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Sula

toni morrison

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As girls, Nel and Sula shared each other's discoveries and dreams in the poor black mid-West of their childhood. Then Sula ran away to live her dreams and Nel got married. Ten years later Sula returns and no one, least of all Nel, trusts her. SULA is the story of the fear that makes people accept self-pity; the fear that will not countenance escape and that justifies itself through myth and legend. Sula herself is cast as a witch and demon by the people who resent her strength. They attack her with the most pervasive weapon of all, the weapon of language and story. But Sula is a woman of power, a wayward force who challenges the smallness of a world that tries to hold her down.

214 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1,1973
Literary awards
audie award, national book award finalist, 
Places
ohio, 

This edition

Format
214 pages, Hardcover
Published
January 1, 2002 by Thorndike Pr
ISBN
9780786246533
ASIN
0786246537
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Nel Wright Greene

    Nel Wright Greene

    Sulas strait-laced friendmore...

  • Sula Peace

    Sula Peace

    ...

  • Helene Wright

    Helene Wright

    the ultra-proper mother of Nel. Helene is the high-yellow daughter of a New Orleans prostitute who was rescued by her very proper grandmother, Cecile Subatt. Helene later marries Wiley Wright, a ships cook, and moves to The Bottom in Meridian, Ohio....

  • Eva Peace

    Eva Peace

    ...

  • Hannah Peace

    Hannah Peace

    ...

More editions

About the author

Profile Image for toni morrison

toni morrison

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Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison, known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist and editor. Her first novel, The Bluest Eye, was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed Song of Solomon (1977) brought her national attention and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 1988, Morrison won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved (1987); she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
Born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, Morrison graduated from Howard University in 1953 with a B.A. in English. Morrison earned a master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University in 1955. In 1957 she returned to Howard University, was married, and had two children before divorcing in 1964. Morrison became the first black female editor for fiction at Random House in New York City in the late 1960s. She developed her own reputation as an author in the 1970s and '80s. Her novel Beloved was made into a film in 1998. Morrison's works are praised for addressing the harsh consequences of racism in the United States and the Black American experience.
The National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities, in 1996. She was honored with the National Book Foundation's Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters the same year. President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom on May 29, 2012. She received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction in 2016. Morrison was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2020.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
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99 reviews All reviews
Profile Image for Kimberly .
g4r4nd0u
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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Toni Morrison, the remarkable writer that you are. Truly, you are a gift from God.

Her words have the power to touch the deepest recesses of our souls.

As seen in the quoted passage, it beautifully captures the essence of a relationship and the pain of potential loss.

The woman in the text is left wondering if her loved one could really be gone when his tie is still there.

She reflects on all the shared memories, the days and years they spent together.

How he knew her ways, her hands, the details of her body.

She recalls their attempts to get Mickey to nurse, the landlord's words, and how her loved one's response made her cry.

They knew each other so intimately, sharing both laughter and tears.

And now, she struggles to understand how he could leave her when he knew her so well.

Toni Morrison's writing has the ability to make us feel these emotions as if they were our own.

It is a testament to her extraordinary talent as a writer.

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RenanGRM
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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Toni Morrison is truly one of a kind. She is not just an ordinary writer; she is a literary giant.

Her works are like precious gems that shine with unique brilliance.

Morrison's writing style is captivating, drawing readers into a world of vivid characters and powerful stories.

She has the ability to explore complex themes such as race, gender, and identity with such depth and sensitivity that it leaves a lasting impact on the reader's mind.

Her novels are not only entertaining but also thought-provoking, making us question our own beliefs and values.

Toni Morrison is indeed the bee's knees, the cat's pajamas, the flea's eyebrows, the canary's tusks, the eel's ankle, the snake's hip, and the mutt's nuts. She is a master of her craft and a legend in the literary world.

Her contributions to literature will be remembered and cherished for generations to come.
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DSA-7
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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Heavy as fuck. The ache is indescribable. It's the only word that can capture the essence of the ending. My body is wracked with sadness and a sense of loss between women. The backwards ideology of what it means to be a wife, a partner, a woman, a girl! Or is it really backwards?


You know, as demonic as they try to paint the loose woman Sula, that's exactly how demonic and poisonous our culture is towards women as a whole. It shows how much we've been taught to hate the natural part of ourselves that desires happiness and freedom from the burden of "love". Love and relationships - some people want them, while others don't. They all require a great deal of work, attention, intention, and emotional labor. Some of us simply don't have the capacity or the desire for them. And if we recognize that, don't we deserve to be happy with that knowledge? Is it a reason to be condemned if some women choose not to be indefinitely linked to a man (any man, most men) who won't bring the kind of happiness that truly resides in our hearts? Is it a crime for women to take what they want in sex and with passion and continue on their life's journey? I don't think so.


This book is sitting wild in my spirit and on my heart. I'm afraid this review might seem nonsensical, so I'll end it here. But before I go, I have to say that you should read this book. Your soul will tremble. You'll feel besieged, especially if you can identify with the spaces between Sula and Nel. Toni Morrison cuts right through to the freedom we all渴望 as people, but too many of us are afraid to pursue it, and too many of us shame each other for unapologetically seeking it.
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Qwartney
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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Toni Morrison is truly an outstanding author. I have found her to be one of the most consistent writers I've ever read. As one of my all-time favorite writers, every book of hers that I've read to this day has been extremely interesting and deeply touching.

She is consistent not only in her style but also in her themes, characters, and the general tone of her stories. Toni Morrison speaks about women, power, life, and the absurdity and inevitability of human weakness. There are very few other authors who can make me feel such deep emotions and connect so authentically with characters leading completely different lives from my own. She always manages to make me shed a tear.

Her book "Sula" is no exception. It is short, raw, and unapologetic. The story of the community of "The Bottom" refuses to sugarcoat the roughness of black people's lives in the 1920s - 40s. It is filled with pain, guilt, regret, timeless women's wisdom, and the sheer horror of the human condition. In a world where happiness seems to be a forgotten concept, only for children and those who don't know better, women and men thrive. Against all odds, they love, laugh, cry, and survive.

There are moments in this book, especially the very ending, that strike me with the depth of their truth. I truly believe Toni Morrison had one of the deepest insights into the real meaning of life in history. It is not uncommon for me to read one of her books and have to stop and think about how she just provided an explanation for one of the greatest mysteries of reality.

For example, take this description of the loneliness of a single woman and a married, unhappy one: "Lonely, ain't it? Yes, but my lonely is mine. Now your lonely is somebody else's. Made by somebody else and handed to you. Ain't that something? A secondhand lonely."

Or this desperate and incredibly touching declaration of love by an abandoned woman: "But Jude,' she would say, 'you knew me. All those days and years, Jude, you knew me. My ways and my hands and how my stomach folded and how we tried to get Mickey to nurse and how about that time when the landlord said...but you said...and I cried, Jude. You knew me and had listened to the things I said in the night, and heard me in the bathroom and laughed at my raggedy girdle and I laughed too because I knew you too, Jude. So how could you leave me when you knew me?”

And this description of the horror of routine: "The real hell of Hell is that it is forever.' Sula said that. She said doing anything forever and ever was hell.”

These words come from characters who might be described as "uneducated," but they share the timeless wisdom of humankind. That kind of knowledge seems to be inherited from mothers to daughters, fathers to sons, as if it's written in our genes. This is what makes good poetry. And this is why I love Toni Morrison: because there is no one in the whole world, regardless of gender, age, or race, who would not understand her words with their own heart.

R.I.P. Toni Morrison.
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saharan0
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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Two lonely girls, Sula and Nel, crossed paths and formed a deep friendship. They shared the joys and sorrows of life, experiencing tragedy together. However, fate had other plans for them, and they were separated.


A decade later, Sula returned, but their friendship was not the same. The years apart had changed them both, and they found themselves at odds with each other. Their once-strong bond was now broken, and they were left to deal with the consequences.


But perhaps the question of who is the villain and who is the victim is not so clear-cut. Maybe it is just our perspective of who is right and who is good that determines how we view their relationship. The story is beautifully written and thought-provoking, making us question our own beliefs and judgments.

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aguecheek
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀

Toni Morrison's Sula is a complex and thought-provoking novel that centers around the controversial character of Sula Peace. Set in the fictional town of Medallion, specifically in the Black neighborhood called the Bottom, Morrison delves deep into themes of race, gender, and class.

The name of the Bottom is an oxymoron, as it is actually located in the hills above the valley town. This was the result of a white farmer tricking his former slave. The story also introduces Shadrack, a war veteran with PTSD who creates the 'National Suicide Day' and struggles to fit in with the community.

Nel Wright and Sula Peace, the novel's central characters, are introduced in the 1920s. Nel is raised to be obedient and polite, while Sula grows up in her grandmother's chaotic boarding house. The two become fast friends, but their relationship is tested when a stunt goes wrong and Nel gets married and Sula leaves for college.

Ten years later, Sula returns to the Bottom, accompanied by a strange phenomenon of robins. Her arrival is seen as inauspicious by the townspeople, and her physical appearance and behavior only add to their mistrust. Sula is demonized and becomes the scapegoat for the community's problems.

Despite the many hardships and tragedies in the story, Morrison never passes judgment on her characters. Instead, she forces readers to question their own assumptions about good and evil, nature and nurture. Sula is a powerful and disturbing read that will stay with you long after you've finished it.
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Zeroth_Xadron
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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Max's bookclub Uncovered offers a great opportunity for a quick re-read.

It allows members to explore and discover new books or revisit old favorites.

The club provides a platform for discussions and exchanges of ideas, enhancing the reading experience.

Whether it's a thrilling mystery, a heartwarming romance, or a thought-provoking non-fiction, there's something for everyone in Max's bookclub.

Members can share their insights, recommendations, and personal interpretations, gaining a deeper understanding of the books they read.

With a diverse selection of titles and a passionate community of readers, Max's bookclub Uncovered is the perfect place to satisfy your literary cravings and expand your reading horizons.

So, join the club today and embark on a journey of literary exploration and discovery.
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sixtef
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
July 15,2025
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I received this book for free through a complimentary Quarterly Literary Box. It was such a pleasant surprise to have this opportunity.


After hearing so much about Toni Morrison, I have finally had the chance to read one of her books. And I must say, I really enjoyed it. The way Morrison writes is truly beautiful. She has an amazing gift with words, as if she can paint vivid pictures in the reader's mind with her prose.


The story itself was also very interesting. Sula and Nel's relationship was captivating. Their friendship was unique and unlike any other female friendship I've ever seen before. Sula had this ethereal quality about her that made her truly stand out. She was mysterious and alluring, and I couldn't help but be drawn to her character.


Overall, reading this book by Toni Morrison has been a wonderful experience. I look forward to reading more of her works in the future.

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