The brutal truth, brilliantly written. A mother hanging from a tree, the vile debasement of a nursing mother, scars so deep from whipping that they make a design of a tree on a woman’s back, a bloodied dead baby, the ultimate symbol of how truly horrific slavery was. These are some of the images that I will remember long after reading this book. This was not an easy book to read and it’s not one I can say was enjoyable in the strictest sense of the word, but I can say that I appreciated every word, what the story tells of and how it is told. The past is present in flashbacks, in memory, in stories told by one character to another, in streams of consciousness. The past is always present in the present. It’s a haunting ghost story, but the past is more haunting, more daunting. This blend of past and present requires the reader to pay close attention. I read it slowly so I wouldn’t miss what was happening, what had happened.

What an achievement in storytelling! Much has been written about this book that tells more of Sethe’s story, more of Baby Suggs’s story, more about Denver’s story and more about Paul D’s story and of course Beloved’s. I’m not going to do that here because it’s Toni Morrison’s story to tell and I recommend that you discover it yourself. Just be prepared. That Sethe’s character is based on a real person deepens the significance when as a reader I considered what a mother would do to save her child from a horrific life of slavery.

The news of Toni Morrison’s recent death is what prompted me to finally pick this up out of the basket next to my bed, filled with books I’ve been meaning to read. With every article I read about her this last week, I kept thinking about how much I have missed by not having read any of her books. As difficult as this was to read, I’m glad I did and I know that I will read more so as not to miss out on more of the reasons why Morrison deserved so many accolades, including the Nobel Prize in Literature.

¿Qué clase de maravilla acabo de leer? Me van a faltar palabras para expresar todo lo buena que es esta novela y todas las cosas que me ha transmitido. Años que hacía que tenía la novela por casa y siempre terminaba por dejarla de lado. Finalmente las buenas críticas tanto a la novela como a la autora me dieron el empujón y vaya acierto. Ahora estoy deseando leer el resto de su obra.

A través de un suceso misterioso que se nos irá desvelando con cuentagotas, asistiremos a una historia que se va creando poco a poco, y donde cada pieza encaja perfectamente. Sethe, una madre que tuvo que huir de un campo donde vivía como esclava, escapa embaraza. Anteriormente había logrado enviar a sus tres hijos mayores a casa de su suegra, Baby Suggs. Tras muchas penurias, ella misma acabará llegando a la casa de esta, con su bebé ya en brazos.

No os cuento nada más de la historia, porque me parece tan espectacular, que cada detalle que os cuente, por tonto que sea, sería una pena no descubrirlo por uno mismo. Pero en serio, es una historia de esas que te dejan tocado y que te impactan muchísimo. Me ha hecho replantearme muchas cosas como persona y que sería capaz de hacer yo mismo por huir o “por amor”. Y cuando un libro te hace cuestionarte tantas cosas, es que ese libro merece la pena, ya que te hace crecer.

Una de las mejores cosas de la novela es como está contada. La narración me ha parecido maravillosa. Siempre dejándote con la miel en los labios, siempre manteniéndote en vilo. Ha conseguido mantenerme expectante cada página, deseoso de conocer todos los detalles del gran suceso y de todo lo que provocó. La habilidad de la autora para narrar la trama, mezclada con una ambientación espectacular, consigue que la novela sea sublime. Y si a eso le sumamos que los personajes están muy bien creados, todos con muchas capas y grises, pues tenemos ante nosotros una obra maestra.

Me he enamorado de sus personajes. Sethe, Denver, Baby Suggs, Beloved, Paul D., todos tienen ese algo que hace que te los creas y empatices con ellos. Es de esas historias donde no hay malos malos (o no muchos), ni buenos buenos. Los personajes tienen matices y eso es algo que siempre me encanta. Además, toca temas muy importantes y lo hace de una manera que te llega profundamente. El racismo, la esclavitud, el machismo, la maternidad, las críticas en un pueblo, la religión, son algunos de ellos. Vaya, una historia completita. En definitiva, una obra que todo el mundo debería leer. ¡Qué gusto más grande el haberme encontrado con Toni Morrison!

