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Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.
Sethe, its protagonist, was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not ...
Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.
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.
"You can't go wrong by reading or re-reading the collected works of Toni Morrison. Beloved, Song of Solomon, The Bluest Eye, Sula, everything else — they're transcendent, all of them. You’ll be glad you read them."--Barack Obama
The way perspective shifts and changes between characters and over time
What age does Beloved behave at different points in the book and why? Does this necessarily change depending on who she is with?
Real world tie ins: how (if at all) did this book affect your view of historical slavery in the US? (Good things to look into: The 1619 Project by the New York Times)
If you're a club that likes to read books in parts rather than discussing the book in its entirety each meeting, here's my recommendation:
Beloved doesn't have named chapters. There are three parts of the book, though part 1 is the majority of the book.
Part 1: 195 pages
Part 2: 78 pages
Part 3: 39 pages
For that reason, I would split the book club into three or four meetings, but not at the areas the book necessarily breaks.
1. Read through "chapters" 1-7. There's a large plot point at the end 5, so you could stop there, but I find adding the second two helps your mind process it. I also think easing into the book slowly like this is a good way to help your mind adjust to the funky timeline in the beginning.
2. Read 8-18. This finishes out part 1 and is where the structure starts to become a little more clear.
3. Read all of part 2 and all of part 3. This is what my club did, since part 3 is relatively shorter than the other two. However, you could also do just part 2, and then save part 3 for a fourth meeting.
"Gorgeous & Poetic, an Breathtaking Club Pick"by HR B. (see profile)10/02/19
Morrison's Beloved is a truly phenomenal book for any group who wants to give themselves a challenge and an opportunity to grow as readers. As someone who grew up in the US, I was taught a s... (read more)
