Beloved

by Toni Morrison
List(s):"Beyond Carp 100"
Category: "Fiction - General"
Pages:325
Year of Publication:1987
Date Added:08/23/2026
Date Read:08/26/2026
Notes:Sethe escapes from slavery to Cincinnati with her four children and goes to live with her mother-in-law. When the guy who owned her and abused her arrives with the sheriff, she tries to kill her children so they won't have to suffer what she did. She only manages to kill one of them and is put in prison. When she gets out, the ghost of the dead baby haunts the house where Sethe lives with her daughter, Denver. Paul D, a fellow-slave, arrives and shacks up with Sethe. He wants no part of the ghost, so he chases it out of the house. It returns, this time in the form of a girl the age she would have been if it hadn't died, calling herself "Beloved." Soon, Paul D is chased away. Eventually, Sethe realizes the girl is her dead daughter. She tries to make up for what she did by giving in to the girl's demands. Sethe soon loses her job, and the three women are starving to death. Denver realizes she needs to take steps. She goes to find food, then finds a job. The ladies in the neighborhood come to exercise what they think is a demon. Beloved is chased away, and Paul D moves back in to take care of Sethe who is pretty much an invalide. Denver finds work and makes something of herself.
My Rating: 4

Reviews for Beloved

Review - Beloved

Well, let's see. All whitepeople (that's how they're referred to), are evil. Men only want sex, and if they can't have it with women, they have it with cows, apparently. The story jumps all over the place, with flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks. With each new paragraph, you have to try to figure out who's talking and when the narrative took place. There are pages of nonsensical stream-of-(I hesitate to call it) consciousness. There are sections that involve characters that don't have anything to do with the main story.

I refuse to believe anybody likes this book. Those who claim to like it must think it makes them look enlightened. This book isn't enlightening, it's just wallowing, and poorly written wallowing at that.
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