Race and the American Novel: Reader Response

I found most of the reviews to be very positive. It seems that Beloved touches many people on a personal level. Many of the responses were saying similar things, talking about how this novel is part of the American experience. One woman wrote: "That feels like a strange and dorky thing for me to say, but it's how I felt. Slavery is such an essential part of all our heritage that reading this treatment of it felt very personal, like listening to secrets about your grandparents" (Goodreads). Another review said, "It's 6 o'clock in the morning and I have finished with one of the best books I have ever read in the course of my short life" (Goodreads).
However, not all responses were positive. One reader had this to say about the novel: "I found Beloved incomprehensible to the point of absurdity. It's one thing to have a book that is full of magic and poetry or to have a character's passion overwhelm their ability to describe the world from time to time, but I also need to know what is going on. For the story to grab me, I need to know what the story is" (Barnes & Noble).

I find this kind of review insulting and interesting at the same time. At first I was upset by his response, but then I realized this is precisely the issue Morrison forces her readers to face in this novel. He continued on saying how much he hated the book because he could not understand what it was trying to convey. I think if he had a better understanding of history and took a deeper look into the underlying meaning of the story, he would have a different opinion. People judge and dislike what they cannot understand.