When reading the reviews of Beloved on Amazon, there seemed to be a consensus that the book was amazing, but difficult to understand. One English teacher wrote that she reread the book eight times and at times it is still confusing do the switching and shifts of voice. I decided to filter the search of reviews by choosing to read the comments of those who gave the novel one star. One comment that I thought was the most one tracked minded was this; "Coudn't get past the first chapter. As a mother myself, the description of what this mother did was unbearable and I did not want to read further." I really want to tell this woman, haven't you ever been told don't judge a book by its cover. The same thing goes here. Don't judge a book by the first chapter. Have you ever read a book where all the answers to every problem were given in the first chapter? That would make for a really short book. This woman in my mind was not open minded when reading a book like a reader should be. The same thing goes for another comment, complaining that book was stupid and unrealistic from page one. "a diarrhea filled book." Again another unopened minded person reading a book.
Don't get me wrong I honestly, was not the biggest fan of the book either. But that is just because I am a terrible and lazy reader. I want to be able to read something and understand it, because it is easier for me to picture what I am reading as I am reading. It is a very complex book, as most the comments said, I would agree with it. It is unrealistic in parts, yes I would agree with that too. But it tells the story of the pain and suffering, it tells the unthinkable struggles the African Americans had to try and survive on a daily basis. It also told the story of the African Americans and their unconditional love as a community and family. That is what I loved about this book.
I agree that those people who said it was terrible from the start should have given it a chance. Reading one page or even one chapter is not a good sampling of the book at all. Although I personally did not like the book, I trudged through it and I can confidently say that that I did not like it, but I still gave it a chance. I agree that many of the topics were heavy and that the novel was hard to understand. Even though I personally was not too thrilled about it, I could see why people would like it. It's sad when people judge something, especially something so trivial as a book, without even really trying it. People should be more informed about the story, plot, characters, setting, ect. before making a decision on whether they liked or didn't like the book.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about what readers find unrealistic about the novel--especially since Morrison based the story on a historical case.
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