What did I miss in this book? "Beloved" - Page 2

GenXmuse · ‎05-15-2016

I couldn’t get into this one.

BirkiLady · ‎02-22-2015

@insomniac2 Joyful isn't what I expected from the entire story line, but I expected something positive out of the book. It was too dark and depressing for me, unless I missed something important in the author's gist of her writing. In dispair most people try to find positiveness. This book was bleak IMO.

Now I understand how people stop reading books they don't like. I should have done that about 58 pages into it. Instead, I pursued thinking it would become a remarkable read.

Money screams; wealth whispers.

BirkiLady · ‎02-22-2015

@kaydee50 I'm also way, way down (97) on the HOLD list for Educated. However, I know it's going to be about a very disfunctional family and still want to read it.

A good friend (who grew up in a disfunctional family) has recommended it. For her, I'll read it. She's survived a lot and still thought the book a a good read. She's an amazing person now. But it's taken a lot of counseling and a very, very good husband.

Money screams; wealth whispers.

Zernia Rose · ‎04-16-2011

I found Beloved quite complex, mystical, mysterious, but ultimately a fictive presentation of the effects of enslavement during and after it ended. Unlike the imagery found in Gone With the Wind, others of that ilk, or plantation tours, Beloved does not sanitize this “peculiar” institution. After reading the first few chapters, I was overwhelmed by the imagery, language, and power of experiences depicted. I put it aside because I felt as if I had entered the novel. Later, I finished the novel. I’ve read most of her novels and a few of her collections of essays; I marvel at the power of her ideas and use of language.

blueroses47 · ‎03-09-2010

I never read "Beloved", but I did read "The Bluest Eye" after hearing so many glowing reviews, and my cousin and her daughter both raved about it. I just didn't like it. I can take sad and depressing, but I think I just didn't care for her style. This was so many years ago, that the exact reasons I didn't like it are vague to me now.

I find it interesting how we are so different in our reading likes and dislikes.

Lots of times I will read something because it is so highly praised, and I'm so disappointed.

The last time this happened was last summer when I slogged through "For Whom the Bell Tolls", because John McCain had said in so many interviews that as a young boy he read this book and it changed his life, he was so taken with it. I was just so curious about it.

I took it along with me to the shore on our yearly vacation there, and I laugh when I say reading it almost ruined my week there. I finished it, but didn't care for it at all. I have tried other Hemmingway novels and I think I just don't like his style. They do adapt into good movies, though.