Navigating Cruelty and Humanity: A Review of Beloved by Toni Morrison

Beloved by Toni Morrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was blown away. At times I felt confused by the narration (I wasn't sure who was talking in certain chapters) but overall, it was a very moving story. Slavery is a state that cannot be described without a breakdown or a madness of some sort (I think this accounts for the confusion that I felt as I was reading the novel). Colonialism is a state of slavery as well...under the guise of religious conversion or "benevolent" aid. So, in a way, I can relate to this story as part of my education of my colonial past (in context of my postcolonial state).

"White people believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a way . . . they were right. . . . But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place. . . . It was the jungle whitefolks planted in them. And it grew. It spread . . . until it invaded the whites who had made it. . . . Made them bloody, silly, worse than even they wanted to be, so scared were they of the jungle they had made. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own."

I don't know what real cruelty is like. This was a cruelty that defies explanation. The "whitefolks" in this novel is a race that does not know how to be human to other human beings of different color. The same race that came up with The Declaration of Independence....is also the same race responsible for this slavery. Paradox. Irony. Humanity.

"And if she thought anything, it was No. No. Nono. Nonono. Simple. She just flew. Collected every bit of life she had made, all the parts of her that were precious and fine and beautiful, and carried, pushed, dragged them through the veil, out, away, over there where no one could hurt them. Over there. Outside this place, where they would be safe."

And lastly, I view this novel through a mother's eyes. Would I be able to do what Sethe did? This was a different kind of "Sophie's Choice." But a choice nevertheless. A choice to go back to being a slave or to be free...even if that freedom is death. I don't know. I just count myself lucky (and blessed) that I do not have to make this choice at all. This novel shows me that what is deeply personal is also political...and what is political affects the deeply personal.

Definitely worth all my time and a must-read for understanding the journey of humanity.

View all my reviews

Behind the Burqa: On Hosseni's A Thousand Splendid Suns

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A friend of mine lent this book to me several months ago. It remained on my shelf for quite a while. I have to be honest. I didn't want to read about Afghanistan. But this same friend of mine told me a story from And The Mountains Echoed which left me in tears. Remember, she was telling me a secondhand fairy tale and the context for it. But even then, I was crying (actually we were both tearing up). When I told my husband the same story, my voice was cracking and tears were rolling down my cheeks involuntarily. If this secondhand tale was powerful enough to make me cry on recounting it...what more an entire novel? So that was when I plunged into A Thousand Splendid Suns. I was not disappointed.

Yes, it's about Afghanistan. But more than Afghanistan, it's about two women, Mariam and Laila. It's about two women who are brave and strong and unfortunately married to the same horrible man, Rasheed. It's about what two women will do for each other despite all the circumstances. It's about two particular women behind the burqa. It's about child brides and poverty. But it's also about the beauty of friendship and the redeeming qualities of love.

I read another review about how one-sided Hosseini is: Mariam and Laila can only do good and Rasheed can only do wrong. But the thing is...there are such men in this world. There is no explaining their cruelty. There is no explaining the cruelty of wars (and yet they go on). I loved the story telling and the characters. I loved all the little nuances that invests the reader in each character even if some of them are difficult to love. I didn't mind the Afghan words and dialects that were left in, it gives the narrative a sense of place, a sense of character.

There is a breathtaking scene in the book about the Buddhas of Bamiyan in the story. Don't miss it. It gives Afghanistan more cultural history and perspective. It was once a land where Buddhist monks lived (when it was part of the Silk Road). I didn't know that about Afghanistan. All I know of Afghanistan is war and the Taliban. How ignorant I am.

I'm glad I read this book.

View all my reviews

Little Cruelties and Little Kindnesses

by Justine C. Tajonera

Where you find little
cruel gestures like
a shove or a sneer
you also find the gentlest
of sympathies,
a touch on our wrist
to let you know
that there's space to sit
or an extra hand strap
to hang on to.

In the same garden
where the savage beasts
claw and tear,
majestic trees
outstretch their shade
and little networks
of quiet ants
build their kingdoms
out of mud.

(Nov. 17, 2009)

Image from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22And_the_palm_tree_nodded_to_the_mirror_in_the_jungle%22_--_winter_beauty_of_the_tropics,_Ormond,_Florida,_by_Underwood_&_Underwood.jpg