Reader Response: Beloved

This was the first book we read in class that I absolutely could not get into at all. I found it extremely difficult to read the book. There was very little dialog in the book which made it read very slow. Most of the action that took place in very long, detailed, yet vague paragraphs. None of the book was written in straight out English so much of the action had to be inferred or interpreted and there were so many illusions it was difficult to know what was happening and what was not. I found the history of the book to be interesting. They tell many tales of the cruelty of slavery, not only the physical abuse but also the sexual and psychological abuse. In the years following the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves, times were very difficult if not impossible for the newly freed slaves. I never knew the extent of the struggle that these freed slaves went through in order to be free. It was a very good historic story, but the style of the writing and the overall telling of the story made it very difficult for me to get through. I also rented the movie and am watching it now and seeing it has actually made it much easier to understand. All things considered the book had many good properties but was just written in a language that was very tough for me to understand, which greatly tainted my opinion of the book.