You who read me keep your repugnance and horror to yourself. I am here to tell you my story with an iron smile under my chin. The men without skin stole my milk so my mother punished them with my blood. You don’t understand, her love was too thick. I was the already crawling baby waiting to be loved. I am Beloved.

Which kind of unimaginable atrocities can lead a mother to murder her own baby to spare it a certain life full of humiliation and wanton abuse?
How much suffering can a human being undergo before he loses touch with reality and turns to derangement as the only way to cope? But I do wonder, derangement or conscientious remembrance as a sort of self-inflicted punishment?

“Beloved” is a piercing cry of sorrow, angst and promise impregnated with magic realism which disrupts the mind and upsets the body. Set in the 1870s Ohio, this story reveals, in a disturbingly subtle and poignant way, the real value of freedom as opposed to a life of slavery.

Sethe’s has been an oppressed and undignified life, for she is a negro, and she is a woman. Baby Suggs, the mother of her spouse -only in the eyes of God- Halle, tries to warn her about the risks of being a slave woman and insisting on loving her children too dearly. But Sethe blooms with the seed of light which is growing inside her and plans an escape with her family to be able to love freely.
Until one fateful day, when the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, disguised as men without skin, come to take what they believe to be their right. They come to teach a lesson to these proud animals which have had the boldness to believe they can be human beings. It’s an arduous task.
They undermine the body and tear the flesh, proving their power and manhood, forcing their entrance.
They arise as the masters, squeezing all kind of fluxes from emaciated carcasses: urine, spit, blood and milk. But not tears, never tears. The fluxes blend into a streaming river of sorrow and lost hopes which will never reach the cleansing waters.
They wear out the spirit and subjugate the soul, chocking and chopping.
The hummingbirds sing, flapping their wings, and the sunbeams shine through the branches of the trees, which are now adorned with hanging limbless torsos. The natural world, which becomes the imperturbable setting for this irrational carnage, watches as an indifferent spectator.

There is no place to run away to but Sethe’s instinct to feed her children moves her towards a fragile safety where her baby daughter is born. Twenty-eight days of respite it’s all they are given, for the hunting hasn’t finished yet and the Horsemen come to claim their missed prey.
Now, I am not a mother and I don’t know whether I will ever be, but the dread of imagining the flesh of your flesh having to undergo such shaming and degrading misery has to be terrifying. Sethe’s love is too thick, and she can’t remember whether she has two or four feet, animal or human? The only thing she knows is that she can’t allow her children to go through the kind of hell she went through, she wants to spare them all. She only has time to spare one before she is stopped. Her Beloved.
A murderess?
Or a selfless, desperate act of a loving mother?

“Beloved” is the unfinished name that Sethe could afford to engrave in her baby’s tombstone after selling her body.
”Beloved” is also the haunting otherwordly presence and the only company that Sethe and her only remaining daughter, Denver, have in 124 Bluestone Road, after Baby Suggs dies and her two sons disappear one mundane evening.
The perturbing phantasmagorical presence of the killed baby, which at some point is inexplicably reincarnated in flesh, taking the form of a young and attractive woman who appears out of nowhere in Sethe’s porch, drenches the novel in myriads of ways.
”Beloved” is as threatening as she is reassuring.
”Beloved” portrays the perpetual symbol of an act of sheer love, reminding Sethe of her doleful past.
”Beloved” craves for nourishment not wanting to realize that Sethe’s milk has gone sour and is now poisoning what little is left of her humanity.

It is now up to Denver to try to atone for her mother’s sin and to Sethe to allow a blessed man from her past, Paul D., a kind of man who could walk in a house and make the women cry, to offer her the possibility of a future.

