Sula

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but overall, not that good
Review: Toni Morrison's Sula has stunningly descriptive and at times utterly enjoyable passages, but at less than 200 pages, the novella falls victim to an overabundance of themes clinging to a minimal plot. Ms. Morrison attempts to weave the themes of race, gender, and love throughout the narrative, but it seems haphazardly done and not all that affecting once you finish the book. It is quite easy to point out each theme, but none seem all that interesting or all that uniquely told. Her habit of dispatching her characters in flames is rather disturbing, and if the form of death is supposed to be a metaphor for something, I missed it. Her at times graphic language does not seem to arise from anything more than an attempt to shock readers. Spanning the years between 1919 and 1965, the story deals with two young black girls growing up together in the predominantly black mountain community of The Bottom. The girls, Nel and Sula, seem complete opposites: Nel, raised by a strict and ever-watchful mother, lives and functions according to social expectations in a traditional home, while Sula was raised pretty much by accident by her mother, grandmother, and the assorted tenants that share their home, and seems to lack any sort of social consciousness. Nevertheless, Sula and Nel become fast friends and remain so, until Sula's eventual return from a ten year absence. Upon her return, she mortifies the community through her casual seduction and subsequent disposal of everyone's husband, and eventually dies. As a human being, Sula seems flat and underdeveloped. Nel is equally adrift; I think she may represent the "ideal" black woman, and her flaws and misfortunes are a comment on what women get if they do exactly and only what they are told to do, while Sula seems to be the opposite, representing what happens to women who ignore all rules. However, if both are meant to be allegories, the fact is not readily apparent, since Ms. Morrison attempts to jerk the reader between hatred for Sula, contempt for Nel, pity for both, and ends in utter confusion about what Ms. Morrison expected her audience to think of all this tragedy. This book is definetly not light reading, and would not be first on my list of heavy reading either. I am unable even to evaluate Ms. Morrison's effectiveness in achieving her purpose, because I cannot even figure out what it was.

HAIKUS
Oh Ms. Morrison
What lack of focus and tact
Quit jerking us `round

Ideal woman Nel
Avant-garde Penelope
To Sula's Helen

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Toni Morrison's Sula is the story of two African American friends in a small town. Nel chooses to stay near home and start a family; Sula chooses to leave for college and the city. When she returns ten years later, her loose, untactful nature horrifies (yet also unifies) the town and eventually ruins her friendship with Nel. Eventually, Sula's health fades and Nel is forced to come to terms with her friend.

Sula is a disturbing novel full of thoughtless violence and sexual dalliances. For example, Eva, Sula's grandmother, burns her son to death because, he was trying to "crawl back into her womb." Sula's mother also burns to death, though accidentally, as Sula watches. In many places, the violence seems to serve little purpose in terms of the plot, and the characters do not always have reasonable motivations for their actions, which makes them somewhat unbelievable. Ultimately, the book does not live up to Morrison's lofty reputation.

(1) Sula is quite loose
She sleeps with Ajax and Jude
People don't like her

(2) This book is quite odd
Why do the characters keep
Burning til they die?

Rating:
Summary: sula
Review: Toni Morrison's captivating drama, Sula, follows the life of Sula Peace, a woman living after World War I in a town called Medallion. Filled with racism and themes about love and betrayal, and good vs. evil, Sula contains many memorable characters and events. The novel dramatizes the lives of many generations of townspeople, including Shadrack, the outcast war veteran and the promiscuous Peace family, along with many others. As Sula goes through the adventures of growing up, she befriends a girl named Nel and the two become best friends, two parts of one whole. Things change for the two friends when, after being away at college, Sula returns to Medallion, and is greeted by hatred from the townspeople. Sula lives her life differently from the routine, conventional lives of others, making this such an intriguing novel with much to be learned from Sula's actions.



Eva loathes Sula
Sula watched her mother burn
Hannah was scalded to death


Shadrack lives in town
National Suicide Day
is his claim to fame