I bought two copies of this book by accident when I was book shopping, and decided to give one of them to my father’s wife, a woman named Lisa, for Christmas. She already had it, and told me that she loved it. I originally picked the book up because it is one of Barbara’s three favorite books, and I have a lot of respect for her tastes and ideas. Right around when I started reading the book, some time last month, a blond motherly middle-aged woman told me that it was an amazing book. Middle-aged women I do not know very rarely make contact with me, so she must have held the book in very great esteem indeed. I do not believe in using demographics as focus points for products or anything consumable, as everyone has their own likes and dislikes that may or may not be held in common with people in their own age or economic category, but there are certain things that tend to appeal to certain types of people.
While I did enjoy Beloved, I would not say that it is one of my favorite books, and I would not push it on anybody unless they have never read anything about the Reconstruction, because I believe that this is a period in history, especially southern history, that seems largely ignored by many people today. I believe it was an extremely important period in American as well as international history, where the economic and political future of America was unclear and in turmoil. This book does a good job of showing some of the differences between freedom and slavery, as well as how an exslave’s past might affect them in their newfound freedoms, and does explore being a black person during Reconstruction, but the story focuses more on the home that the main characters in the story live in, detailing the history of before it was “rented” out to Baby Suggs, the first black person to live in the home after the end of legal slavery, to when her daughter and granddaughter live in it. The structure of Beloved is very loose, with some chapters from the viewpoints of different characters, or at different times in their lives, and I felt as if I could see it grow as I read it, as if I could look into Toni Morrison’s head and see her ideas develop. I don’t know how she set out writing the book, whether the story was heavily planned or not, but from the way in which it is written, it seems very stream-of-consciousness in a way, as the ends of stories or ideas are presented before any background story or explanation, as if Morrison built upon her writing in layers, going back and forth with an abstract rhythm. Maybe it is because I have not read very many books like this, surely none as lyrical and poetic, but it was oftentimes very hard for me to piece the story together, and I still feel that there are some small gaps in my understanding of it even after finishing the book, but as I think about it they close up, and I believe that this is quite a writing feat. This is not to say that the story is not graceful or interesting, as it is beautiful and poignant, but I wished that I was able to understand all of the ideas, metaphors, and plot points.
Beloved, at its heart, is very much intertwined with concepts of motherhood, and what that means for people who are not able or allowed to be mothers, as well as a mother’s love for her children through trials and tribulations. In this respect, I feel that people who have been, want to be, or are mothers would be able to relate to and/or understand this book better than I can, and my experiences with other people who have read this book seem to uphold that idea. While I am not a mother, I can think still appreciate what a mother might go through, so while I can sympathize with this novel, it is hard to truly relate to it, as it may be for many other people in my demographic.
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