Toni
Morrison’s novel, Beloved, is known
as an American Classic and even won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It has been
praised for decades and touches on key events and emotions that have engulfed
America since the time of Slavery. Learning that this novel has been critically
acclaimed and has won awards is a great starting point in telling whether the
book is worth the read or not. It is also always helpful to see what other
readers are saying about the book.
After
reading several reviews off Beloved
on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and Goodreads.com, the general consensus was
that this was an amazing book, well worth the read. I did read one review from
Goodreads.com where the reviewer just hated the book. He went on
discussing how the book was confusing
and hard to follow. He said that “Beloved [was] incomprehensible to the point
of absurdity”. His point was that he couldn’t follow the book at all due to the
structure of the narrative. Several other reviewers praised the structure of
the story while still admitting that it is difficult to follow. One review from
Barnes and Noble said “If you are a Literature Major in life you will love this
novel. But if not, be prepared to struggle through understanding this narrative
of magical realism”. A lot of reviews said that it was a book to be read more
than once and that originally they struggled with it, but by the end it was
worth it. A review on Amazon.com offered this piece of advice, “Beloved is a
horrendous, beautiful book too intricate to absorb in an isolated reading. It’s
one for the collection, to take in slowly. Don’t give up on this deservedly
acclaimed work of art”. There will always be bad reviews, no piece of
literature is loved by all. However, with regards to Beloved, glowing reviews appear more than negative ones.
I agreed
with most of the reviews I read. To the writer of the negative review I
mentioned, I don’t disagree. Yes, Beloved
is hard to follow and tosses the reader into a realm of reality and make
believe. Are the two distinguished in black and white in the book? No. But I
find that writing style extremely intriguing and refreshing. The book really
makes you think; it forces you to spend more time on the book. I think that is
why so many positive reviews still touch on the difficulty of the book. It’s
not a bad thing that Morrison weaves us in and out of different realities or
different points of view. The narrative takes the reader along for a ride and
in the end it is completely worth it. I really liked this book because it isn’t
like anything else I have read before. I have read books by Faulkner and
Virginia Woolf where the point of view switches and chapters are written with
one sentence based on some characters stream of consciousness. But this book is
different. I loved the ghost story intertwined with plot lines of the story. It
was an intricately written book that has earned every ounce of praise it has
gotten.
Reviews used:
Goodreads.com:
Barnes and Noble:
Amazon.com:
I appreciate your comparison to other authors who deliberately play with time and point of view. Morrison's narrative style is challenging and she makes us work as readers.
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