More specifically, I think that Beloved executed and incorporated its magical realism into the story much better than Exit West did. I’m not completely sure why (it’s more of an intuitive reaction), but here are a few reasons for what I think.
- Beloved sets up the magical realism better.
Right off the bat, the reader is introduced into a real world (1870s America) with fantastical elements (haunted house) – and those fantastical elements are limited and don’t detract from (rather, they add to) the author’s message. The reader immediately understands the setting of this world, that it is a mix between fantasy and reality. The author of Exit West, on the other hand, introduces only the real world at the very beginning, and the reader thinks of the story as realistic fiction. In fact, during that first “out-of-place” scene in Australia, I, still thinking of this book as adhering to realistic fiction, thought that the man was an intruder and the closet was just really, really dark. By the time the two main characters leaped through one of those doors, I still did not comprehend what was going on: I thought that the doors were metaphors for opportunities (as in the phrase “open the door to a world of opportunities”) to escape, like boats, planes, vehicles, etc. That’s because I had not been primed to understand that these doors were in fact magical, unlike Beloved which introduced fantasy elements right at its beginning.
2. Beloved better incorporates the magical elements into the story.
Beloved’s author weaves all of its fantastical elements – haunted houses, ghosts, blurred lines between life and death, magical powers – to drive the plot forward, to create mystery and suspense: what does Beloved want to do? Who is the baby? How do life and death work in this world? However, the author equally explores the real world through this story, weaving the magical and real elements together well. As for Exit West, it seemed like the author used the magical doors as a throwaway tool to accomplish the novel’s goal. The author didn’t incorporate nor weave the magical doors into the story nearly as well as Beloved’s author did. The times that Exit West did were in “throwaway” moments – those vignettes into other lives that went nowhere – and in a few moments in the main characters’ journey. Beloved’s magic, unlike Exit West’s magic as a surface-level tool, is woven deeply throughout its plot.
3. I’d like to talk briefly about the messages of the two stories.
I think that part of the reason that Exit West’s poorly-incorporated magical realism left a sour taste was because of the author’s way of getting across his message. In the latter half of the book, he started talking directly to the reader – preaching to the reader – rather than guiding a reader to an interpretation, a moral lesson through the story. It didn’t work for me. Beloved’s message(s), on the other hand, are delivered through the reader’s thought and interpretation – not through direct preaching – much more effective, in my opinion.