Too obtuse.

I really struggled to finish this book, it just seemed unnecessarily complicated. I read it for a book group and managed to get the gist of most of the book through the discussion, but if I'd been reading it alone I would almost certainly have abandoned it.

I suppose you'd call it a ghost story as Beloved died as a baby. She lives as a spirit in the house occupied by her mother, grandmother, brothers and sister. When the boys leave and the grandmother dies, we are left with just Beloved, her mother and sister. Beloved's presence becomes more and more real as time passes, until we are led to believe that she is actually living in the house.
Meanwhile the story recounts the events that lead up to the family occupying the house. They were originally slaves and the experiences they have had are, at times, quite traumatic. Unfortunately I was not always quite sure exactly what was going on, where the baby was born, what happened to her father etc.

I was sorry that this book was not more readable as the problems encountered when given their freedom are every bit as interesting as the struggles of the slaves while in captivity. I would have liked to have enjoyed this and learned from it.

I had previously read Sula by this author and only rated it 2* (out of 5). I doubt I shall read any more Toni Morrison.

From Amazon:
It is the mid-1800s. At Sweet Home in Kentucky, an era is ending as slavery comes under attack from the abolitionists. The worlds of Halle and Paul D. are to be destroyed in a cataclysm of torment and agony. The world of Sethe, however, is to turn from one of love to one of violence and death - the death of Sethe's baby daughter Beloved, whose name is the single word on the tombstone, who died at her mother's hands, and who will return to claim retribution.

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This is a book that I seem to have multiple copies of!
I am sending this off to Mr Mustard as part of the Wish List Tag Game.
I hope you enjoy it :)

Thank you so much for sending me this book. I too am 'having' to read it, for a creative writing course. I hope I get on better with it than you did.

Well, I got out of reading it for the creative writing course, but I got round to reading it eventually. I have to say, I really didn't get on with it at first. Then suddenly, possibly about a quarter of the way in, something just clicked and I realised how brilliant it was. Maybe it was just going with the flow and letting the language flow over me rather than worrying too much about understanding everything, I don't know. Whatever it was, I'm glad it clicked because, despite the incredibly difficult subject matter, this is a beautifully written book. It's beautiful writing about some very, very ugly things.

In the LFL.