Sula
By: Toni Morrison
Pages: 174
Published Year: 1973
Publisher: Vintage International
Summary (Provided by Goodreads): Sula and Nel are two young black girls: clever and poor. They grow up together sharing their secrets, dreams and happiness. Then Sula breaks free from their small-town community in the uplands of Ohio to roam the cities of America. When she returns ten years later much has changed. Including Nel, who now has a husband and three children. The friendship between the two women becomes strained and the whole town grows wary as Sula continues in her wayward, vagabond and uncompromising ways.
First Impressions
I heard that Well Read Black Girl was doing a read along for Sula. I had heard of other Morrison books, but never read them. I loved the idea of reading a classic along with others since it ca be intimidating to do so by yourself. The idea of a friendship drama occurring in the 1920s sounded so interesting to me!
What I thought
Um. I don’t know what I just read. I will preface this review by saying I don’t think I am the intended reader for this book. I Feel like I really do need to discuss it with others because I feel like I missed the point.
Sula starts in 1920 and ends in the 1960s. Each chapter is a year until 1927 and then there is a 10 year jump to 1937. Sula is the daughter of Hannah and granddaughter of Eva. However, the book starts with Nel who is the daughter of Helene. Nel is quiet and a bit of a loner until she meets Sula. They become instant best friends. The story checks in with them each year, sort of, until Nel gets married. But mostly, it tells the story of Sula’s insane family until Nel gets married. Sula then disappears for 10 years, and when she comes back, she sleeps with Nel’s husband. Not because she loves him, just because she’s bored and wants to.
I understand this book is supposed to be a commentary on black society and black women in the 1920s, but I got so distracted by the insanity of the characters and what terrible people they were that it completely overshadowed everything else for me. I will admit that Morrison’s writing is great. It made the book easy to read and understand. But boy oh boy was this a rollercoaster.
Eva, Sula’s grandma, murders her own son, loses her leg, and jumps/falls out a window to save her own daughter who is on fire. All within a 176 page book. It made my head spin. I never felt any sympathy towards Sula either because she was unnecessarily cruel. I feel similar to her as I did when I read Wuthering Heights. I will be immediately wary of anyone who says that Sula is their favorite literary character or if they relate to her. I get that she was maybe trying to take back her power in a time and age when black women had none, but to be so unnecessarily cruel to her family and friend along the way? I don’t get it one bit.
I wish I had read this book in high school with a teacher to walk me through it. I feel bad rating this book poorly because I truly think it’s more of a me issue. If you are Morrison’s intended audience you’ll probably enjoy it a lot more than I did. I may look into other books by her because I did like her writing style, but unfortunately, this book was not it.