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Sula

Toni Morrison

Start date: March 1, 2021

Finish date: March 21, 2021

Discussion: Author's Pick

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What Members Thought

Dec 02, 2016 Cheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, the-psyche, mesmerizing, afro-american

She had no center, no speck around which to grow.

I can't start to explain this book or the feeling I get each time a new chapter (numbered according to years) gives me the anxious expectation similar to unwrapping a piece of chocolate from the box of assortments - you never know what you'll get.

I can't accurately explain why this fluidity of language, this mixture of elegant vernacular, this exhilarating and encompassing flow of words forms trails down my spine and envelops me into a warm c
She had no center, no speck around which to grow.

I can't start to explain this book or the feeling I get each time a new chapter (numbered according to years) gives me the anxious expectation similar to unwrapping a piece of chocolate from the box of assortments - you never know what you'll get.

I can't accurately explain why this fluidity of language, this mixture of elegant vernacular, this exhilarating and encompassing flow of words forms trails down my spine and envelops me into a warm cocoon that somehow makes me feel shielded, somehow makes me feel understood.

I can't pinpoint a character who Sula reminds me of, so uniquely peculiar and atypical she is that even though I don't necessarily like her, nor am I drawn to her, I still understand the themes she embodies, her skepticism about the world, her desire to live in her dreams and her disdain for conformity.

There, in the center of that silence was not eternity but the death of time and a loneliness so profound the word itself had no meaning. For loneliness assumed the absence of other people, and the solitude she found in that desperate terrain had never admitted the possibility of other people.

I can't even start to decipher this ornately drawn friendship between Nel and Sula, this sisterhood that is too tightly boarded to enter, and yet still fragile enough to form cracks; a friendship "so close, they themselves had difficulty distinguishing one's thoughts from the other's."

They were solitary little girls whose loneliness was so profound it intoxicated them and sent them stumbling into Technicolored visions that always included a presence, a someone, who, quite like the dreamer, shared the delight of the dream.

I can't articulate the juxtaposed gloom and excitement that riddles the city of Medallion, nor the irony of the city segregated but still atop a hill that protects and shields the rest of the community from nature's doom; can't explain properly, or conjure up fairly, the delectable concoction of lust and betrayal and jealousy and strife that parallels one woman's psychological journey and self-realization.

What I can say is that this is a Toni Morrison novel that stands apart in its singularness, a book and author you have to read to understand, a book that surprisingly doesn't appear in many book club reads even though it would make for pretty interesting discussions. This is the fourth novel of my Morrison journey I started a couple of years ago. First The Bluest Eye, then Paradise, and later, Home. And I can't wait to keep exploring. ...more

99 likes · Like · see review

Jul 04, 2022 Jaclyn~she lives! catching up on reviews~ rated it it was amazing

I’ve seen a lot of reviewers raving about this book while also saying they never want to read it again. And while I get that sentiment, I’m the opposite. I want to read this book again and again and dissect it and Morrison’s mind. I wish a little bit of her talent would rub off on me. Morrison’s writing is transcendent. I’m envious at the talent it took to write this. The best books make me feel this way, like I’m salivating from jealousy and star struck from awe. That’s how I know I’ve found a ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

Feb 07, 2019 Puck rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, people-of-colour, classics

“When you gone to get married? You need to have some babies. It’ll settle you.”
“I don’t want to make somebody else. I want to make myself.”

Toni Morisson was a name always in the back of my mind since I joined #blackhistorymonth three years ago. Her writing always is praised and her books are well loved, so I was thrilled to finally pick up a work by Morrison; as it turns out, Sula proves to be a great introduction.

Before meeting the title character Morrison first vividly sets up the village s ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Feb 06, 2021 Megan rated it really liked it

I finally finished Sula by Toni Morrison. I started it for @creemyles Instagram #blwnl challenge, a week long reading challenge focused on Toni Morrison during the last week of January. I figured it was such a short book, I’d get it finished in a week, no problem. But I had a writing job that ended up taking more time than I expected, and, Sula is jam-packed with so many experiences, it was a slower read for me. There’s a WWI veteran with PTSD, institutional racism and poverty, tragic death, aba ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 29, 2021 Musings on Living rated it it was amazing

Shelves: black-author, classics, ownvoices, historical

Masterfully and beautifully written, so mournful yet pure that it makes you sad and ache all over at how Toni Morrison portrays the Black experience in America.

I need to let this book sit with me for a moment.

3 likes · Like · see review