Then summer arrived. It was a summer that seemed to limp under the weight of all the blooming things. Heavy sunflowers drooped over fences, as if weeping. Irises curled and browned at the edges, far away from their purple hearts. Ears of corn let their auburn hair wind down to their stalks. And the boys, those beautiful, beautiful boys who dotted the landscape like precious jewels. They split the air with their shouts in the field and thickened the river with their shining wet backs. Even their footsteps left a lingering smell of smoke behind.

This is a truly captivating book that delves into the friendship between two girls, Sula and Nel, who have vastly different personalities. Surprisingly, we don't meet Sula, the titular character, until halfway through the book. Before that, we are given the opportunity to explore the poor black community where most of the action will unfold. We also get to think more about PTSD in the lives of black American soldiers while patiently waiting for the central story to unfold. In particular, the description of Bottom and how it impacts the people who live there sets the perfect stage.

Because I am reading Morrison's books in chronological order and The Bluest Eye was read not too long ago, I was perhaps more attuned to the connections and similarities between the two books. In this book, as in The Bluest Eye, the theme of the two Americas emerges, especially when it comes to the theme of parental love. What does love truly mean when you are a single black mother of three children, abandoned by your husband and living in a poor, black community? I found myself constantly going back to read the passage where Hannah asks her mother, Eva, if she had ever loved her, and Eva's reply: "You settin' here with your healthy-ass self and ax me did I love you? Them big old eyes in your head would a been two holes full of maggots if I hadn't." And also: "Play? Wasn't nobody playin' in 1895. Just 'cause you got it good now you think it was always this good?" This sentiment strongly reminded me of The Bluest Eye, where the black mother shows her love to her children in rather gruff ways that aren't even recognized as love until those children are older. In a sense, I feel they were too preoccupied with survival to focus on love as most of us envision it.

I'm still rather conflicted about Sula, although my opinion of her has softened over the years as I myself have gained more empathy through age and personal experiences. In many ways, I sympathize with her. She is intelligent, a bit of a rebel, doesn't conform to traditional expectations of women, and is extremely unconventional. She attempts to forge her own life and even has the courage to leave Bottom. But there is something lacking in her, and Morrison tells us that Sula "had no center, no speck around which to grow." Despite this, Morrison is not judgmental in how she portrays her, and it has led me to empathize with her role as an outsider, living in a small community with a small-town mentality.
Although Morrison focuses mainly on the lives of black girls and women in her writing, she also gives some thought to black men. She examines black masculinity, particularly in the kind of environment that restricts the lives and movements of black people, and what that looks like. In the end, I really enjoyed this book more than I did a decade ago when I first read it. And I am in awe of how much Morrison can pack into a novella of this size.

Toni Morrison, one of my top three favorite authors, passed away in August of this year. She was 88 years old.

She had an illustrious career, having won the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, and writing eleven novels, all of which I have read. Currently, I am rereading "The Bluest Eye", her first novel, which I read earlier this year, and now "Sula", her second.

I first read "Sula" in 2001. It was September of that momentous year of the terrorist attacks, an event that had a profound impact on America and the entire world, and its reverberations are still felt today. For me, that was a moment that signified the last desperate pushback of patriarchal power. They are still struggling, not willing to go down easily, and perhaps they may even take the planet down with them. Toni Morrison dedicated her life to fighting this power, both through her support of important writers and through her novels.

She didn't engage in marches or join demonstrations. Instead, she wrote from the perspective of a woman of color. I like to think that she "womansplained" - to women, to men (if they would listen), and to the whole world (if they would read).

In fact, during September 2001, I read four of her novels. I was highly impressed, but on rereading, I realize that I missed a lot of her deeper meanings. "Sula" is about female friendship, which is always a complex and often fraught endeavor, prone to irreparable change, especially during and after puberty.

Yet, I firmly believe that there is no deeper or more unconditional connection in life than childhood friendships between girls. It's not so much about words; it's a communion of souls, a recognition, a pact. I understood this on the first reading. This time around, I grasped the complexity of the issues she explores: sex, men, marriage, children, and of course, racism.

Morrison, with her usual incredible prose, captures all of this. She delves into economics, generations of women and mothers, the longing for both freedom and safety, morality and mortality.

