"Beloved" is my first exposure to the work of Toni Morrison, and I am not really sure how I feel about her yet. The closest analogy I can draw is that "Beloved" reminds me of Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury," in that it isn't sequential, the characters are confusing, and half the time I'm not sure what is real and what isn't. I am just frustrated with the fact that I cannot just read the book and draw my own conclusions, I have to rely on the words of others, the movie, and the Internet to make sense of it all. Why is it that many "great" books are like this? It seems that the more difficult a book is to read and comprehend, the greater it is praised among literary critics.

On a different note, I liked "The Bean Trees" but I agree with Ginger's statement that there really wasn't much to analyze. I felt it was a fairly straightforward book. I really was at a loss in class discussion for something to talk about regarding it. I also agree with Mark's statement that the book fell short of trying to handle the secondary issues it dealt with. Teenage pregnancy, immigration, single parenthood, and poverty were all issues that could have been addressed more directly. Instead I feel Kingsolver took the easy route with her ending, choosing the "love makes a family" cliche instead of dealing with the other issues.