I don’t think the point of Beloved is to ask whether Sethe is justified, but whether it’s understandable that she >!kills her own child.!< In fact, I think the point might be to force readers to ask themselves whether they can still have compassion for a person who does that, if that person’s circumstances are desperate enough.

Yeah, I did a double take at that. It’s a book about the evils of capitalism, OP. You might want to re-read it.

Yes! Once you know he was young, it becomes more obvious on a re-read, since he really went ham on the prose, which is what younger/newer writers tend to do until they internalize the old adage “less is more.” But he was so good with his prose in The Last Unicorn, I don’t mind. :)

It’s so wonderful on so many levels. And he was like 23 or 24 when he wrote it. It’s rare that you find a writer that young who understands character and story so well.

The Last Unicorn is one of my all-time favorite books. Absolutely beautiful prose, sensitive character work, and (in the character of Schmendrick) a pitch-perfect depiction of what it’s like to be at the mercy of artistic inspiration.