I've read some reader reviews where I often come across women who find Sula, the character, difficult to understand or accept. However, I think as we grow, age, and experience the various stages of life, many of us realize that we have a bit of Sula within ourselves, no matter how much we try to suppress, ignore, or fight against the kind of woman she was.

The cover flap of Sula describes it as a novel about a friendship between two women.

The friendship between Sula and Nel, which starts when they are young girls, is indeed the center of this intense novel. However, there are so many other intertwined layers.

Morrison has masterfully created a portrait of several strong women who manage to survive, without any help from men, in a Black Ohio neighborhood from 1919 to 1965. The men in this story are mostly weak, philandering, drunk, or mentally ill.

Each chapter of the novel is an eloquent masterpiece, encapsulating a specific period of time and the essence of characters like Helene, Eva, Hannah, Nel, or Sula.

I listened to almost the entire novel and then picked up the print version and started from the beginning. Although I really like Toni Morrison's velvety voice, her reading was sometimes hard to follow.

This novel is truly a gem that could be read again and again and again. Every sentence is like a gold mine, filled with profound meanings and beautiful expressions. It is a dazzling, rich work of art that showcases Morrison's extraordinary literary talent.

This is the first time I’ve ever struggled to review a book I’ve read.

Perhaps this relentless English rain is getting to me and addling my brain?

Not that Sula was in any way bad. Just that I find my response to it is as mysterious as the book itself.

I could say it’s been a while since I read Toni Morrison and my first response was excitement at the reminder of how stunningly she can write a sentence – “Grass stood blade by blade, shocked into separateness by an ice that held for days”.

I could say it’s about two girls who strike up a poignant intimacy as children and how one becomes a compromised adult and the other becomes the quintessential outsider until she’s resented and feared by her entire neighbourhood.

The neighbourhood seems to exist on a barren island, cut off from the wider world of opportunity and hope. Everyone’s hopes are centred on the rumoured construction of a tunnel and a bridge to the neighbouring town.

It also does a moving job of showing how all the odds are stacked against a black woman living in the USA in the first half of the 20th century – “because each had discovered years before they were neither white nor male and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden them they set about something else to be.”

I could say it’s a strange mix of poetic myth and grubby realism with perhaps an absence of narrative drive, of compelling storytelling. Despite the beauty of its language and its moving chronicling of appalling social injustice – “the staggering childish malevolence of their employers”.

In fact, I think that’s what I’ll say and leave it at that – except to conclude that in this novel all Morrison’s immense gifts as a writer are on display, except her genius of weaving them all together into riveting storytelling.

The ending though is fabulous. 3.5 stars.

The sun's just come out!

Nel and Sula. This story delves deep into the complex and often tumultuous friendship between these two women.

Perhaps it's just me, but I don't always gravitate towards these kinds of stories. You know the type. I don't want to downplay anything about this incredible novel because it truly is remarkable. However, for some reason, it just didn't click with me as much as I had hoped.

At no point did I consider giving up on it. But there were certain aspects that turned me off. This is only my second time reading Toni Morrison's work, and I absolutely adored "The Bluest Eye." I haven't read "Beloved" or some of her other books yet, but I do plan to.

Let's start with the good. Every single word in this novel matters. It might sound strange, but it's true. There's no unnecessary filler. The characters have an incredible depth to them, making them feel real and relatable. The sense of loss and tragedy is profound, and it might even bring a tear to your eye or make you feel a bit weepy. It's also very realistic, which adds to its authenticity.

Now, onto what I didn't like. My goodness! There is so much tragedy! It seems like it's on almost every page. Do you know the kind of book I'm talking about? Where characters are constantly being killed, assaulted, and beaten, over and over again. Also, the prose was a bit unappetizing for my taste. You really need a strong stomach to get through this because there's a lot of tragedy, and it's presented in stark and brutal terms.

The relationship between the two female protagonists was a bit puzzling to me. I wish more time had been spent on their interactions rather than introducing so many other characters. Virtually nothing good seems to happen in the whole novel. I had a really difficult time with this story. Sometimes, there are great books that, for whatever reason, just don't appeal to us. I was a bit let down as the story came to an end.

SPOILERS: I wanted so much more from the last interaction between the women than what I got. I was invested in their story, and their final encounter left me with more questions than answers. The ending was a letdown. But despite all this, I shall still proceed with reading "Beloved," and I hope it has the same impact on me as "The Bluest Eye" did.

