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A review by peachachu
Beloved by Toni Morrison
4.0
Having never read any Toni Morrison before (I know right—how pathetic!!), I went into this novel knowing nothing other than its status as a beloved classic of Black literature. What I got was a deeply gothic, strange, and haunting tale of familial bonds broken and stitched back together within the legacy of slavery. Shifting back and forth through time as Sethe grapples with her painful memories as an enslaved woman at Sweet Home plantation, Beloved expertly evokes the disturbing and horrific realities of slavery and the way it continues to haunt the present. It's one of the most well-crafted extended metaphors I think I've ever read—enslavement as a restless spirit, the aftereffects reverberating throughout the home until it begins to destroy the present.
After finishing the novel, I found out Morrison used Margaret Garner, a runaway who killed her child rather than return to a life of enslavement, as the basis for her story. These historic roots only amplify the deeply painful and disturbing tale Morrison has conjured. As such, Beloved serves as a prime example of the ways fiction and reality intersect to create something new and thought-provoking.
In essence, I vote throwing out all Hemingway required reading and replacing it with this. 16 years of schooling (as an English major!) without a single Morrison novel as required reading is honestly embarrassing, and I hope our educational curriculum seeks to do better. Not just stopping with the "classics" like Morrison, but delving into a wider span of voices and ideas beyond the canon.
After finishing the novel, I found out Morrison used Margaret Garner, a runaway who killed her child rather than return to a life of enslavement, as the basis for her story. These historic roots only amplify the deeply painful and disturbing tale Morrison has conjured. As such, Beloved serves as a prime example of the ways fiction and reality intersect to create something new and thought-provoking.
In essence, I vote throwing out all Hemingway required reading and replacing it with this. 16 years of schooling (as an English major!) without a single Morrison novel as required reading is honestly embarrassing, and I hope our educational curriculum seeks to do better. Not just stopping with the "classics" like Morrison, but delving into a wider span of voices and ideas beyond the canon.