Beloved

Wow. What an emotional ride. This is a haunting tale of Construction Era Cincinnati and the lives of former slaves there.

It's been a long time since I've gotten choked up reading fiction, but in one page towards the end, all the intensity (and boy was it intense) culminated in one giant emotional punch. I was engrossed the whole way; Morrison has such a talent for narrative, dialect, magical realism, and complex but relatable characters. Her style is so inimitable, and I loved the way that psychological deluges were complimented with fairly straightforward dialogue, and how the past was revealed slowly through the story-telling of others, too painful to be directly recounted by thos who loved it. I loved it but wow. Need a palate cleanser after that one. Real heavy.