This is the sort of novel that defies words and syntax, challenging the reader to put the scabrous pieces together, forcing him to move forward and backward in time, for there isn’t another way to portray its brutish reality than to merge fantasy and facts, dreams and yearnings, magic rituals and ancestral beliefs into a single powerful voice, the voice of the guilty conscience, which becomes the ultimate narrator of the story.
The act of embracing the mystery doesn’t smooth any of the atrocities portrayed in this novel, although the lyrical prose and the symbolic patterns, challenging notions of life and death, make it possible to put across an overwhelming message of hope in the natural goodness of human beings.
An individual might not find enough strength in him to exorcise the ghosts from his past, to break free from his long life bondages, to recover from the nonhealing wounds of his soul. But when embraced by the nourishing arms of the community, when allowed to enter its collective memories and sorrows, he becomes miraculously empowered to banish his worst nightmares, to let go of the shame and the guilt.
A future, free from the shadow of slavery is possible then, where a so much coveted peace of mind can be envisioned, where the hummingbirds will sing and the sundrenched grass will gleam in harmony with smiling faces instead of iron grimaces and scarred necks.

“The future was sunset; the past something to leave behind. And if it didn’t stay behind, well, you might have to stomp it out. Slave life; freed life- every day was a test and a trial.” (page 256)

Disremembered and unaccounted for, I am not lost because no one is looking for me, and even if they were, they can’t call me, for I have no name. I am the girl and I am still waiting to be loved.
This is not a story to pass on.
This is a story to forget so that a new beginning can be born.
But I’m still here. I am “Beloved” and this story is mine.

I first read Beloved in the late 80s/early 90s. I read it a second time in the late 90s/early 2000s. This is my third time reading it. And I still don’t know how to so-call review it. It’s one of those books I experience, not analyze; though, yes, I notice Morrison’s techniques, those things other writers can’t get away with that she makes work; how near the end of the book she gets me to slow down every single time with her careful use of prose and her cadence.

I realize none of the above touches on the difficult, necessary subject matter of the novel. I guess I’m too overwhelmed by it all, still, even after reading it three times.

Recently I asked someone what his favorite ghost story was and he said, well, besides Beloved… His comment stopped me in my tracks because even after reading it more than once, I hadn’t thought of it as a ghost story, even though it’s right there on the first page. Because, of course, it’s so much more than a ghost story; but, yes, it is one, the story of an incomprehensible ghost that continues to haunt us, one that will never leave us, one that we can't and shouldn’t try to erase: Its history, its heritage, reverberates. Its footsteps are there for us to see.

I have long believed in ghosts, but not in the supernatual or paranormal sense. I believe ghosts are memories or what Toni Morrison names as "rememory." I heard on NPR this week a man say that he was the grandchild of slaves and when he went into the voting booth and cast his ballot for Senator Obama he saw his grandparents faces, rememory. I once went to Auschwitz in Poland and my friend said to me as we walked thru the sadness, "they are looking at us, they are in the flowers," rememory. I have long believed in ghosts, and Toni Morrison brings us Beloved, a story of ghosts and rememory. I'm not sure if 124 was haunted by the already crawling baby or if it was haunted by the rememory of slavery, but that does not matter. Rememory. It is spiteful, it is loud, it is quiet.

Every word Toni Morrison writes is razor sharp blade, every sentence a daggar that drives the blade into your soul. Beloved is a painful read. Beloved is a story of rememory...the past and present blend together. Beloved is a painful read.

Beloved. Dearly Beloved. Beloved is our rememory. Our rememory of pain and shame. A ghost story of a not so long gone America.

“You are my face; I am you. Why did you leave me who am you?

I will never leave you again

Don’t ever leave me again

You will never leave me again” (Morrison 256)

My first reading of this titanic and one of literature’s most important masterpieces began in early oughts, then multiple times in the 2020s.

I have read "Beloved" several times in my reading life. Each time, I am always astonished that I can hear Morrison herself narrating the text, audiobooks set aside.

As comforting as her voice may be, the scenes of terror and horror of how human beings are degraded as chattel remains just as disturbing as the first time I read it.

I have some minor additions in which I wanted to share after reading this book again, this to reflect on how I’ve approached this masterpiece for young readers, and for myself.

