From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

Beloved (Beloved Trilogy, #1)

Toni Morrison

Start date: July 1, 2022

Finish date: July 31, 2022

Discussion: Classics Corner

Discussion leader: Mary Anne

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Classics Corner

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What Members Thought

Feb 08, 2008 Kecia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: pulitzer_prize, 1001-books, nobel_laureates, times_100_best, nbcca_finalist, banned-books, usa

I have long believed in ghosts, but not in the supernatual or paranormal sense. I believe ghosts are memories or what Toni Morrison names as "rememory." I heard on NPR this week a man say that he was the grandchild of slaves and when he went into the voting booth and cast his ballot for Senator Obama he saw his grandparents faces, rememory. I once went to Auschwitz in Poland and my friend said to me as we walked thru the sadness, "they are looking at us, they are in the flowers," rememory. I hav ...more

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Jul 13, 2007 Yulia rated it liked it

The best book of the past quarter century? Please don't tell me you believe that. The problem with the very question, what was the best book of the last 25 years, is that it leads authors and critics alike to consider not which great books were published in that period but which books spoke well of that time in history or of history on a larger scale, which a great book needn't do at all. And even when the vote wasn't for Morrison, the question encouraged votes for Roth and Updike, who are also ...more

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Dec 18, 2006 Courtney rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, amlit, awardwinners, pulitzerprize, nobelprize, classics

Beautiful, compelling, lyrical. Themes of love, loss, memory.

A novel about ex-slaves haunted by violent memories. Before the war, Sethe, pregnant, sent her children away to their grandmother in Ohio, whose freedom had been paid for by their father. Sethe runs too, but when her "owners" come to recapture her, she attempts to murder the children to keep them from captivity - she succeeds with one - Beloved. This murder will haunt Sethe for the rest of her life and affect everyone around her. ...more

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Oct 30, 2019 Warren rated it it was amazing

Realizing that I still know little of this issue, my eyes were opened wide to what it meant to be a slave.

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May 11, 2008 Pamela rated it it was amazing

I'd love to teach this book (along some other works, including Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher") as a great example of the American Gothic.
...more

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Mar 09, 2022 Venessa Johnstone rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Listened on Audio.. Toni Morrison reading.. Just WONDERFUL!!! based some what on fact.. it's a disturbing read and horrific look at slavery... ...more

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