Author: Toni Morrison
Genre: Classics, Fiction
Blurb: Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Their devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal—or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life.
Me: I read Beloved about a year ago and was stunned. After Toni Morrison passed this summer, I told myself I'd make it a point to try and read all of her works at some point. The first one I've picked up since is Sula, and wow- Toni never disappoints.
The Ups: Morrison has this amazing capability to completely immerse a reader into whatever world she creates. I don't know how she does it, but her descriptions are always so vivid and colorful without ever being garish or over-the-top. She captures the sense of a place so well in a way that makes it seem like the happenings and the people of the place she writes are the only happenings and people that matter in the whole world. Her writing is so urgent but also so crazy effortless.
More than anything, I adored the characters in this book. They are so complex yet also enigmatic. Morrison has a way of both inviting the reader into the characters' minds and also allowing them to also confuse and shut out the reader in a perfect way. Sula and Nel are such different but both incredibly alive characters- especially Sula is absolutely unforgettable. Her defiance is somehow perfect to where you want to hate her, and maybe a part of you does, but you also know her so intimately that it becomes impossible to.
What I loved most about Sula was the almost superhuman quality her existence took on. I don't know what Morrison's intention truly was, and definitely might be simplifying it a bit here, but it almost seemed like her capacity as a character was to act as the example that kept everyone in place. It was like she had to sacrifice herself, be the woman that everyone hated, for the rest of society to function. And when that went away, society fell into chaos.
Nel was the only person though, who saw her as a human through all of this. I think what I appreciated so much about Toni Morrison was that she explored a side of female friendships, and specifically black women, that was slightly different and offered another layer to other works like Beloved. She is able to paint them in their humanity, but doesn't strip them of their identity at all. Truly astounding.
The Downs: I felt like because the book was quite short, I didn't see the development of Sula and Nel's friendship that much. Although I could tell that their relationship was there, it didn't necessarily feel like it had been built up enough to where it would be tragic when it broke down. I know it came later and from a vastly different context, but I think I almost expected a My Brilliant Friend-esque friendship, but the book was more about the character and presence and enigma of Sula herself.
I think maybe because of this, the ending didn't feel as powerful to me as it could have. Even though it was still amazing, I think it definitely didn't leave a huge mark as a book- rather, I think the only impression that will last with me forever is the character of Sula. Maybe that was the intention though! She is the titular character, after all...
Rating: 4 kisses!
She struck a match, blew it out and darkened her eyebrows with the burnt head.
In a way, her strangeness, her naïveté, her craving for the other half of her equation was the consequence of an idle imagination. Had she paints, or clay, or knew the discipline of the dance, or strings; had she anything to engage her tremendous curiosity and her gift for metaphor, she might have exchanged the restlessness and preoccupation with whim for an activity that provided her with all she yearned for. And like any artist with no art form, she became dangerous.
What have you got to show for it?” “Show? To who? Girl, I got my mind. And what goes on in it. Which is to say, I got me.
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