Though it's tough to say which Toni Morrison novel is my favorite- I love all of them for different reasons, I agree with "Beloved" being Toni Morrison's most famous and revered book.

It is utterly unforgettable and spellbinding as a work of historical fiction, a work of horror, and a work about love.

Sethe Suggs is one of literature's greatest heroes- she is one of the toughest, yet most tender survivors of unspeakable and unfathomable trauma ever written.

In terms of emotional weight and epic vision- this and "Song of Solomon" are equal.

Having survived the horrors of Sweet Home, Kentucky; surviving sexual assault and her breast milk stolen; and forced to make a choice that will change the course of her life- she endures, falls, and triumphs all at once.

Paul D, also a survivor of many of the horrors that befall Sethe also is an unforgettable male character- masculine and suffering at the same time.

Sethe's daughter Denver is also resilient and ends up a courageous heroine herself. Baby Suggs, Sethe's strong willed mother in-law preaches love, and wishes for color.

That title character, Beloved, whether she is a reincarnation of Sethe's dead baby, or a mysterious woman is also a chilling and horrifying character.

Morrison also doesn’t let us forget that the Underground Railroad was a horrifying, sad journey that spelled out both horror and the unknown, of dread and unbearable suspense.

It is unlike so many of the stereotypical images of which there are brave leaders with torches that led slaves to freedom.

One of the most gorgeous quotes that stuck out to me was "We got more yesterday than anybody, we need some kind of tomorrow" (Morrison 322). There are too many quotes and passages to write about, but this quote was particularly resonant with me because currently in (2020s) -we are (or at least I am) living in a constant state of anxiety and constantly remembering trauma and sadness that is really unspeakable for me on here.

On this particular reread, I narrowed my lens on revisiting the deep mother love Sethe had for both Denver and Beloved, "it was Beloved who made demands. Anything she wanted, she got, and when Sethe ran out of things to give her, Beloved invented desire" (Morrison 283) that remains the beating heart of 124 Bluestone Road.

This time, I was able to unpack further into Sethe's feminist will to remain independent without any man, especially rebuffing Paul D's wish to have a baby with her to solidify his masculinity is even more resonant today.

Sethe simply wants to be reunited and beg for remorse from the the sins of the unspeakable, "I wanted to pick you up in my arms and I wanted to look at you sleeping too" (Morrison 227).

I remain believing that "Beloved" is one the greatest works ever written: created out of pure love, anger, and all that pain dredged up that turns into one of the most lyrical and heartrending novels ever.

Rounding out the large cast of characters include Stamp Paid, strong willed, understanding, and one of Sethe's allies; Ella, at first snooty and annoying, but also becomes part of a community that begins to understand the Sethe's past.

There’s the villainous Schoolteacher, who is the catalyst for many of the horrors that befall Sethe and Paul D, and Sethe's hapless husband Halle.

There is the brave white woman Amy Denver, who saves a pregnant Sethe and helps her give birth to Denver- are all integral in taking part in what is for me, the best novel written about and during the American Reconstruction that I've read.

I will keep treasuring the spirit of Toni Morrison as long as I teach, and read- and because of her, I always try to do my best at everything. Because, in the words of both Sethe and her creator, "love is or it ain't. Thin love ain't love at all" (Morrison 194).

Love deeply, live in the moment, feel what you want to feel.

This is an all feeling book, not for any of those who don't have a pulse.

As Sethe, Denver and Beloved all vow to one another, I guarantee this will never leave you.

Δεν υπάρχει, κατά την άποψή μου, λογοτεχνία του οίκτου. Δεν νοείται ανάγνωση που να απαιτεί εκ προοιμίου από τον αναγνώστη τη διαμεσολάβηση ενός συναισθήματος (όσο υψηλό κι αν κρίνεται αυτό), με το οποίο θα εμβαπτιστεί στην… κολυμπήθρα της αναγνωστικής μέθεξης, προκειμένου να απολαύσει το λογοτεχνικό έργο. Στη λογική αυτή, τα πάθη μιας φυλής, ενός λαού, ενός φύλου, δεν αποτελούν αιτίες ανάγνωσης, αν και σίγουρα συνιστούν αιτίες έμπνευσης.

