Race and the American Novel Project Part II: Reader Response

Beloved is considered by many to be a classic piece of literature, and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1988. It is considered by many to be a deep, emotional, complex, and layered book. After looking over several reviews from the sites Goodreads.com, Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com, many people seemed to agree with this assessment. However, there were also a large amount that disagreed with this assessment, and found the book confusing, slow, boring, and the language too lofty. I personally agree with the latter reviewers.

The majority of the reviews that I read in regards to the novel were talking about the complex characters, masterful writing style, and unique and interesting plot. One reviewer wrote that it was “One of the most beautiful books I've ever read.” And other’s praise the writing style, one review saying, “Morrison’s use of words to describe events and characters in the book is gorgeous. I've read it numerous times and each time i fall in love over and over again.” Many reviewers also praised it’s realism in how it depicted the events of the lives of slaves and the horrors they went through. Overall, the majority of reviewers were extremely satisfied with the read, and even those who gave it average reviews still said that it was a good book, many simply citing the writing style and narrative as confusing.

There were those however, who thought that the book was not good at all. They said that it was drawn out, strange, uninteresting, confusing, and the writing was too abstract. “I found Beloved incomprehensible to the point of absurdity...For the story to grab me, I need to know what the story is,” wrote one reviewer. Another who read the book said, “It was more disturbing than I thought it would be, giving gruesome details on things that were depressing.” I thought it was interesting to view the contrast between these two types of readers, and to see that many of the reasons the novel is praised by those who enjoy it are the very same reasons that those who did not enjoy it criticize it.

I fall into the latter category of people. I am sure that I will get pushback on this, but I found the novel hard to get into. I found the writing style of Morrison to be rather dry and uninteresting, and extremely confusing. The constant shifting between viewpoints and times with little to no clues as to when it was happening was frustrating. The book was not all that interesting to me, and I felt the plot was thin and not intriguing. I agree with one reader that said that the book seemed rather pretentious. I thought story and writing style were very odd, and though I know it was trying to be realistic, I felt that the way the characters talked and how they thought was poorly written. With that said, I do see why people would praise a novel such as this, and I will admit that the character of Beloved and more specifically the supernatural elements of the story were some of the highlights. I had no problem with the graphic nature of the novel, as I felt it made a lasting impression of the horrors of slavery, although I did find it disturbing.

On the whole, the novel was mostly praised, and I think it will continue to be praised by many for a long time to come. Many see it as a masterpiece of literature dealing with complex issues and that it is still relevant despite the setting of the story. While I do agree that the novel is unique and interesting in some aspects, I simply did not enjoy it. I think part of it was my expectations upon hearing of the rave reviews were skewed and so because it was not what I was expecting I was disappointed. The novel was one that I am glad that I read for the sake of being more “cultured” so to speak, but not a book I will be reading again.