Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beloved by Toni Morrison was actually a reread for me, but I hadn't read it in about 10 years, so there were a lot of things I had forgotten.

A Pulitzer Prize winner from 1988, there is much to praise in this book. The storytelling is superb and the imagery and description are really well done. I did have a problem with the author changing voice in the second part of the novel. This happens abruptly and in the middle of a chapter. This is something I tell my writing students to avoid, and I am not certain what Morrison's goal was in doing this. Apparently, if she did have a motive it went right over my head, which is not something an author ever really wants. She stays in first person through several episodes before returning to third person after an episode break.

The story is of an ex-slave, Sethe, and her love of her children in spite of warnings from Paul D. to never love anything too much. The story takes place primarily in the 1870s with flashbacks to the pre-Civil War era. Sethe was on a farm in Kentucky, ironically called Sweet Home, along with 5 other slaves, all male. Sweet Home was unique in its treatment of slaves in that they were treated more humanely than other places. However, no matter how humane the treatment, Morrison is quick to point out that slavery is still slavery and there is nothing good that can come from it.

During the course of a story, a strange young woman appears on the trunk of an old tree one evening outside of Sethe's house. The story follows this young woman and the inhabitants of the house as they unravel her mysterious origins. Her name, Beloved, is the only information she gives them when she first enters the house.

The flashbacks Morrison employs are virtually seamless and flow really well with the rest of the story. Morrison paints a bleak picture of what post-Civil War life was like for freed and escaped slaves alike. 324 pp.