Αυτός είναι κι ο βασικός λόγος για τον οποίο δεν είχα ως τώρα ασχοληθεί με το έργο της Μόρισον, και δη με το κατά κοινή ομολογία κορυφαίο βιβλίο της, την "Αγαπημένη". Με διακατείχε ο φόβος πως επρόκειτο για ένα ακόμα μυθιστόρημα σχετικά με το άχθος της δουλείας, καταγγελίας των δεινών, μιας ακόμα πολεμικής. Έχοντας διαβεί τον Ρουβίκωνα προς ένα πιο ώριμο (για τα δικά μου πάντα δεδομένα) στάδιο ανάγνωσης, έχω ως αρχή να αποφεύγω όλα εκείνα τα έργα μυθοπλασίας που εκ πρώτης επιβάλλονται με το βάρος του θέματός τους, αφήνοντας τον τρόπο, την αφήγηση, σε δευτερεύουσα μοίρα. Και, αλήθεια, πόσο μεγάλη βαρύτητα έχει η δουλεία (δεύτερη, ίσως, σε σχέση με το Ολοκαύτωμα)…

Δηλώνω, ευθαρσώς, ευτυχής που διαψεύστηκα στην προκειμένη περίπτωση. Μολονότι το βιβλίο αυτό φέρνει το ανείπωτο βάρος της αφρο-αμερικανικής κληρονομιάς του, δεν στηρίζει στο γεγονός αυτό την αξία του. Δεν εκμεταλλεύεται το θέμα του για να επιβληθεί στον αναγνώστη -εκείνον που προσέρχεται απεκδυόμενος την εσθήτα του οπαδού/ ιδεολόγου/ πιστού εγκόσμιας ή υπερκόσμιας θρησκείας. Τουναντίον η συγγραφέας κυριαρχεί με τρόπο άξιο θαυμασμού στο υλικό της, ενώ "περισσότερη τιμή της πρέπει" δεδομένου πως γράφει για γεγονότα και καταστάσεις φανερά επίπονες, για τραύματα και πληγές χαίνουσες που έχουν αφήσει το ανεξίτηλο στίγμα τους στη ζωή του λαού της.

Επίμοχθο έργο να μιλήσεις και να περιγράψεις τον ζόφο όντας εντός του, να καλλωπίσεις τη φρίκη με λογοτεχνικό περίβλημα, να μην αφήσεις το συναίσθημα να κατακλύσει τον λόγο (το βασικό μειονέκτημα των ησσόνων γραφιάδων), να παρακάμψεις την ευκολία που προσφέρει η εύκολη ταύτιση του παθητικού αναγνώστη με την πορνογραφική περιγραφή του φυσικού πόνου, το οφθαλμόλουτρο που περιλαμβάνει το βασανιστήριο, το οποίο τέρπει δια της αποστροφής που υφέρπει στα βάθη. Εκεί που ένας κατώτερης αξίας συγγραφέας θα στεκόταν με κοντινές λήψεις στη φρίκη, αναλύοντας διεξοδικά τον πόνο και τα αποτελέσματά του για να υποκλέψει το δάκρυ, την οργή, την αγανάκτηση ή την ενοχή του αναγνώστη, η Μόρισον αλλάζει πορεία προς άλλους, ακραιφνώς λογοτεχνικούς λειμώνες.

Παγώνει τη δράση τη στιγμή που επίκειται η έκρηξη, στομώνει το μαχαίρι όταν έχει ήδη καρφωθεί στο ασπαίρον σώμα, παίρνει (παρέα με τον αναγνώστη) βαθιά ανάσα και την κρατάει ώρα όσο το σώμα ασφυκτιά κάτω από το παγωμένο νερό, αναζητώντας εκείνη τη λύτρωση που επίκειται αλλά δεν έρχεται, την κραυγή που δεν βγαίνει παρά ως υποτονθορυσμός, την κορύφωση που ματαιώνεται διαρκώς. Η συγγραφέας δεν καλλιεργεί την ένταση σελίδα τη σελίδα, δεν κλιμακώνει τη στιγμή, δεν ωθεί στην κορύφωση τη δράση. Διακόπτει συνεχώς τη χρονική ροή της αφήγησης, με μικρά άλματα στο παρελθόν, ανασύροντας τραυματικές αναμνήσεις, τις οποίες χρησιμοποιεί λογοτεχνικά με τρόπο καθηλωτικό.

