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ohmage_resistance 's review for:
Beloved
by Toni Morrison
challenging
dark
This was definitely a well written book about a dark topic. I'll be thinking about it for a while.
I've read somewhat similar magical realism books dealing with slavery (The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ours by Phillip B. Williams) but those used their fantastical elements to connect the characters back to their ancestors/African traditions, mostly. Here, it's way more fluid/mixed, so you can't really the magical realism elements from the real ones. It works really well to reflect the trauma of what the characters have experienced, and how they become more and more isloated. I also liked how the story was told in such a nonlinear and fluid way, mixing the perspectives of a lot of characters.
It mostly reminded me of the essay "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book" by Hortense J. Spillers, especially in the way both works think about gender and slavery. I think both were written in the same year, so I guess that makes sense.
I've read somewhat similar magical realism books dealing with slavery (The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ours by Phillip B. Williams) but those used their fantastical elements to connect the characters back to their ancestors/African traditions, mostly. Here, it's way more fluid/mixed, so you can't really the magical realism elements from the real ones. It works really well to reflect the trauma of what the characters have experienced, and how they become more and more isloated. I also liked how the story was told in such a nonlinear and fluid way, mixing the perspectives of a lot of characters.
It mostly reminded me of the essay "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe: An American Grammar Book" by Hortense J. Spillers, especially in the way both works think about gender and slavery. I think both were written in the same year, so I guess that makes sense.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Probably more stuff I'm forgetting about. It's an intense book.