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Summary: Friends Forever
Review: Toni Morrison, receiver of 1978 National Book Critics Award for fiction, 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature has one of the boldest pens in the world of Women's Literature. Sula is the first book by Toni Morrison I have read and the others are following it on my bookshelf. I was very impressed with her writing style and her strong characters. Although "Sula" is said to be the story of Nell and Sula, two friends but as I see, its more of a story of women from two different families. The first family is that of Nell whose mother is a proper housewife trying to escape from the immoral past of her own mother and trying to instill good values in her own daughter. On the other hand, Sula's mother is very uninhibited sexual being and Sula follows a similar course. Both Sula and Nell grow up in different environment with different values, however as the book progresses they are both a completion of one another. One is what the other is missing in her character. Nell settles for a blissful marital life never leaving the place of birth and Sula takes off for ten years only to return and be an experience to remember for her home-towners. The story is set in Bottom, Ohio around the period of 1920s, so on. While the country was very segregated, it was also going through the depression. Sula is a bold character developed by Toni Morrison who breaks race and gender driven barriers and lives life for herself, her own pleasure, with her own rules and set of values. Highly Recommended for readers interested in Women in Literature, African-American Literature.
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Summary: Powerful and gripping!
Review: Having read The Bluest Eye, I felt compelled to read another Toni Morrison book. People have mentioned Morrison's powerful poetic undertones in Sula -- I couldn't wait to read it. This is one of the most powerful and gripping novels I have ever heard. The story follows the path of best friends Sula and Nel. They grow up in a poor black neighborhood with eccentric and suicidal characters. Sula and Nel grow apart. Sula wants to see the world, Nel settles for a married life. Will Sula return to her roots? If so, how will she be received? And will she be able to reconstruct her friendship with Nel? I marvel at Morrison's gorgeous language and quirky symbolism. Her work is thought provoking and realistic. I look forward to reading her other books.
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Summary: One of her best
Review: Perhaps for the use of a few words in each line, an economy that always brings grandeur to a work of fiction, Toni Morrison makes one visit the black town of Medallion Hall and meet Sula and Nel, two young girls whose lives are going to take the rest of the book to explain. Not as the difficulty I found reading Jazz, as Gabriel Garcia Marquez`s No one writes to the Colonel and The Old Man and the Sea, Morrison shows a wonderful mastership of the written art. I recommend it as a tender, human book. Undoubtely one of Morrison`s best works.
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Summary: My First Book By Toni Morrison, But Not My Last
Review: "Sula" is the first book written by Toni Morrison that I have read. It will not be the last. This book is set in the mostly Black community, The Bottom, overlooking Medallion, Ohio. It is a study of the relationship between Sula Peace and Nel Wright. With an exceptional use of words that tug and pull at you, force you to listen and think, Miss Morrison brings Sula and Nel to life right before your eyes. In a friendship that spans twenty years, Sula and Nel meet as young children and during that time, "innocently" cause a tragedy that one forgets, the other perhaps does not. As young women, Nel marries and remains in The Bottom while Sula goes off to college, and for a time, moves from city to city. It is Sula's return to The Bottom and one unforgivable event that tears the two friends apart. It is only long after the death of Sula that Nel comes to the realization that they had not been as different as she had allowed herself to believe, one girl good, one girl bad. They had just been "girls together" and each of them, in her own way, had endured endless struggles to survive in the world as black women.
Rating:
Summary: A great introduction to Toni Morrison
Review: Sula is shorter and easier to understand than Morrison's two masterpiece longer works, Song of Solomon and Beloved, but that does not mean that it's not a work of great literature. Sula is beautifully written and powerfully rendered. The scenes between Nel and Sula, plus the odd cast of characters like Chicken Little will haunt you long after you finish. Her dialogue is fantastic. Curiously, the last three years when I have taught this book to high school students, the women all loved it and most of the guys didn't. Maybe it's hard for white teen age boys to see the angst of young black girls growing up? Or maybe it's just that as a growing up story of the friendship between two childhood friends, boys that age don't find it that interesting. I agree with the reader below who remarks on the "magic realism" style -- I have always been struck by the way Morrison includes fantanstic elements in her novels: kind of a black folklore meets magic realism confluence. A great read and an important one to her overall corpus.
Rating:
Summary: Sula
Review: I believe that this book really shows Toni Morrison's genius because she is able to combine several different themes into one book without it becoming confusing. I also like how she has main character for chapters, but gives justice to Sula throughout the book. I enjoyed how the book was metaphorical because it put importance on the different aspects of the book; like the characters, the role of religion, and the community as a whole. I truly enjoyed this book.
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Summary: Snapshot of Sula
Review: Toni Morrison's Sula is a moving novel about knowing one's true self while dealing with issues such as race, family background, and relationships. Up in the Bottom, which is the hilly area of Medallion where the colored community inhabits, the freindship between conservatively ordinary Nel Wright and emotional yet independent Sula Peace develops and evolves greatly over time and with the events that they experience as they mature. Morrison's own life as a child growing up in a mildly-racist town is incorporated into the story and is an aspect which greatly enhances her work, as well as her unique writing style. She has the ability to mesmerize and captivate the reader with her intriguingly beautiful wording and flowing dialogues. Sometimes, though, it is easy to lose track of what is going on with Morrison's overly descriptive ways, but overall she is a fantastic writer and Sula is indeed a worthwhile piece.
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Summary: Great Book for a Quiet Weekend
Review: I had a great time reading this book. Saturday morning with a cup of tea I sat down with this book and didn't get up until I had finished it. It's easy reading and a good story. You can really see and feel the characters.
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Summary: Inspired, brilliant, gloomy, and cheerless
Review: For those of you who find it difficult to listen to books on cassette, Sula is an easy listen. Toni Morrison captures the rhythm of her own writing with gentle and soothing tones. Her prose is both brilliant and disturbing. The novel tells the story of Sula, Nel, their families, and the African American community known as the Bottom, which is actually on an infertile hilltop. In the opening, she captures the insanity of Shadrack, a shell-shocked soldier, who cannot bear the perceived deformity of his hands. Elsewhere, Sula's grandmother fears that Sula's helpless drug-addicted uncle is trying to crawl back up in her womb. The images of Nel's loneliness and isolation at one point in the book are remarkably communicated. There is little joy, love and happiness found anywhere in Sula-it is an exploration of various levels of despair. Even the relative joy of childhood play is used only to contrast with the guilt and shame of Nel and Sula causing another child's death. Not a single positive male/female relationship exists in the book. A breakup nearly destroys Nell, and Sula's death comes when she finally opens up her heart. An especially interesting image is when Sula becomes a Leviticus-chapter-sixteen scapegoat for the Bottom. The entire community seems to place the weight of their sins on her and feel a little relief to their own self-righteous ways, and even grow closer to one another. All this time, Sula has a birthmark on her face that keeps getting darker and darker. The community is also brought together by National Suicide Day, instituted by Shadrack, the insane soldier. Again, a small amount of joy is contrasted with the great tragedy of its last celebration. In this novel, Toni Morrison again is unrivaled in beautiful prose, genius imagery, and despair.
Rating:
Summary: Intrigued with Sula and Nel
Review: This is the first book that I have read written by Toni Morrison and it certainly will not be the last. The story about Sula and Nel's friendship was intriguing and captivating. These two girls grew up as best friends and each choose to live a very different lifestyle. Nel decides to marry and raise a family while Sula goes to college. Through an unforgivable act on Sula's part, the two friends are driven apart. I am looking forward to reading more books by Ms. Morrison and I definetely would highly recommend Sula to anyone.
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