4 1/2 stars

I have an unwavering love for Toni Morrison's books, and "Sula" is no exception. It stands out as an exceptional work, just like most of the others I've had the pleasure of reading.

Typical of Toni Morrison's literary genius, the writing in "Sula" is outstanding in every conceivable way. Her descriptions are so vivid and clear that they seem to leap off the page, allowing the reader to not only envision the scenes but also taste the flavors and feel the emotions as if they were their own. This is truly Toni Morrison at her absolute best, able to transport the reader into a world that is both rich and complex.

The pacing of the story is equally remarkable. It starts off with a quick and engaging tempo, immediately drawing the reader in. Although I must admit that I got a little bit lost in the middle, perhaps due to the intricate web of characters and relationships, the book finishes with a powerful and satisfying conclusion.

One of the reasons I hold Toni Morrison in such high regard is her fearless approach to controversy. She doesn't shy away from exploring the difficult and often uncomfortable aspects of human nature and society. "Sula" is a prime example of this, delving into themes such as race, gender, and morality with a boldness and honesty that is both refreshing and thought-provoking.

In conclusion, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who appreciates great literature. It is a masterful work that will leave a lasting impression on the reader.

I embarked on writing my second book, titled Sula. This was due to my fixation on an image of a woman and the way her name was pronounced. Her name was Hannah, likely a friend of my mother's. I don't recall seeing her often, but what lingers in my mind is the color around her - a violet hue, a kind of suffusion. And her eyes, seemingly half closed. But most of all, I remember how the women said her name, 'Hannah Peace', with a smile and a hint of a secret they knew but didn't discuss in my presence. I suspected she was a bit of an outlaw, yet they approved in some way.

This year marks the 6th year of the United Nations International Decade for People of African Descent.

The book features several songs, like In The Sweet By and By by the Peerless Quartet, sung by a mysterious drunk character.

I hadn't initially planned to read this book, but here I am. Reading it was an experience as expected from a Toni Morrison novel. Morrison wrote it to explore how black women related to each other. It's her second novel and was written during the height of the second-wave feminist movement, yet it seems to work in parallel rather than out of it. She aimed to create a distinct black-female language or sensibility for the book.

The story is set in a fictional mid-western valley town in Ohio, close to the Great Lakes. It's told as a flashback, going back to a time when the town was racially segregated, with white people in the valleys and black people on the hills. We're introduced to a PTSD WWI veteran, Shaderack, who starts a holiday called National Suicide Day. Then we meet the inhabitants of the town, especially the Wright and Peace families.

The two main characters are Nel Wright and Sula Peace. Nel is from a reformed conservative Christian family, while Sula is the granddaughter of Eva Peace and daughter of Hannah Peace, a nymphomaniac. Sula is an Übermensch, refusing all the rules and norms of her world, with crazy and devastating consequences. The book is not just about the town's reaction to Sula but how Nel reacts to having a friend who doesn't believe in certainties or truths and how black women learn to forgive each other.

In my opinion, the forgiveness aspect might not have been as emphasized as Morrison claimed, but it was interesting to see how Sula and the town affected each other. The book had beautifully poetic language and the manifestation of magical-realism was captivating. I couldn't help but compare it to Song of Solomon. While I still prefer the latter, Sula is an interesting predecessor or sibling. Milkman wanted wings, but Sula simply wanted to walk on the Earth.

The song Shall We Gather at the River by The Stillman College Tour Choir was sung at Sula's funeral...ironically by the happy townspeople.

While looking for small-sized books to be ready for reading on my mobile, I came across this little gem. I had heard about Toni Morrison from various posts on book-related pages, and I can say that an inner curiosity had been created in me to see exactly what she could write. I'm finally glad that I gave her a chance because she is an amazing writer.

The first half of the story was excellent. It starts with the story of the ancestors of the central heroes, mainly just their mothers, and shows us very beautifully the ethics, customs, and the ways in which the black women who were unfortunate because they were neither white nor men lived. I really liked the poetic language of the writer who describes everything in the book so excitingly and pulls you by the hair into the pages. Eve, Helene, Hannah, and the two girls (Sula and Nel) are incredibly beautiful women. Strong, free, and shockingly emotional. The childhood friendship of the girls is enviable, two bodies and one soul.