Ο αναγνώστης έρχεται σταδιακά σε επαφή με την ιστορία της πρωταγωνίστριας Σήθ, της κόρης της Ντένβερ και του δολοφονημένου από τα χέρια της ίδιας μάνας της Αγαπημένης, το παρόν και το παρελθόν εναλλάσσονται, με σποραδικές εκρήξεις χαμηλής ισχύος, με μικρά θραύσματα αποκαλύψεων που δεν γίνονται "μετά βαΐων" εν είδει θεαματικής αποκάλυψης, αλλά εμφιλοχωρούν στη ροή της αφήγησης - σταδιακές μικρές κλιμακώσεις, σαν πιτσιλιές αίμα σε λευκό καμβά.

Ο τρόπος αυτός αρμόζει άψογα στο καλλιτεχνικό όραμα της Μόρισον, καθώς της επιτρέπει να προσφέρει σε βάθος ό,τι "χάνει" από την πρόσκαιρη ηδονή της έντασης που κορυφώνεται μεν στιγμιαία, ξεθυμαίνει δε ταχύτερα. Τουναντίον, η περιοδική αποκάλυψη, αυτά τα ψήγματα ωμού ρεαλισμού, ο υπομονετικός αναγνώστης τα νιώθει μέσα του ως μαχαιριές σε μη ζωτικά σημεία και όχι ως καίρια θανατηφόρα πλήγματα, τα οποία τον αφαιμάσσουν αργά αλλά σταθερά, επιτρέποντάς του να φτάσει αργά και οδυνηρά στο τέλος, καθώς η συγγραφέας αποφεύγει επιμελώς το coup de grâce που θα τον λυτρώσει. Η αίσθησή μου ήταν πως η Μόρισον -εκούσια ή ακούσια δεν μπορώ να το γνωρίζω- επιθυμεί να "βασανίσει" τον αναγνώστη της. Αμβλύνοντας το ρεαλιστικό πλαίσιο, αποσκοπεί στη βαθύτερη συνειδητοποίηση του δράματος που εκτυλίσσεται μπροστά του, στην καταβύθισή του στο σκοτάδι της εποχής, των ψυχών, της φρίκης του "Homo homini lupus".

Εν τέλει, αυτός είναι ο τρόπος της λογοτεχνίας, της φέρουσας με υπερηφάνεια τον τίτλο αυτόν, εφόσον επιθυμεί να παραμείνει καίρια, επίκαιρη και κλασική, προσεγγίζοντας ένα κοινό πέραν του χώρου και του χρόνου όπου συντελούνται τα επί της σελίδας δρώμενα. Διότι τι είναι εκείνο που θα υποχρεώσει τον αναγνώστη του παρόντος και του μέλλοντος να αφιερώσει τον πολύτιμο χρόνο του σε ένα κείμενο, αν όχι η βαθύτερη τέρψη που προέρχεται από την αισθητική απόλαυση του αφηγηματικού ύφους του συγγραφέα; Η "Αγαπημένη" προτάσσει την καλλιτεχνική της υπόσταση στον παμφάγο χρόνο, υπενθυμίζοντάς μας συνεχώς πως πρόκειται περί έργου μυθοπλασίας, όπου όσα ιστορούνται αποτελούν κυήματα φαντασίας της δημιουργού του (σε αυτό βοηθάει ιδιαίτερα η παρουσία-φάντασμα της νεκρής Αγαπημένης) και όχι ρεαλιστική /ιστορική καταγραφή υπαρκτών γεγονότων.

