(Very battered, creased copy, but perfectly readable.) Apart from the interlude with Amy Denver helping to deliver Sethe’s baby, I only began enjoying this book in Part 3, quite near to the end. I can’t quite put my finger on the problem I had with the book, as I found it quite easy to get into, although I found it dragged throughout the long middle section. The tales of slavery are horrific, and it’s dreadful to think of human beings treated that way; and they are told from the perspectives of Baby Suggs, Sethe, and Paul D. so we can see how these things affected them personally, and changed their lives. We are told the stories to understand why Paul D. must always move on, and why Sethe is so proud, and how events led up to the death of Beloved.

It was only when I reached the final paragraph, that I realised I was supposed to see the ghost of Beloved as some kind of metaphor for slavery itself: “By and by all trace is gone, and what is forgotten is not only the footprints but the water too and what is down there. The rest is weather. Not the breath of the disremembered and unaccounted for, but wind in the eaves, or spring ice thawing too quickly. Just weather.”

This book is undoubtedly well written but on a personal level, although I appreciated the handling of the subject matter and the quality of the writing, I had no desire to analyse further the complexities of what I had just read, and I didn’t particularly connect with this novel on an emotional level. I suspect I may be in the minority to feel this way.

Ready for release - please PM me if you are interested in a trade.

Offered on Book Relay site (http://casualreader.net/bookrelay) under 'Prize-Nominated Author' relay...

Released at Silk Mill pub, at Meetup this evening...

Caught at the derby meetup - TBR