The second and last half made me dislike Sula very much. Imprisoned in the false sense of freedom that she felt, she hurt everyone around her. Suffocated by her own inability to understand that the problem is that she is in a prison that leads her to become the disgrace of the community in which she lives and at the same time gives them a kind of superiority.

The black neighborhood was located on a hill where no white person wanted to live. Exactly there, the story unfolds, with proud heroes who live with racism and oppression on a permanent basis but face it with so much dignity, and this makes the book even more enjoyable. It is a quiet but very powerful story. A gem. If a book of hers falls into your hands, be sure to read it, the woman knows how to write!

Sula is a stylistically and narratively very demanding book. It tells the story of a friendship between two black girls/women between 1920 and 1940. Moreover, it also takes up social aspects of the black-white coexistence and describes the intersectional female and black life in racist times.

Interestingly, her 1974 novel begins with a traumatized war veteran (WWI), who finds his place in Bottom as a quirky but patient outsider. This shows me that Morrison does not want to take a purely female suffering perspective but writes socially. In addition, she introduces numerous "eccentric characters," which reminded me of Steinbeck's "Tortilla Flat."

However, the macabre-humorous tone hinted at (and not carried through) in it does not go well with the story of Nel and Sula for my perception.

Of course, it is speculation on my part, but it seemed to me as if Morrison wanted to write a farce, a love letter to the simple black rural population, but also an individual suffering story at the same time. Sometimes this takes away the power from each other.

The language glides into streams of consciousness, then it is an impressionistic mood picture of a person, later a social study or a family portrait.

Many themes emerge that Morrison already dealt with in The Bluest Eye: (female) role models, sex as salvation or pain, adopted hatred, freedom vs. conformism in the life concept.

What I liked less was how the levels go together in a disorderly and unresolved way, how strange all the characters remained to me, and that central questions about Eva, Sula, and Nel were not asked or answered even halfway satisfactorily.

Presumably, I was also irritated by how conceptually Sula and Nel are designed and stand for a particular way of life.

A complicated book, not of one mold for me. For my perception, this book is as ambitious in its social indictment as her debut, but far less intense in its description.

I also highly appreciated this book for showing me the circumstances of the times of millions of people.

The density and complexity of emotion that this book achieves in under 200 pages is truly remarkable. It makes my head thrum in awe.

Refusing to pass judgement or give answers, Sula thrives in the grey zone of race, sex, class, and power. Morrison delves deep into the intensity of female friendship, highlighting that the simple good/bad binary doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the multitudes we contain.

If you enjoyed Sally Rooney's Conversation with Friends or Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend and you haven't read this yet, you must add it to your list immediately. Toni Morrison's Sula is definitely a major part of that blueprint. It offers a profound exploration of human nature and relationships, challenging our preconceived notions and inviting us to look beyond the obvious.

The story is filled with vivid characters and powerful themes that will stay with you long after you've turned the last page. It's a must-read for anyone interested in literature that delves into the complexity of the human experience.

A haunting and raw tale unfolds, delving deep into the realms of friendship, community assimilation, small-town politics, and the inevitable loss of innocence that marks the transition into adulthood. The story is a captivating exploration of these themes, drawing the reader in and propelling them forward.

There are so many interesting characters within its pages, but none more so than the titular character, Sula. Her complex personality and actions add depth and intrigue to the narrative.

I have an abundance of thoughts and feelings that I want to express about this book, as it offers so much more than meets the eye. It is a rich and multi-layered work that demands careful consideration.

Hopefully, I will soon be able to pen a proper review that does justice to the brilliance of this literary piece. Until then, the story of Sula and her world continues to linger in my mind, leaving a lasting impression.

Morrison never disappoints.

In this slim book, she masterfully deconstructs a complex female friendship. The story delves deep into the realms of sexuality and mental health, exploring how these aspects intertwine and impact a small black community.

The tone of the book is grim, yet it is presented with an elegance that is characteristic of Morrison's writing. She has a unique ability to paint vivid pictures with her words, making the reader feel as if they are part of the story.

Despite the heavy themes, Morrison manages to infuse the narrative with moments of hope and redemption. Her exploration of the human condition is both profound and thought-provoking, leaving the reader with a greater understanding of the complexities of life.

This book is a testament to Morrison's talent as a writer and a must-read for anyone interested in exploring the depths of the human experience.