Συμπερασματικά, η "Αγαπημένη" δεν είναι ένα έξοχο μυθιστόρημα διότι περιγράφει τα δεινά της σκλαβιάς και τις τραυματικές επιπτώσεις της, είτε μεμονωμένα στις ανθρώπινες ψυχές είτε στο συλλογικό φαντασιακό μιας ολόκληρης χώρας. Ούτε βέβαια διότι τοποθετεί στο στόχαστρο τη διπλή (και ιστορικά τεκμηριωμένη) φρίκη τού να είσαι σκλάβα και ταυτόχρονα γυναίκα σε έναν ρατσιστικό και ανδροκρατούμενο κόσμο που σε καταφρονεί και για τις δύο σου ιδιότητες.

Η "Αγαπημένη" αρδεύεται και με τη σειρά της τροφοδοτεί τον μέγα ποταμό της λογοτεχνίας, χάρη στον ιδιαίτερο, αυθεντικό τρόπο αφήγησης της Μόρισον. Από τον πηλό της πραγματικότητας, του βιωμένου δράματος, πλάθει έναν απόλυτα φανταστικό, μαγικό κόσμο όπου το όνειρο, η δράση, οι χαρακτήρες διαλέγονται με τον αναγνώστη, όχι υποβάλλοντάς του ιδέες και απόψεις, αλλά βυθίζοντάς τον στην κινούμενη άμμο της αφήγησης. Κι αυτή είναι μια απόλαυση σπάνια και πολύτιμη, την οποία δεν θα μπορέσουμε να ξεπληρώσουμε ποτέ στη συγγραφέα.

https://fotiskblog.home.blog/2020/03/...

Beloved me ha sorprendido en todos los sentidos. Me esperaba una obra dura sobre los horrores de la esclavitud pero es más, mucho más que esto. Es una novela con un realismo mágico desgarrador e inquietante, una nebulosa historia altamente exigente, cargada de simbolismo, sufrimiento, lagunas, remordimientos y preguntas sin respuesta. Beloved es una obra rara, oscura, parcial, imprevisible, que te desconcierta, te desasosiega y te conmueve a partes iguales.

Cuando los ojos se os acostumbren a sus insondables tinieblas podréis vislumbrar, entre otras, la sombra difusa del crimen de una madre para salvar a sus vástagos de una vida privada de libertad, la sombra tímida de una joven que ha crecido en la melancolía perenne de una casa encantada por un fantasma del pasado y la sombra paciente de un hombre que lucha con las pocas fuerzas que le quedan para introducir algo de mañana en un corazón cansado y atado al ayer por las raíces de un árbol de cicatrices.

n  Vídeoreseña completa aquí.n

3.5 stars

A piercing and poetic examination of slavery and its aftereffects. Beloved centers on Sethe, a woman born into slavery who manages to escape - but at a great cost. Among many traumatic memories, her fear-laced decision to kill one of her own children haunts her the most. Now, 18 years later, the ghost of this deceased baby comes back to haunt Sethe, as well as all of the still-living people she loves.

Toni Morrison tackles so much in Beloved: racism, trauma, slavery, family, the supernatural, and more. She creates a harmony between all these components of her story by crafting rich, detailed characters who push the plot forward. Morrison puts great thought into her characters and what each of them represents, both within the book and within history. Her voice and intelligence speak through Sethe, Paul D, Denver, and more, giving Beloved a subtle yet powerful emotional intensity.

Out of the many topics Morrison raises in Beloved, I most appreciated her dedication to addressing the abuses of the past, as well as what it takes to love and be loved. She handles trauma in such a deep and thought-provoking way, honoring her characters' pain while giving readers just the right amount of hope. With tenacity and heart, she also approaches the challenge of loving and being loved after an experience as brutal as slavery. Morrison provides no easy answers, just emotions and questions to push us further in our own search for truth.

