I am Beloved and she is mine.

Oh, Beloved. Where do I start?


I have tried to read Toni Morrison once before... in high school. I thought at the time that I just wasn't mature enough to read her writings. Now at the budding age of 28, I am still not sure if I am mature enough to read her writings. I have come to the conclusion that Morrison is what I would consider an earthy writer, covering topics I would consider best left behind closed doors.

With that said, though, I really enjoyed this novel.

Beloved, winning the Pulitzer in 1988, is the tragic story of Sethe, a runaway slave. Her life was never easy before or after she obtained her freedom.


When first introduce to the dwelling of 124, you understand that something spiritual dwells there besides Sethe and her surviving daughter, Denver. Sethe's sons have since run away due to the somewhat antagonistic spirit. Within the first couple of chapters, Paul D, a fellow slave from Sweet Home, finds his way to her door, and this is when life really changes for the residents of 124.

Sethe and Paul D bond over a shared past of slavery, torture, and eventual freedom. However, Beloved, the ominous spiritual presents, cannot allow Sethe to move passed her death, to love anyone other than her, or, quite frankly, to be happy. This is when a unknown woman shows up at the home of 124. She calls herself Beloved, but she cannot remember where she came from or where she found her new clothes. All she knows is that, "I am Beloved, and she is mine."

After Beloved's arrival, Paul D is driven out of the house, Sethe secludes herself in her delusional bliss and her true past is revealed. However, much like Ghostbusters, it does have a happy ending. Beloved is sent back from whence she came and if forgotten. There is rumor that she is an escaped slaved whose owner was found murdered awhile back and is a plausible alternative. It is left to the reader to decide.

While it was a good story at the core, I would have felt more comfortable had certain details be left to the imagination. I have a pretty vivid one on my own. Mothers beware if your kids are asked to read this in middle school or high school. If I read another book by Morrison, it will several years from now, when I have read everything on my bucket list.

Up next, Ironweed by William Kennedy, winner of the Pulitzer in 1984.

Until then... Happy reading.

The Road...

Once a upon an Armageddon Week on Discovery, I learned something devastating. We consider the human race to be a civilized, mostly caring group of folks. However, when everything is stripped away, you don't have to go very deep to find we are not that much different from the animals. Can this really be true? I don't like to think about such things, but in reading this book one doesn't have much of a choice.

Cormac McCarthy's The Road won the Pulitzer in 2007 and, in true Pulitzer fashion, was made into a major motion picture in 2009. I was hoping that reading this novel would redeem my opinion of McCarthy as a writer. Until now, I have only read two of his works: Child of God and All the Pretty Horses. I remember too much about Child of God (and not in a good way) and I remember very little about All the Pretty Horses. This one, however, I think I will remember for months and years to come. It will haunt me as I lay awake at night, my thoughts unwilling drifting to the post-apocalyptic chaos that possibly awaits us.

The Road is about a man and his son (they could be any man and child for they are not given a name) walking down the road to the coast after a seemingly global apocalypse. Trusting no one in this dog-eat-dog world, father and son sneak through the day, scavenging necessities from wherever they can. Also on the road are bands of carnivores, searching for their next meal.

Pull the civil band-aid off humanity, and you find the basic need to survive. By any means necessary. Even the "good guys" (here the father and son duo) abide by Darwin's survival of the fittest, saving themselves instead of the lives of others. The toughest part of the book for me was a scene about halfway through in which the father and son enter a house looking for supplies and food. They stumble across a trapdoor in the floor and, after breaking the lock and entering, find a huddled mass of people, naked and cold. Waiting to die. Hoping to be rescued. A rescue attempt is impossible when the father sees the bad guys (for lack of better terms) returning to the house. They must choose. I hope I never find myself in a situation of similar terms.

Despite the depressing depiction of humanity, McCarthy does give a few glimmers of hope, glimmers of a world destroyed but not defeated (as Michener would say). One of my favorite moments in the book is when the father puts the boy in the grocery cart they use for storage and runs up and down the hills of road with him. The boy feeling the exhilarating breeze of speed and childhood on his face.

How does this book end you ask? Is there salvation at the coast? Well, my friends. I can't say. McCarthy left the ending so ambiguous, the reader can interpret it how he chooses. Honestly, it comes down to whether you are an optimist or a pessimist. Is there hope? Or are we all doomed in the end?

For me... there is always hope.

Up next, Beloved by Toni Morrison, winning the Pulitzer in 1988.

Actually, if I was honest, I would tell you that I have already finished Beloved and that I am slightly behind on my blogging. And if I was really honest, I would tell you that I am taking a quick detour from the Pulitzer list to read The Last Novel by David Markson. But I will keep that to myself lest you think my resolve is weakening.

Until then... Happy reading.