Beloved – a review

Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. And Sethe’s new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved. Filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement by Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison.

Beloved.

Beloved.

BELOVED.

Am I addressing you or am I so stunned speechless by the immaculateness of Toni Morrison’s prowess in this book that all I can do is repeat it’s title until you understand by pure osmosis how bloody brilliant this is?

Look, I didn’t think my entry into Toni Morrison would be a ghost story- which is wild cause even though the synopsis fully describes this as one I just didn’t believe it? I thought it would be some sort of metaphor but it isn’t. Maybe it’s because I always thought Toni Morrison’s work would be.. lovely and dainty (nothing to do with poltergeist children haunting their mothers), while still maintaining power. However it is none of that frivolous-ness I thought. Lovely and powerful maybe, but dainty, not at all. In fact, it is brutal to say the least. And exceedingly uncomfortable. For example, the way Morrison treats issues of murder, torture and rape is with respect but it is not with delicateness. She shoves those things in your face and forces you to see them in the ruthless casualness that they were done during that time period.

She couldn’t get interested in leaving life or living it.
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

Obviously, I have a lot to say about this book but I am not smart enough to say it. I am barely convinced I was smart enough to even read it. Not that I’m surprised. The book was written way back when by a genius of both her time and mine, how was I expecting to ever understand. There’s so many things that made little sense to me. There’s two whole chapters towards the end that literally read like a fever dream from an actual ghost. Mix, the writing was not at all straight forward. If you like linear narratives that are easy to follow, this book is definitely not for you.

Before and since, all her effort was directed not on avoiding pain but getting through it as quickly as possible. ― Toni Morrison, Beloved

Still I got the gist. Stripped to it’s bare bones, it is a simple story really. It follows a family that’s on it’s fringes: There’s a dead and holy grandma, (as alluded to) a vengeful baby spirit, who two sons have run from, a lonely daughter and a (crazy) mom. There’s also a man from the past, who performs a failed exorcism with his fists and tries to build a home there. It’s is a dysfunctional family if there ever was one, but what more can one expect from a time riddled with slavery and its aftermath.

In fact, I feel like this is a really really great exploration of how an oppressive system can have effects at a micro level – from individual to their family. The unimaginable thing our protagonist, Sethe (the crazy mom), does is a direct consequence of having lived the brutality of slavery. As much as the act itself is unspeakable – and you see that from how all the characters even tiptoe around the subject, not speaking it until the story demands they do – it does not feel unthinkable. There’s a sympathy that Sethe’s story brought out in me. It made me wonder what a mother will do to keep her children safe, even if it is the “unthinkable” – especially in the moments where you believe there are crueller fates than death.

“Tell me something, Stamp.” Paul D’s eyes were rheumy. “Tell me this one thing. How much is a nigger supposed to take? Tell me. How much?” “All he can,” said Stamp Paid. “All he can.” “why? Why? Why? Why? Why?”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

If you were to ask me if I blame her for what she did, the answer would be murky. If anything I blame the system that she was in, that broke her back and her spirit. However, I do not blame what everyone else thought of her either. I do not blame her community for excommunicating her. I do not blame her sons for running from her and the vengeful, spiteful ghost of their sister. I do not blame her living daughter Denver for fearing for her life. And I do not blame Paul D, the man who fought the ghost, for leaving immediately after he knew the truth. Both Sethe’s actions and the reactions of those closest to her seem justifiable to me.

“Let me tell you something. A man ain’t a goddamn ax. Chopping, hacking, busting every goddamn minute of the day. Things get to him. Things he can’t chop down because they’re inside.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

And that isn’t even the half of it. It also explores a lot about memory and rememory, the role of community in catalysing loneliness and isolation, the burden of guilt and I guess the physical manifestation of trauma through generations. The ghost story could very well be a metaphor even if it isn’t with half the crap that happens in this under 300 paged book.

As you can see, there’s so much going on and Toni Morrison’s Beloved left me with a lot of thoughts to think about. It’s a solid 4.5 stars, half a star shy away from a 5/5 not for any fault of its own, but of mine for failing to understand certain aspects of the writing and the story.

“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved