I first came across Song of Solomon while reading about American dream. After Death of a Salesman, I wanted to read this book badly enough because of a desire to trace how different writers trace the same geography. But I forgot all about American dream while reading this novel. Toni Morrison has done it again. She never fails to captivate me and onuses more weight than I can handle. Set in a time about 100 years after Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, this novel follows the life of Macon "Milkman" Dead III. Because of my limited comprehensibility, I couldn't take in everything that this novel raised, although the internalised prejudices within the African-American community stood out for me. This is one of those books which I would like to come back again after broadening my knowledge of the world around us. I am absolutely in love with the last line of this book: If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.

This book is exceptional. It will take months to digest what I've just read. Toni Morrison weaves so many brilliant elements into her work that I'm tempted to seek out professional literary analysis to help me understand the allusions and powerful strands of meaning shot throughout. And by powerful, I mean POWERFUL - her words can take flight, can break chains, can rhapsodize and destroy in equal measure.

Ultimately there are themes at work here which depict flight (escape), though every attempt seems to end in tragedy, whether it's Robert Smith's hospital leap in chapter one, or Solomon's legacy, or Jake's own flight (five feet into the air at the receiving end of a dead shot), or Milkman's own flight from Michigan. And what of ginger? Is it symbolic of roots and healing, therefore of a kind of heart's homecoming? Why does Milkman smell it when Pilate opens the bag of bones, or when he enters Circe's house? It's a kind of mythical yellow brick road that seems to be guiding him towards the lost strands of his family tree. Death and life, burial and flight, these are the pervading themes. Women and men, and the strong tethers that bind together siblings, parents, lovers, in all of their devastating and life-affirming ways, that gut us and kills us and bury us and smother us and resurrect us. The hunter and the hunted, Hagar and Milkman, the Virginians and the bobcat, Guitar and Milkman, the Deads and that gold, Circe and her Weimaraners, the tenants and their Dead landlord - we are all in endless pursuit.

And that sentence, "everybody wants the life of a black man" - and those speeches, Milkman's, Guitar's, those speeches that just ache with truth, but bear zero sentiment... I just can't even convey how powerful this language is, and that the language fuels powerful ideas just makes this one hell of an incredible book to be treasured and discussed for decades to come.

Uno dei miei romanzi preferiti. Il canto di Salomone narra le vicende di una famiglia afrodiscendente nel sud degli Stati Uniti. Il romanzo ha un'architettura semplice: due pilastri laterali e un punto di fuga centrale.
I pilastri sono due fratelli: Macon e Pilate. Il primo è un uomo di successo, integrato nella società, che onora la sua nazione. La seconda, Pilate, rappresenta l'elemento sincretico: in lei convivono magia e cultura, riti ancestrali e modernità.
Il punto di fuga è Milkman, figlio di Macon, uomo a metà tra questi due mondi perché cerca un suo posto nella società americana e perché al contempo sente di non avere radici. Quest'ultimo inizierà un viaggio alla ricerca di un fantomatico tesoro famigliare e la ricerca farà emergere qualcosa di più prezioso: l'identità culturale degli africani d'America.
Il tema del "volo" apre e conclude il romanzo, ed è un vero e proprio urlo silenzioso di un intero popolo alla libertà perché attraverso questo volo mitico scompaiono tutte le umiliazioni della schiavitù. Non esistono più lontananze, non più tele- : l'immaginazione nega le distanze umane e geografiche.

Romanul cu ajutorul căruia poți depăși o “criză de lectură”, un blocaj de cititor. Îl înnozi la capătul unui șir de cărți “așa și așa”, aride, neconvingătoare sau mediocre - și îți va reveni pofta de a citi.

Una peste alta, scriitorii americani sunt fenomenali. Nu cred că altă țară din lume mai cunoaște o așa înghesuială de excelenți povestitori...

SUA și Spania sunt polii lecturilor mele.

Almost four whole months into 2015 and I've finally read my first four-star book. You can always trust Toni Morrison to deliver even when you think all hope is lost. I think Song of Solomon is my favourite Morrison novel thus far. This novel just flows with greatness. I feel that I enjoyed this book more than let's say, Beloved, because the time period in which this is set (the 1930s through to the 60s) is an era with which I'm relatively familiar. She references the murder of Emmett Till and the rise of Malcolm X for instance. I felt more of a connect because of the historical time setting. In many ways I found that this novel almost mirrors the early chapters of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, I'm not sure if this was intentional though. I really found this novel to be "unputdownable", more so than the other Morrison novels that I've read. If I were to choose a good starting place for Morrison virgins, I'd choose Song of Solomon. I really enjoyed this one.

“You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down” (Morrison 179).

“Perhaps that’s what all human relationships boiled down to: Would you save my life? Or would you take it?” (Morrison 331).

“Song of Solomon” is Professor Morrison at her most heroic. One of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th century, her novel is all at once a sorrowful and richly rewarding experience.

I read this in high school, and several more times as an adult, because I am always seduced by this startling re-imagining of the coming of age and hero’s journey.

In terms of plot, it’s Morrison’s most accessible. It’s one of the rare books that she uses concrete chapter breaks.

It's the story of Milkman Dead, a privileged black man who comes of age as an adult after he learns of his heritage, and after he learns to love himself and those who support his journey along the way.

Milkman’s transformation from narcissistic man-child, privileged and bored, to someone completely moved by the discovery of his roots is what makes this novel so beautiful, and multilayered.

We learn of Milkman’s relationships with his family: the strong-willed Macon Dead, his mysterious and ethereal sister, and Milkman’s aunt without a naval, Pilate; of their story of how their father was murdered, and having to grow up escaping the cruelties of black life during from 1931-1961.

There is his secretive mother Ruth, who may have had an incestuous relationship with her father, Dr. Foster, Milkman’s maternal Grandfather; Milkman's sister, Corinthians, who also harbors heartbreaking secrets of her own, with reasons that will break your heart.

Then there's Milkman’s romantic relationship with his cousin Hagar- passionate and violent. She tries to stab him six times with a butcher knife.

Of course, the novel isn’t complete without Guitar, Milkman’s complete mirror opposite- first his friend, then sworn enemy. Guitar is orphaned, and angry, lacking a family unit that Milkman enviously has, especially after the suspicious demise of his family.

Guitar is sexy, and smolders with his rage and becomes a member of the Seven Days assassins; a vigilante group hell-bent on murdering white people for every act of brutality against black bodies.

Milkman and the characters that revolve around him all play a role in showing the reader the difficulties and joys of what it means to be human, of being black, and evokes every emotion imaginable in showing us the wonderful complexities of what it is to come of age, and discovering the loves and joys of growing up in such an audaciously ethereal world- of where men fly, women have clean and painless births, and of where obsessive love has no limit, "what good is a man's life if he can't even choose what to die for?"(Morrison 223). Magical realism and the images of flight appear and reappear often.

Pilate’s innate goodness and love for family, especially both Milkman and Hagar shows her inherent ability to accept everyone for who they are. Her ability to tell stories and to whisper to the spirits of her ancestors is magical, and simply gorgeous.

Guitar is one of literature’s greatest and charismatic antiheroes (calling him a villain is too simplistic) he too is complicated, written with trademark empathy and love by Morrison. He has the most gorgeous, affecting monologues.

There is a line that sticks out to me when after Milkman has complained about Hagar again, Guitar responds with unflinching love, "that girl's hurt-and the hurt came from you" (Morrison 152) which later is echoed ironically by Pilate's declaration of love for her, "And she was loved!" (Morrison 319) over her heartbreak that Milkman's forgotten about her.

It’s the women that have always remembered her. Pilate’s loving and power is the one shattering moment that exquisitely foreshadows up to one of literature’s most wrenching, but perfect endings.

It is one of many books by Toni Morrison where her trademark humor, humanity and love for language and her characters completely transcend genres, and political beliefs, allowing everyone to experience catharsis.

Even Macon Sr., who at the first glance seems abusive and materialistic, wants nothing for Milkman to find himself, "if you want to be a whole man, you have to deal with the whole truth" (Morrison 70).

It seems to me Morrison loved Milkman and Guitar deeply, with Pilate providing us a personal and female character for us to read that are brought together at one heart stopping moment after Guitar accidentally causes Pilate to fly off into legendary status.

This moment finally allows Milkman to fully realize what love is about, “now he knew why he loved her so. Without ever leaving the ground, she could fly. 'There must be another one like you,' he whispered to her. 'There's got to be at least one more woman like you" (Morrison 336).

I remember that I was rereading this novel around the time the mighty Toni Morrison passed away. I realized how much she meant to me- as an educator and a reader of how her work can affect an outsider like myself and always want to do better.

This masterpiece shows the love and power Morrison had for the world, and like Pilate- she has flown off into legendary status as well.

I still mourn for the loss of this woman who gave so much of her own life to her work- and Pilate, Guitar, and Milkman immediately came to mind

There will never be another Toni Morrison.

1931-2019.

Rest in Power.

I love Toni Morrison, I really do, but this book reads like a standard lemon of a workshop story: every character has both an eccentric name and some striking characteristic. This one has no navel, and this one is supernaturally lucky, and this one jumps off of buildings. And there is none of the assured economy of either Beloved or my personal favorite, Jazz. Here, we have to get every detail about every damned thing until I feel like I'm choking on the stuff of the book.