Overall, a great book, even though I did not enjoy the magical realism much. I have an intense final for my Social Protest Literature course coming up in a few days, so I look forward to submerging myself in Morrison's prose for the next 72 hours. I would recommend Beloved to those interested in slavery, family, or just reading one of America's most celebrated and influential authors.

RIP, Beloved Toni Morrison! You changed the way I read!

Sometimes reality is too painful to address in plain, simple narrative.

Sometimes truth has to be approached in circling movements, slowly getting to the heart of the matter through shifting, loosely linked stories that touch on the wound ever so lightly, without getting too close too fast.

Sometimes I read to escape my reality, only to find myself in a universe endlessly more complicated, more painful, more difficult to understand and follow.

Sometimes basic statements like "I could never understand why a mother would kill her child" seem to dissolve, leaving a confused feeling of not knowing exactly anymore what is right and what is wrong, given specific cruel circumstances.

Sometimes novels shake me and leave me scarred, endlessly sad and grateful at the same time.

Beloved Toni Morrison. Your voice sounds loud and clear through the fog of political thought. Your characters live and breathe and DO NOT ALLOW FOR simplistic explanations.

If you want to know what slavery does to people, read Beloved.

It will not leave you unaffected. It left me speechless.

DNF@43%.

I was unable to connect with the characters or perhaps this is not the right time for reading such bleak books.

My first experience with a Toni Morrison novel makes me feel like I've done my brain some good. Beloved is one of those special books that always crops up in conversation amongst bookish friends, "you-need-to-read" lists, and bookstore employee recommendations. Plus, some of the authors of my favourite books of the past few years cited Morrison as a key influence. So, as the second instalment in my 2020 read-a-Pulitzer/month challenge, Beloved was the obvious choice.

First, it's impossible not to acknowledge the moving and disturbing content of this book. Its premise, in brief, is that former slave Sethe kills her infant daughter in order to prevent her from being captured by a slave hunter. This isn't made immediately clear in the story, but is hinted at and slowly revealed over the course of the novel. The book then alternates between Sethe, her living daughter Denver, Sethe's love interest Paul D, and a rotating cast of other characters who play small and large roles in the story.

As the main character's POVs change, so too does their place in time. Though Sethe, Denver, Paul D, and, eventually, Beloved spend most of the book's time in Cincinnati, Beloved is more concerned with the past informing that present. There's any number of indignities that these poor characters suffer by white hands, and some of the chapters (Paul D in the chain gang stands out) are written so powerfully that my attention was rapt throughout. Unfortunately, those accessible and moving passages are few and far between.

Indeed, most of my reading of Beloved sent me to the internet regularly to make sure I was picking up what Morrison was putting down. Though there's a lot of beautiful writing to be had, a lot of the book's sentences and paragraphs left me confused and slightly disoriented. I can admit that this might be the novel's aim, but I started to get a bit frustrated deciphering what was metaphorical speak and what was a plot point that might get expanded upon in subsequent chapters. It's the type of book that made me wish for a university class to help guide me through or a book club with whom to discuss it all.

Then, as the book gears up for its final 100-or-so pages, the obscuration and poetic sections ramp up. There's a chapter from Beloved's perspective that is written in these fragmented, oddly spaced paragraphs that was entirely lost on me. Of course, a quick turn to SparkNotes (which I haven't used since high school) helped to clarify what was going on, but I still felt as if I were being given the run-around and that there were easier ways to convey that same info and still keep on with the poetic language. It was in this later half of the book that I felt like I was doing just as much reading online as I was between the pages.

I've written about this before, but when I'm reading a challenging novel it all comes down to nailing that challenge-to-reward ratio. Is the writing in service of a plot device, an attempt to reveal a character's inner being, or a clever way to disguise what's coming? There's bits of all of that in Beloved, but it didn't hit me in the same way that a Marlon James, N.K. Jemisin, or Jesmyn Ward novel could. It also felt like so much more work than those aforementioned authors who often capture me with their voice in the span of sentences. Ultimately, it makes Beloved an experience for which I have a ton of respect, but not one that blew me away in the way I was hoping.

This is the second book in my 2020 Pultizer Challenge