Just finished reading Beloved by Toni Morrison.  This is a tough book to write a review for.  Depends on your definition of a ‘good book’ I suppose.  Sometimes I read a book and I can’t put it down.  I make the tea with one hand holding the book and reading (usually ends up with a burnt offering), or I miss my stop on the bus because I’m so involved.  Beloved is a different style of ‘good book’.  By that, I mean it stays with you for a while after you’ve finished reading.  You find yourself thinking about the story.  Some books are okay, you put them down and you never think of them again. But this book isn’t one of those.  To be honest, I found the writing style difficult to get into and certain elements of the book were just a bit puzzling but, that being said, I was determined to press on.  It probably took about 80 or so pages before I was into the story and hooked.  The story is set in the 1800s in Kentucky at the time when slavery was coming to an end and is primarily based on a character called Sethe.  Sethe was a slave and as the chapters unfold you discover her story.  It’s not a happy one for sure but I think it is one of those stories, told in such a way as to give you a real feeling for the impact that slavery had.  It’s a sad book, don’t know that I’d make it a holiday read!  But it definitely has a meaning in there.

Beloved