Beloved

Hosted by Chris Piuma and Suzanne Conklin Akbari

I can forget that what I did changed Baby Suggs’ life. No Clearing, no company. Just laundry and shoes. I can forget it all now because as soon as I got the gravestone in place you made your presence known in the house and worried us all to distraction. I didn’t understand it then. I thought you were mad with me. And now I know that if you was, you ain’t now because you came back here to me and I was right all along: there is no world outside my door. I only need to know one thing. How bad is the scar?

As 2019 draws to a close, Chris and Suzanne remember Toni Morrison, who passed away this year, by reading Beloved. It’s a difficult book—and a difficult book to talk about—but also a beautifully and sensuously written book, and entirely worth reading. Your hosts explore what genre(s) the book is, how time gets wobbly, and the unexpected roles of food, as well as closely reading a few typically stunning passages.

Content warning: graphic violence, including the murder of a child.

22. Beloved.

The Spouter-Inn Toni Morrison's difficult and stunning novel Beloved. More episodes

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Show Notes.

Toni Morrison: Beloved. [Bookshop.]

An obituary for Toni Morrison.

That interview with Toni Morrison.

Toni Morrison: The Source of Self-Regard.

The essay from that book about Beloved.

An interview with Toni Morrison.

Next episode: Lee Maracle: Memory Serves.

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