Entertaining the Alien

35. Beloved, Toni Morrison

I don't think the full impact of this book has really hit me yet. Morrison never fails to just blow me away. I can't always even put my finger on why. Her writing is so subtle; she says things without really saying them, leaving clues in the corners about what she really means, letting the realization of the atrocities and wonders her characters experience slowly dawn on the reader.

What she writes transcends all genre. She writes spec fic, she writes mysteries, she writes historical fiction, she writes poetry; she combines it all and leaves me breathless. 'Magical realism' is far too simple to describe what she writes. She breaks all the rules, of tense, of point of view, of genre... she reminds us why these rules exist to be broken. She inspires me and she flings me into despair. If I ever end up half as good as her, I'll be brilliant.