I have been looking for a novel that is not as challenging as Beloved to use in my American Studies class. Morrison's novel is so rich in language and image and provides an incredible number of unique insights into the experience of slavery and the impact of slavery on people, black and white, slave and free. So that is a lot to replace. I am not sure I will end up replacing it in the end, but reading several other options is a good exercise. So I'll start with that point: Dessa Rose is a good option to replace Beloved. Published just a year before Beloved, this novel touches upon many of the same themes: the dehumanization of slavers and the enslaved, the complexity of relationships among people who were enslaved, race relations among freedpeople and sympathetic whites, and the specific experiences of women/mothers in slavery. In the case of Dessa Rose, this last point is clearly an emphasis of Williams, whose two main characters' process of conflict and coming-together reveals to them and to the reader how an understanding of our common humanity can help people recognize the pain and wrongness of slavery as well as a way to heal from it.There are many similarities between Williams' Dessa and Morrison's Sethe. Both loved and lost a man of their choosing; both had a child by that man; both escaped slavery while pregnant; both were in prison after committing a violent act; both begin to heal when sensitive men enter their lives and reverse the meaning of their scars. Dessa has mental and physical scars as painful as Sethe's, and these are, I think, essential to the discussion of slavery. The scars represent not only the brutality of the slavers but the memory and legacy that has to be acknowledged and dealt with for the nation to move on. As I mentioned earlier, Williams provides a storyline for healing of individuals within the community of former slaves, between blacks and whites, and also within individual whites. As such, the novel does not presume too much; it is based on true events and possibilities--and a lot of research. Some other differences worth noting:Morrison's book clearly is haunting. There are unforgiving memories embodied in the character of Beloved. There is an important emphasis on some of the worst violence within slavery: the mechanical devices like the bit and the brutal, public humiliation and even execution. There is also part of the book set during Reconstruction, with its particular brand of racial violence. The novel helps us to discuss so much of the promise and failure of Reconstruction.Another major difference is how each author includes the perspective and voice of white people. In Beloved, the reader is wrenched into that perspective at the center of the book, the moment the slavecatcher and Sethe's former owner arrive at 124 to reclaim her and her children. It's an incredible shock to be thrust into the hateful language at the moment of greatest crisis for Sethe and her family. It plunges the reader back into that reality, the deep immorality that allowed slavery to continue. Later in the novel, we get a smaller glimpse into the residual racism of the abolitionist Bodwin, as he considers his own fate since slavery times, riding back to the "house on Bluestone Road" after many years' absence. In Dessa Rose, Williams begins the book from the white perspective, and it is a multi-layered approach: the sentiments of one profiteering from slavery (though not a slaveholder himself), and two people who took the story of Nat Turner for themselves, Turner's contemporary and the recorder of his alleged story, Thomas Grey, and William Styron, who took liberties with Turner's story in the 1960s. This beginning is confusing because the character's intent and language are so tangential to the story the reader wants to understand--why Dessa is a prisoner. The reader only "hears" Dessa as he records her speech, and so she is trapped in the prism of his limited view of her humanity. This is frustrating! and I almost dismissed the book, until Williams relieved me of that frustration by switching to Dessa's voice. And just when I began to sense something of Dessa's story, she and I were swept away again, the unexpected escape from her jail cell abruptly reported by the initial white man's voice. The second part of the book began with a new and still more confusing white voice, this time a woman. But this time, the white person undergoes a psychological self-examination that serves as an extraordinary contrast to the other white person's perspective, one made even more sharp near the end, when these two white characters' now vastly different views on Dessa are described through Dessa's eyes. It is a satisfying reversal from the opening pages. Dessa Rose did not make me cry, as Beloved had and does each time I read it. But I still think it is quite powerful. From what I've read, Dessa Rose was met with critical acclaim, but clearly it has not gotten the same attention that Beloved did, so I wonder if the latter just eclipsed its predecessor. Dessa Rose certainly deserves more attention, and, I might add, a new edition is overdue.
Was into it in the beginning but it lost me in the latter part of the novel. It felt like it was purposefully slow and building to something but then the ending was rushed. Switch to first person was jarring. Ironically, for a novel primarily about characters the two main characters are pretty vague. Their relationship with each other is stagnant for a good chunk of the novel, but by the time they start to warm up to each other/become friends it takes place in the span of only 20 pages or so, which reduces the emotional payoff. I would've also liked to see Dessa interact with her child more. He's such an important part of the story but he's treated more like a prop and she spends more time thinking about her rivalry than she does her baby. That being said, writing is good, characters are interesting, and it doesn't shy away from horrific/risque topics. The depiction of slavery is terrifying but realistic. I also thought that having the white character come to recognize the system for what it truly is was a nice way of guiding the reader to the same destination. The switching between perspectives worked well here. Decent read, some excellent parts but ultimately a bit of a letdown for me.
What do You think about Dessa Rose (1999)?
I came here already really loving the musical, which is a perfect, solid adaptation of this book. Lynn Ahrens adapts this book so tenderly, with an eye for every single bit of the language here, and knowing the lyrics to the show, coming to this book is like visiting an old friend. That said, the language here is so perfectly wrought. Sherley Anne Williams weaves it into an easily-understood, authentic feel that slips between past and present with ease. All of the main characters are fully-formed, and I felt a connection with each of them in turn. This is a book I would recommend to anyone.
—Nicole
I read Dessa Rose about the same time as Morrison's Beloved. Between the two, my dreams were permeated with many vivid thoughts of my ancestors' survival. Dessa: "You know I'm shamed to say I didn't know this where cold weather come from, the north. That I'd never seed no real meaning in birds going south til Harker poointed it out to me. This is what I hoild against slavery. May come a time when I forgive--cause I don't think I'm set up to forget--the beatings, the selling, the killings, but I don't think I ever forgive the ignorance they kept us in" (157).Dessa: "Oh, we have paid for our children's place in the world again and again" (Epilogue).
—Shirley Hart
Lately, I've been reading a lot of books on slavery and even though we know the harsh realities of slavery, this book had a good ending and we all love a story with a good ending. The main character Odessa is accused of murdering her master and her life is only prolonged because she is pregnant. After the baby is born is when she will be hanged to death. During her time of imprisonement, a white writer is intrigued with her story and wants to write a book about her. Dessa, along with other slavery men and women, escapes and she ends up at a white woman's estate, whose husband had just left her and this is really where the book gets interesting. Of course, it gives you the daily life of the slaves, but it also shows you the softer side of humanity and that not all white people believed in slavery during the time of slavery. I'm so glad that Dessa has a second chance at life as she so deserves it going through all she had gone through with losing the love of her Life, a man named Kaine and then being beaten and scarred in the most intimate places of her body. She suffered horrible treatment at the hands of white men and women, but in the end it is a white woman who justifies her and saves her life. So, the white person gives life and the white person can take their life too. Too much power into one race of a person, but actually it was like that in real life and it's somewhat like that today. I enjoyed the read.
—Quiniece Sheppard
