. The white men found her, but she tried killing her children so that they avoid slavery. She killed her two-year-old daughter, but neighbours and her mother-in-law saved her other children. The ghost of her two-year-old daughter haunts her house now, and she does not want to run away anymore accepting this desolate life until one day, a girl appears at her door claiming the same name as her dead daughter.
I suck at magical realism, and a combination of it with complicated writing, it is a big turn off for me. Something in the foreword that I read at the beginning of the book was so compelling me and made me persevere throughout the book. Toni Morrison used powerful writing as a metaphorical representation of a slave's consciousness which is full of dark, brutal, intolerable and detestable memories. This book demands effort from a reader to thoroughly understand the perception of a slave.
Beloved has so many disturbing graphic scenes which made me close the book so many times. It is even more frightful that the story is inspired by a real-life story of Margaret Garner, who ran away with her children and husband from slavery. Toni Morrison has portrayed all the characters to their best ability. She didn't sketch all the white men as evil and torturing. Coloured people were portrayed as progressive, hard-working and kind.
Everyone should read this book. This book is a powerful book about shame, desperation, guilt, evil, perseverance and hope. A perfect book for any book club because this spurs a lot of discussions.
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