Beloved, Toni Morrison

Synopsis: Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, who died nameless and whose tombstone is engraved with a single word: Beloved.

"Anything dead coming back to life hurts"

'Beloved' was not what I expected. For one thing, I couldn't have been prepared for how devastating it was. It took me a while for me to gather my thoughts into something mildly coherent. Therefore this isn't really a review, just some of my reactions.

I was surprised by the 'magic realism' element, i.e. Beloved coming back to life (I know its ambiguous as to whether Beloved actually is that same child). I like ghost stories, not because I like being scared but because the appearance of a ghost is a good way for a writer to explore the living characters' relationships with the dead, and how the past connects to the future. In Rebecca, for example, Mrs. de Winter believing she hears Rebecca's ghost reflects her own anxiety about her predecessor. This quote from The Secret History sticks with me:

"There are such things as ghosts. People everywhere have always known that, and we believe them every bit as much as Homer did. Only now, we call them by different names. Memory. The unconscious." 

And memory is definitely a theme in 'Beloved'. How could it not be, with the narrative shifts between characters, times and places? This structure put me off at first, and I think its one of the main reasons people dislike the book. But if you're struggling with it, I'd say stick with it: the story comes together, and it makes sense for the narrative to be jumbled. Sethe talks about the concept of "rememory", which involves reliving the past. The past is unbearable for most of the characters,and they find various ways of repressing it, but it is never gone. Sethe warns her daughter Denver about "rememory" by telling her:

"if you go there--you who never was there-- if you go there and stand in the place where it was, it will happen again; it will be there for you, waiting for you. So, Denver, you can't never go there."

But part of Sethe's tragedy is that the past is undeniable. And Sethe does "go there" at the end of the novel, with catastrophic results which mirror the first tragedy.

Do you have any thoughts on 'Beloved'? I think its a very multi-layered novel, and I've only really touched on one element of that here, but if you have anything to add I'd be glad to hear it.

Bright Star

'Bright Star', the 2009 film by Jane Campion, explores the relationship between John Keats and Fanny Brawne. Having studied Keats in school, I wasn't sure whether the experience of his poetry was 'ruined' for me, but if it was, this film saved it. Not only are Keats' poems beautiful, but his love letters, some of which are used in this film, are also beautifully phrased. And of course there's the tragedy of his young death.

'Bright Star' is beautifully shot (see the pictures above) and it really stays with you after watching. I'm not sure if I've seen a film so inspired by art, which just adds another layer to the viewing experience. Usually I'm skeptical about films about writers; they can be terrible. But I felt like this film wasn't trying to be a truthful account of their relationship (it certainly wasn't realistic), but to portray something intrinsic about it in an artistic way, which makes sense considering the subject matter.

I particularly liked the soundtrack, which featured the actors reading some of Keats' poems. Heres Bright Star, the film's namesake.

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite
The moving waters at their priestlike
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death. 

What I've been reading

I've just finished two novels, so it feels like a good time to sum up my reading over the past few weeks.

• Possession, A.S Byatt 

This was a christmas present and a book I'd been really looking forward to. I had such high expectations (it won the Booker prize), although unfortunately I was disappointed. The modern day characters didn't interest me, the plot was formulaic and the poems were imitations. I can see why Byatt did this, but I found myself wondering why I didn't just read the poems she was mimicking. So thats one positive consequence- I decided to read some Victorian poetry.

• Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee

Disgrace is one of those books you are always being told you should read- and I can see why. I think people can easily be put off by the main character, disgraced professor David Lurie, but I don't think the point of the novel is to like him. Regardless Disgrace is very thought provoking about a whole range of issues, and strangely moving.

• Fingersmith, Sarah Waters

I suppose I have developed an affection for the Victorian period, so I decided to read Fingersmith, a sort of historical crime fiction novel. I thought the first plot twist was brilliant, and I like novels which show two characters' perspectives on the same story. But I felt like the rest of the novel was disappointing in comparison.

• The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House is a short novel about, as the title suggest, a haunted house. It was not as scary as I thought it would be, it was more a story of gradual descent into madness. I love the subtlety and ambiguity of Jackson's writing, although I prefer We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

• The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton

I had been meaning to read The House of Mirth for a long time, and I thought because of this it might be a chore to read. However I was presently surprised: it was much cleverer and more interesting than I imagined. It's not a perfect novel, but so many aspects of it are fascinating, and Lily's situation is so tragic.

• Burial Rites, Hannah Kent

Burial Rites tells the story of Agnes Magnusdottir, the last person to receive the death penalty in Iceland in 1828. Agnes is placed with a rural family awaiting her execution, and visited by a reverend. In the months leading up to her execution, Agnes tells her story. I really enjoyed this book, even though I felt the conclusion was a little weak. It really emphasised the importance of stories, and the Icelandic setting is particularly interesting to me.