Race and the American Novel Part 2 Blog 3

In the Barnes and Noble reader review section the first comments I looked at were the highest and lowest rated. I found that these reviewers were the most unhelpful. The ones with the lowest ranking did not usually leave an actual comment and if they did it was usually just one sentence that stated how they disliked the book. I found the most honest and useful comments to be those with two to four ranking out of five because these people for the most part gave their true opinion and put some effort and thought it. One of these comments was by theokester who said, “Overall I had a hard time with this book. (…) often taking itself in circles and leaving me confused. Still I found the story very interesting and thought provoking” (Barnes and Noble). She goes on to say, “Even the ‘good’ slave owners (of Sweet Home where Sethe ran from) were despicable and make me shrink in shame” (Barnes and Noble). I like how theokester put the word good in quotes because there is no such thing as a good slave owner. All slave owners are supporting slaver. I also thought theokester gave a true impression of the book because many times while reading Beloved I was also left feeling very confused, especially throughout the book when the point of view would shift or the setting would change without a clear warning.

On Goodreads I found it was interesting at how many more reviews they had compared to Barnes and Noble. The average rating was a 3.72 out of 5. So, I decided to focus on those that gave Beloved a 3 or 4. Most of them were very similar to one another, but I like what Terri commented saying, “The characters were very self-absorbed and disjointed, like ghostly memories without cohesiveness, which may have been the author’s intent” (Goodreads). When reading a book I never remember to consider what the author’s intent was when writing the novel. What did Morrison want readers to take away from reading Beloved? I think the disjointed characters was on purpose because it is more realistic, unlike some of the characters in Uncle Tom’s Cabin specifically Eva. These disjointed characters are more relatable unlike having perfect characters that don’t have flaws.

Finally, after reading a few recent reviews on Amazon the majority seemed to be either for or against the book without much evidence backing up what they had to say. One review that stuck out to me was from Alicia who said, “You have to read the whole book to understand what is going on…somewhat…it’s like Morrison was writing in riddles because at some points it wasn't clear as to who was talking and what they were talking about” (Amazon). I agree with Alicia that at the end of the book there are still many unanswered questions. This is kind of unsettling since you read the entire book trying to understand what is happening and who Beloved truly is and then after everything there are still no answers. I guess it leaves it up to the reader to decide what really did happen.

Works Cited

"Beloved." Amazon. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2015.

"Beloved." Barnes & Noble. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2015.

"Beloved." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 May 2015

          Morrison, Toni. Beloved: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1987. Print.