Sula,
Toni Morrison
Sula,
Toni Morrison
Elaine Ryslewicz, signing herself 'Elaine in Cincinnati (snow-less) Ohio' submits this work of fiction and the following summary:
Sula (1973) is Nobel Prize winner (1933 Literature) Toni Morrison's second novel. It is a masterfully woven story of mythical. Biblical and universal challenges and emotions. Thrown into the mix of human pathos and the inexorable process of change, is Sula, a woman with a unique style and attitude who returns home to Medallion and her all black neighborhood, the Bottom. which is ironically located at the top of a hill. Some hunters who "went there sometimes wondered in private if maybe the bottom 'was the bottom of heaven.'
"The black people would have disagreed (with comparing the Bottom to heaven), but they had no time to think about it. They were mightily preoccupied with earthly things - and each other, wondering even as early as 1920 what Shadrack was all about, what that little girl Sula who grew into a woman in their town was all about, and what they themselves were all about, tucked up there in the Bottom."
Thus the novel opens in 1919 and spans characters’ lifetimes. Despite the breadth of time covered, the richness of relationships developed and the intriguing and often disquieting twists and turns in the plot, the novel is under 200 pages in length. That increases the chances that you will able to give this piece of literature the second reading it so justly deserves.
Clint adds: The internet is awash with material about Sula and Morrison. Click to go to a site with many links to others. And, on 16 May Clint adds further: The New York Times has just listed the results of a query of prominent writers, etc. asking, "What is the best work of American fiction of the last 25 years?" The top winner was Toni Morrison's 1987 novel, Beloved. Six on the list of winners and runners-up are by Philip Roth. None have been, so far, CCHC titles.