** spoiler alert ** First foray into Toni Morrison for me was this rather short novel which centers on the relationship between Sula Peace and Nel Wright. One of the more brilliant things about the novel, though, is that it really does take you until the end to understand that the essential theme of the novel is friendship. Sula is not very nice or good or decent. She does all sorts of bad things, including being involved in the drowning death of a little boy, placing her grandmother in a home, and having an affair with the husband of her best friend. She is tough to like, but I think the essential point of the novel is that even though friends sometimes do things that we might not agree with, they are still our friends.

One of my favorite aspects of the novel is the drama and family intrigue of the Peace family. Eva, Sula’s grandmother, with her missing leg and the complicated relationship she has with her daughter and granddaughter; the promiscuous Hannah, who suffers such a violent end in a fire and has her own complicated relationship with her daughter; and Sula.

If you are looking for a light little novel that ends happily and is sweet and where nothing bad happens, this novel is definitely not for you.