Book Review: Beloved by Toni Morrison

I started reading this book quite a while ago and it took me a lot of time to finish. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, I just don't stick to reading one book at a time and start reading any book that comes my way. Yes, I'm quite desperate like that. The disadvantage of this is that I rarely finish any book quickly. Secondly, I had taken a huge break from reading books that are not related to my MPhil thesis, although I wanted to do so very much. But because I had t discipline myself and read the ones that would help me write my thesis better, Beloved got really neglected. Now, however, I've submitted my thesis and can spend all my time reading whatever I feel like. So I just managed to finish this one and it didn't really took me that long  to finish after that. Enough about me now, let's talk about the book itself. 

It's a book about an African-American woman, Sethe, who used to be a slave and had had to escape her previous masters in order to live like a free human being. However, running away from her owners to get freedom is not an easy task for the heavily pregnant woman and she has to fight many obstacles in order to reach the safe haven. It is a story of torture and turmoil and it just breaks your heart. The novel narrates the story in flashback technique as Sethe is an older woman now and lives with her daughter, Denver, at their isolated little house. She starts to reminisce about her past even more when an old friend of hers and a previous fellow slave, Paul D, suddenly shows up at her place. Both of them fill each other in on their parts of the story of how they escaped Sweet Home, the place they used to slaves at. Sethe takes Paul D in as she bitterly misses companionship. It is revealed later on why she is shunned and even disliked by the black community. Things take an unusual turn when Sethe, Denver and Paul D find a strange girl at the bank of a lake while coming back home from a community gathering. This girl is unable to tell them who she is or where she has come from. The only information she is willing to give them is that her name is Beloved. Strange as it might be, Sethe and Denver agree to take the girl in and she begins to live with them like a family member. It is presence of this newcomer that compels Sethe to remember the details of her horrible experiences as a slave girl.

I don't want to spoil the book for anyone but would just like to comment on how it affected me and what I think about it. I found the novel extremely saddening. The gruesome details of torture that was inflicted on the blacks during the time of slavery just make you wonder how cruel mankind can be if it is allowed to exercise control over others. I also came to know about the tools of torture that were used to punish the dissident slaves and it just broke my heart. For example, I found out about the 'iron bit' that was inserted in a slave's mouth and tied around their head in order to stop them from eating anything for extended periods of time. I recoiled with disgust while reading about the "tree" on Sethe's back. This tree is in fact a maze of scars on her back that the schoolteacher, her previous owner, drew to show how Sethe resembles an animal. It just disgusted me to my core. This and the part where she hears him teaching his students to identify similarities and differences between herself and animals. There are many other traumatic things that she remembers about her past life but one I find the most daunting is the steps she takes to save her children from the clutches of the white men who came into her house to take away her small child. The details of that scenes are just too horrifying and it took me while to digest it all.

The novel itself is quite a different read. Different particularly because of the writer's style of writing. And also because different perspectives and viewpoints sometimes criss-cross with other. When I started reading the book, I found the style a little difficult to adjust to, but I'm glad that I stayed persistent and read the whole book. I feel like sometimes it's not about enjoying the story or getting entertained by the dance of words; sometimes it's more about being empathetic to someone story. I got know more about the menace of slavery from this book than I'd ever known previously. So, I'm glad that I got this book as a gift and that I took out time to read its hugely meaningful story.

That's all about this book! I'll see you very soon with probably another book review.

Until then, peace out!