Do you ever have those dreams where you are wading in something like water? It's viscous and though there is some resistance, you are still able to move forward. Maybe you lean forward, trying to push through until there's a breaking point where you begin to glide more smoothly, but then you wake up.

That was how I felt reading this book. It's the 4th Morrison novel I've read, and in general I haven't had the best experiences with her work. When I'm reading her novels, I'm not distracted by her writing—her prose is occasionally beautiful but not distractedly so, with just enough embellishment to set the scene while still focusing on the story at hand. But her plots and stories tend to meander. I went along with the journey but felt a bit of resistance internally to the 'whys' and 'whats.' I felt that certain elements were underdeveloped and I had to wade through a lot of material to get even a glimmer of an explanation. I can't really explain it any other way than saying that her stories and I don't really click, so each chapter felt like a bit of a chore to get to the next one, hoping with each page turn to finally have that 'aha!' moment. Sadly, that never really came.

That's not to say this is a bad book by any means. There were moments that I really enjoyed but they were few and far between.

If you have read this book, there are some spoilers below that I felt a bit baffled by or unsatisfied with for further explanation:

- Hagar's death is glossed over, so much so that I had to flip back a few pages to see if I missed her moment of death. But no, it happens off the page and then we jump to her funeral.
- The whole secret society that Guitar was part of felt odd. It had this sort of illusive, fantasy vibe but then it never really comes full circle.
- In general, I felt like Milkman, our main character, had no personality. It was all about discovering information and going on a quest to achieve something, but I didn't understand who he was as a human being. That definitely made everything feel a bit distant because I couldn't connect with him on his journey.

“Why couldn’t anybody in his whole family just be normal?” (p. 123)

Why couldn’t anyone in this novel just be normal? Although I appreciate the value of the novel and its literary importance, I found the characters to be mostly unbelievable and the story to be odd, jarring, disorienting, and not fully coherent. It is a series of very loosely related events that do not make sense together. A father obsesses over owning things so he can own other people, a man is nicknamed after his experience breastfeeding, a woman is shunned for missing a navel from her stomach, another woman stalks her ex-lover, trying to kill him with an ice pick, friends attempt to strangle and shoot each other, people go on a weird pursuit of treasure (gold) from a cave, and there is a social group (“Seven Days”) devoted to vicarious revenge and collective liability (i.e., killing innocent White people):

“What I’m saying is, under certain conditions they would all do it … So it doesn’t matter that some of them haven’t done it.” (p. 157)

There are also implausibly abrupt changes in characters’ thoughts and behavior (e.g., someone desperately throwing themselves across the hood of car only moments after acting in an entirely different way, someone turning on their lifelong friend rapidly with little justification). I just didn’t get how it all went together, and I found myself spending more time trying to understand why crazy things were happening than time enjoying the reading experience. And the part of the novel that most interested me (the murderous theft of someone’s land, Lincoln’s Heaven, and its effect on a family) occupied relatively few pages.

That said, some of the writing was awesome. For example:

“She was the third beer. Not the first one, which the throat receives with almost tearful gratitude; nor the second, that confirms and extends the pleasure of the first. But the third, the one you drink because it’s there, because it can’t hurt, and because what difference does it make?” (p. 91)

Memorable Quotes

“Everything bad that ever happened to him happened because he couldn’t read.” (p. 53)

“What that means is that a black man is a victim of a crime only when a white man says he is.” (p. 160)

“It’s a bad word, ‘belong.’ Especially when you put it with somebody you love.” (p. 306)

“Perhaps that’s what all human relationships boiled down to: Would ou save my life? Or would you take it?” (p. 331)

I have read a couple of Toni Morrison's other novels, but this is the by far the best I have read. This is a stunning tale of self-discovery that follows the lives of a black family living in Michigan. The majority of the narrative revolves around Milkman, the first black child born at Mercy Hospital, and the son of a prominant and wealthy businessman. To escape the town and threat of death by the hand of his scorned lover and cousin, Hagar, he goes on a quest for treasure. He may not find what he is looking for, but he discovers something much more valuable. Morrison's approach is magical and passionate, and her prose is detailed, riveting, and powerful. This is a thought provoking masterpiece and a must read for all audiences.

One of my fave books of all time. A fucking masterpiece!

This book is great. It grabs you from jump and never let’s go. The characters. The plot. It’s all there. I gotta admit I’m too dumb to understand 90% of what Toni Morrison was doing with this book, but even what I got was WOW. I finished and can’t wait to reread.