Beloved: Pulitzer Prize Winner (Vintage International)

Toni Morrison has done it again, but when does she ever not do it?! In this book, she continues to expand on the topics of trauma, love, being desired, freedom, individuality, and identity in the black community. This story was well written, and I would say you'd have to pay very close attention because there are a lot of flashbacks, which may be confusing and triggering for the reader. Brava Lady Morrison.

Not quite sure what to write here.

It’s not possible to understand the experience of slavery.

But much as Arendt does for people living under Totalitarianism, Morrison takes a subject that is typically described physically - the inhumanity of torture and bondage, the number enslaved and killed - and pushes the reader to re-imagine that subject. Morrison focused instead on the psychological and emotional dimensions. She shrinks tragedy typically described in its scale (eg so many people places into bondage) and shrinks it into the minds of a handful of folks affected by it. And in doing so, she allows us to - just for a moment - imagine how people would react to being denied their personhood.

She winds up not just showing us that slavery was infinitely worse than we had the capacity to imagine, but at the same time shows us a bit about what it really means to be a person - and that it’s actually possible for people to take that quintessential person-ness away from each other and that people have really done that and that when someone does that to another person not only does the slave actually lose that core element of their humanity - and see their identity dissolve to devastating emotional and psychological effect - but the slave owner destroys their own humanity as well.

A haunting book that defies synopsis.

Five stars

Personally, I was not a fan of this book at all because I was confused majority of the time reading it. The transitions from the present to the past and between different characters didn't allow for a clear reader experience. The language and beautifully drawn out era and locations lend some credit to how good of an author Morrison can be. I will not discredit her but because of how this book came together as a whole It was difficult to enjoy.

Truly one of the best works of art of all time. Morrison is the epitome of gothic and horror. The eminent writer of her time and of fiction across the board. The characters were expansive, revealing, crying out to the audience. I cannot say enough good things about Beloved.

Hard read