Well, this was a "spiritual journey" alright and a good read in October with Halloween looming. A glance into the "journey" (the word almost sounds too joyous) of a the slaves of "Sweet Home" Plantation. The novel was based in part on a true story of a slave named Margaret Garner and no doubt some of the punishments, escapes, etc. depicted were also based on true stories of what so many suffered.
No matter how often I read books about slavery I still cannot wrap my head around the fact that these people were treated like property, like chattel, that their souls and their humanness were ignored, disregarded and more often than not beaten out of them.
Beloved focused on the story of Sethe who obtained freedom from slavery in Ohio, but was never free. "Haunted" by a spirit that becomes more than an upset soul. Beloved was written a bit like a mystery novel that kept you guessing, even till the end leaving some of it up to the reader's interpretation. With volleying back and forth between the past and present, you learned more about each of the characters and their struggles as you tried to understand the choices primarily that Sethe made and how it affected her and those around her.
Quotes: "In Ohio seasons are theatrical" Each one enters like a prima donna, convinced its performance is the reason the world has people in it....summer had been hooted offstage and autumn with its bottles of blood and gold had everybody's attention."
"It was lovely. Not to be stared at, not seen, but being pulled into view by the interested, uncritical eyes of another."
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