Rating: 
Summary: A fabulous and well written book that everyone should read.
Review: A compelling story of two best friend girls who grew up together through the hard times and happy times of life. Tweleve year old Sula and Nel grew up at "The Bottom" a place where Negros lived, even though it was high up in the hills.Each find comfort in themselves and share every moment with one another. But things start changing as both witness a death of a friend and wonder if anyone will accuse them of murder. As the girls get older, other obstacles gather. Such as a man who comes between them and the unbelieveable betrayal that Sula bestows upon Nel. As both suffer the consequences, they wonder if their friendship will be the same and if the value of trust can ever be regained. I really liked this book it was a remarkable story of two best friends who's friendship broke any obstacle that stood in their way. I recommend that everyone read this novel because it is good for all ages. It's fast-reading and a great novel for everyone to enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating book with great emotion
Review: Sula by Toni Morrison depicts the lives of two childhood playmates. Morrison proves this book to be powerful by her use of language. It is both enchanting and poetic. She manages to show how friends can seem to be inseparable yet can grow apart from each other. I found it interesting that she wrote detailed experiences of both Nel and Sula as they went from young girls to grown women. The more I read the book, the more I wanted to keep on reading because of all the outrageous experiences they encountered. I find that the number of characters that died and the manner in which they died to be peculiar. There was a point where I felt like the characters in the book were dying left and right. Aside from that, this book was interesting because it seemed so realistic. I was able to picture the emotion of Sula and Nel when Nel confronted Sula of having an affair with her husband. Nel showed true friendship by helping Sula during her dying days even though she had hurt her in the past. Overall this was a great book that beautifully describes the lives of two opposing women.
Rating:
Summary: A deeply moving and powerful novel
Review: Sula is an intricately woven and beautifully written novel that gives the reader insight into the lives of its eccentric and complex characters. Morrison's writing is both majestic and confusing. She touches upon some very problematic issues in her novel, expressed in a style that I have never come across before. What struck me about Morrison's writing was the fact that she left open spaces in her narrative for the reader to pass his/her own judgement. A great emphasis in the novel is on looking and gazing. Morrison wants her readers to play a vouyeristic role as she writes in dream like sequences with violent scenes appearing to be almost beautiful. Trauma is frozen in time and remains vivid. It keeps repeating and is only accessed at a later time. I quite liked the way Morrison reverses the roles of Nel and Sula in this book. When Sula comes back to Medallion, she is structured as the 'bad' woman and Nel is structured as the 'good' woman. This is perhaps due to the diversity in the characters of their maternal figures. Yet, just before Sula dies, she asks Nel, "How do you know you were the good one?" and Eva too, accuses Nel for taking pleasure in watching Chicken Little die. Another question i couldn't help asking myself after i had read this novel was why Sula died so early in the book? The only answer I can think of is that perhaps Morrison wants us to miss Sula. I also found it quite interesting how different people read Sula's birthmark differently. All in all, i think this novel is tremendous and extremely powerful. It is definetely a worthwhile read. Hats off to Toni Morrison.
Rating:
Summary: Intellectually engaging and poetic
Review: I can never really put my finger on it but whenever I've finished a Morrison book, I'm left nursing a range of feelings from awe to despair. I'm left wondering what the book was all about, which forces me to exam more closely the characters, conflict, and plot behind the novel. The end result of this closer examination is always a better understanding of self and a richer appreciation for others. In this novel of good and evil, depicted in experiences that are recognizable to us all, Morrison becomes a master weaver. Masterful in her ability to weave the conflicts of her characters with conflicts of the bible. Masterful with her use of metaphor and flawless with her use of language, Sula extols life and the subtle evil that's woven within it. The novel supports the axiom that for good to exist, evil must be present. Sula blurs the line between love and hate such that one can easily be mistaken for the other at any point in the novel. Three years ago I couldn't get past the first five chapters of Song of Solomon. I know there are many readers who feel that Morrison's work is difficult to comprehend and follow. It was the author herself who provided the single greatest perspective on her writing style. She said, in essence, that life is not linear . . . and neither are her books. With my expectation for linear sequence adjusted, I successfully finished, and thoroughly enjoyed, the Bluest Eye, and Paradise. I've seen Beloved five times and enjoyed each viewing (yep, I'm gonna read the book as well).
Rating:
Summary: Beauty and honesty with prose poetry
Review: Thank God for Toni Morrison, a writer who unabashedly takes on showing the true complexity of Black women, and thereby endeavors to honor them all and all of humanity. So many books and writers, like those of Alice Walker (with the exception of that masterpiece ...PURPLE), Gloria Naylor and the "Exhale" lady, Terry McMillan, actually denigrate women quite often through the simplification of their characters' desires and the justification of their motivations for every questionable action. It takes a Toni Morrison to create a Sula: as ugly as she is beautiful, as dangerous as she is harmless, with a friend as lazy and naive as she is hard working, committed, wise and true. Complex, human black women with souls instead of issues and manifestoes; what a gift. Regardless of any faults that may lay in the realization of such characters in the novel, she developed real people to relate to or be amazed by. Critiques can only come in response to the depth of what she's created- as if she didn't in fact create it, and surpass it in other novels! I enjoyed it.
Rating: 
Summary: Truly a first novel, good but could have been better
Review: This book has all the markings of a first novel, the inadequate character introductions and development. She is truly the great Toni Morrison, but unfortunately this book does not bare that out. I loved Sula but it took me untill almost the end of the book to determine what the heck was going on with her. It was required reading so I read it, but I still think that "The bluest eye" is her crowning glory, and everything else pales in comparison.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written
Review: Sula was one of the books on the required reading list this summer, and I was really reluctant to read it because it was school reading. All school reading have one thing in common-dull. However, the more I read, the more I liked it. Soon, I became really absorbed into the story. This story,unlike most fiction, is not one of those sugar-coated fatasies, but it was true, honest, and from the heart. Sula also makes you think a question the role of women. This is definitely an enjoyable book- a reccomendation to all.
Rating:
Summary: This book makes perfect psychological sense, & it's amazing
Review: Sula is my favorite Toni Morrison novel. In fact, it is one of my favorite novels of all time. Morrison paints a complex picture of human development and behavior. Her two protagonists are strong and different. She, like Jean Toomer in "Cane," has a fierce understanding of pain and how her reader might experience pain. Her language is sublime; her story, compelling.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written and completly engaging.
Review: Morrison's novel about two young heroins growing up in a poor black community does not use the typical "getto" or "plantation" setting. These two girls live in a small town with very real members and universal problems. As they grow older the gilrs are strengthened by the fact that they are different from the others and don't need the reasurance that comes from belonging to the "proper society". The trouble comes when the two are separated and this provides an explosive and shocking turn in their freindship. Not only does this novel contain wonderful language and imagery, it also has the ability to touch the reader and make her think about her own values and expectations.
Rating:
Summary: a very good novel that doesn't live up to all expectations
Review: My biggest mistake in reading this book was doing so directly after i had read the incredible 'beloved'; 'sula' was written much earlier, while morrison's style was evidently still developing. nonetheless, it is an excellent book--well defined characters, endlessly intriguing themes, and written in a fascinating style. often it seemed that morrison should have made this book much longer- she seemed to draw many implausible connections that could have been connected with more explination. for example, she constantly talks about what wonderful friends the two women were, rather than show why they were so close. but don't be put off by my rambling. read it.
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