Beloved

This book is about the legacy of the massive violence and trauma of slavery, but at its heart, this is entirely about motherhood. I have read no other novel that so searingly, brilliantly, and tenderly depicts the haunting extremes— physically, emotionally, and spiritually—to which motherhood will bring a woman.

I read this book for the first time while working on my PhD, and I love the novel for its beautiful, uncanny, and brutally honest portrayal of maternal love.

Based on the true story of an enslaved woman who escaped a Kentucky plantation to the free state of Ohio and then did the unthinkable in a desperate attempt to save her children from bondage, Morrison’s book is literally haunted by the ghost of the protagonist’s lost daughter, and figuratively haunted, by the stygian specter of American slavery. Toni Morrison was a true master, and for me, Beloved is her masterpiece.   

The language of Beloved is so lush, singular, and encompassing that it defies description. It must be experienced.

This book pulsates with troubled energy, possession, obsession, grief, rage, and life force. It is one of the most haunted – and haunting – novels I’ve ever read, an unflinching, deeply embodied account of slavery and its wake. The book feels like a living thing, alert and hungry. It contains the depths of our violence and sorrow, but also exaltation, healing, profound love and tenderness.

What can I say about Toni Morrison’s novel about the legacy of slavery that hasn’t been said by a hundred book reviewers? Just that Beloved is her masterpiece and reading it made me want to write fiction.

I love the non-linear plot, how it seamlessly moves between the past and present, between the outer and inner lives of its central characters, and its clear-eyed rendering of the horrific reality of slavery in the pre-civil war South. A book that not only transported me to another time but transformed me.

It is hard to forget the ghosts and spirits haunting this book. They register the pain of slavery and dare us to look away. Little in my education as a historian equipped me to engage stories of loss and violence.

Morrison turned to fiction to restore a balanced view of American history, leaving us with a question: what tools do we need to unlock hidden histories? I think about this question every time I write. 

Toni Morrison’s classic novel about infanticide is one of my all-time favourites, and is incredibly powerful, as well as disturbing. I love her language and its poetry, as well as the fantastic voice of her narrator, Sadie. Like all great novelists, Morrison is able to evoke the inner world of Sadie, and her struggles as an enslaved woman. The social context of acts like this is brought beautifully to life here, and echoes with themes of motherhood, pain, secrecy and love.

This book is a longtime favorite of mine. Toni Morrison was a master at blending the personal story and the political, and in this book, she blends the true story of a mother who kills her child to prevent slave catchers from returning the baby to life as a slave.

Morrison’s fictional Sethe is haunted by the ghost of the baby she killed and the memories of her difficult life as a slave. This is one of the novels I return to time after time, both for the beauty of the writing and the portrayal of a mother’s love, guilt,… show more.

This book would have to go on my list of top five novels ever. It’s a work of pure genius that I can re-read over and over.

Morrison’s magical realist rendering of Margaret Garner’s history—a slave’s murder of her child to free her from slavery—enters myth with Beloved’s reincarnation. The novel is about the aftermath of trauma, and the exorcism of Beloved shows Sethe overcoming the shame of the murder through the support of the Black community.

In Paul D’s words: “You are your best thing.” I also have a soft spot in my heart for Denver.

This is one of those books that I re-read periodically, and every time I do, I find something new to love.

I’m a sucker for well-crafted prose, and the language in this book is haunting and beautiful. The novel’s magic is centered in the titular character, who appears first as a ghost and then later as the quiet newcomer who gives her name as Beloved.

I love the way that Morrison’s poetic language and the hazy, dreamlike quality to the storytelling make the reader slow down, put aside the day-to-day “real” world, and accept plot developments like the ghost of… show more.

It feels presumptuous to even try to describe this novel…I can only say that to me, it is a story about a truth so painful that it can only be viewed indirectly and magically, from all the many vantage points its characters (and ghosts) offer.

A spiraling, heartbreaking explosion of a book, brilliantly structured, beautifully written, with a secret at its center.