Book Club #15 Recap: Beloved

Thoughts, quotes and further inspo on Beloved by Toni Morrison

This month, we spent a thoughtful and intimate evening discussing Toni Morrison’s Beloved, a book about slavery and motherhood inspired by a real story.

It was fascinating to see how different our expectations and experiences were, yet how we still agreed on some central things. We felt that Toni Morrison explores the characters’ experiences with racism and slavery with incredible nuance and depth. While some liked the story more than others, it is not a book that can leave you untouched. And then there are the moments of joy, balancing the heaviness. Some scenes are so heartwarming they might have been overly cheesy in a different story, but here, they just felt right.

Narratively, the story jumps between characters and timelines. For some of us, this was confusing at times, while others could not stop reading. Personally, I was drawn into the story at some points and constantly thrown out of it at others.

Beloved is also not a story that answers all questions clearly. Some unanswered questions lingered at the end, and for many of us, the character of Beloved hung somewhere between an actual ghost and a manifestation of trauma. Whichever it is, the story is haunted by her, like the characters are by their past, and the tension is palpable throughout the book.

Overall, we landed at a group rating of 4 stars, which is close to my 3.5-star rating. There was even one 5-star rating by Caroline, who described the book as “genius” and “masterful”. Whether we enjoyed it or not, it was a great book club book and certainly a classic we appreciated.

Highlights from our discussion

We had a lot of praise for Toni Morrison and could definitely understand why people still reach for it today:

Masterfully written.

I think it’s just a book everyone should read.

This is a level of nuance that only Toni Morrison can do.

Still, there were some struggles and some of us might recommend you pick up something lighter as a companion to read while making your way through Beloved:

I couldn’t be scared, because I was still confused.

While I read this, I was also reading a cowboy romance.

Favorite quotes from the book

⭐ Today is always here,” said Sethe. “Tomorrow, never.”

⭐ It never looked as terrible as it was and it made her wonder if hell was a pretty place to.

⭐ He would keep the rest where it belonged: in that tobacco tin buried in his chest where a red heart used to be. Its lid rusted shut.

⭐ He knew exactly what she meant: to get to a place where you could love anything you chose-not to need permission for desire-well now, that was freedom.

⭐ It was lovely. Not to be stared at, not seen, but being pulled into view by the interested, uncritical eyes of the other.

⭐ We got more yesterday than anybody. We need some kind of tomorrow.

⭐ It was a new thought, having a self to look out for and preserve.

⭐ On nights when the sky was personal, weak with the weight of its own stars, he made himself not love it.

Holistic Reading

• 🎶 Like every month, we created a playlist for Beloved that we listened to during the book club meeting.

• 🎬 There’s a movie adaptation from 1998 starring Oprah Winfrey, directed by Jonathan Demme.

• 📖 Some of our book club members have read Toni Morrison’s debut novel, The Bluest Eye, and recommend it as a good first Toni Morrison book.

• 📚 If you liked the themes of community and the explorations of who is included or excluded in a community, you might also like our June Book Club pick, The Bandit Queens.

• 📰 Beloved is inspired by the real story of Margaret Garner. You can read more about it here.

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Have you read Beloved? Share your thoughts in the comments - we would love to hear them! And if you haven’t, there are still some copies left in the shop. We highly recommend you pick one up :)

If you’re looking for more cozy autumn activities, I recommend that you join this book club :) In November, we’re diving into Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Spots are already sold out, but you can set yourself on the waitlist and join our community channel on Instagram or WhatsApp for updates.

Keep reading and stay curious! 📚☕

Lina 🍄