Sula

Because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating something else to beis one gets 4 "please don't hit me again, sula!" starsd honestly, for more than half of it, it was leaning towards 5 stars, and not just because of stockholm syndrome.i have never read toni morrison before. her name was at the top of my "authors i have never read, much to my great personal shame" list along with to [...]

Click here to watch a video review of this book on my channel, From Beginning to Bookend.In the hills above the valley town of Medallion, Ohio is a small neighborhood known as the Bottom where black residents form a tight-knit community. They are united in their understanding of discrimination and their experience with racial oppression. The Bottom is home to Nel Wright and Sula Peace, two girls whose friendship is solidified by the burden of a horrendous secret. Once grown, they remain guardian [...]

"Then summer came. A summer limp with the weight of blossoming things. Heavy sunflowers weeping over fences; iris curling and browning at the edges far away from their purple hearts; ears of corn letting their auburn hair wind down to their stalks. And the boys. The beautiful, beautiful boys who dotted the landscape like jewels, split the air with their shouts in the field, and thickened the river with their shining wet backs. Even their footsteps left a smell of smoke behind."- Toni Morrison, S [...]

all these new editions of morrison’s books have the same author photo on the back. and it’s been causing problems. check it out:despite that weird author hand placement thing, i've been kinda seriously obsessing over all these pictures of morrison's huge lion's head, piercing eyes, and silver dreads and as i plow through her body of work i stare at her face for some external indication of all the furious demented & psychotic shit she flings at us. by all appearances she's a lovely woman. [...]

This unerring writer has been the only one to get all 5 star reviews from me so far (for "Beloved," "The Bluest Eye," & this); all of her books have that same wondrous quality. What can be said about our most cherished writer that hasn't already been said? It is really hard to come up with a favorite novel ("Beloved" for its twinges of Goth? "Eye" for its incessant play with tenderness and cruelty? Or this, for its inspiring mix of grief from [the ultraheavy psychological effects of] "Eye" & [...]

Hell ain't things lasting forever. Hell is change.It is time for change; slowly, painfully, but inexorably the spirit of the age sheds old rags and dons a new garb. The mutes are beginning to discover a voice that had been trapped in their windpipes; eyes see things that they had hitherto only watched; and hearts ache with a new throb of hope mixed with fear of which no one can tell which is greater. From this sense of foreboding out comes Sula.The excluded community confined up in the hills out [...]

This is the first time I’ve ever struggled to review a book I’ve read. Perhaps this relentless English rain is getting to me and addling my brain? Not that Sula was in any way bad. Just that I find my response to it is as mysterious as the book itself. I could say it’s been a while since I read Toni Morrison and my first response was excitement at the reminder of how stunningly she can write a sentence – “Grass stood blade by blade, shocked into separateness by an ice that held for day [...]

Toni Morrison is the bee's knees, the cat's pajamas, the flea's eyebrows, the canary's tusks, the eel's ankle, the snake's hip, and the mutt's nuts.

349. Sula, Toni MorrisonSula is a 1973 novel by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, her second to be published after The Bluest Eye.عنوان: سولا ؛ اثر: تونی موریسون؛ (نشر قله)؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: هشتم ماه سپتامبر سال 2012 میلادیعنوان: سولا؛ اثر: تونی موریسون؛ مترجم: گلرخ سعیدنیا؛ ویراستار: فاطمه تیموری؛ تهران، نشر قله، 1387؛ در 226 ص؛ شاب [...]

I always thought of Toni Morrison as one of those writers that your mother reads. Y'know, somewhere in the realms of Danielle Steel. How wrong was I eh? For something so short, the breadth of time and story is remarkable. I loved the dichotomous friendship of Nel and Sula and its eventual result. This novel is surprisingly disgusting as well, like Bret Easton Ellis disturbing. I like twisted tales though and I definitely like Morrison. More like this please!

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 cocoo [...]

Sula is very nearly a horror novel. We're not talking serial killers or unstoppable monstrosities, but raw human horror, the kind of horror of which I wish there was more. Toni Morrison might cringe to think anyone would consider her work in the same breath as horror fiction, but there are quite a few disturbing scenes, ones that I will not spoil or even allude to in this review. I want you to experience them for yourselves. Needless to say, I was shocked by the brutality, and pleasantly surpris [...]

I'm grateful to Rowena for inviting me to join The Year of Reading Toni Morrison group which spurred me to read this now. It's one of Toni Morrison's shorter works, and in her brief introduction to this edition, she notes its uniqueness in having a friendly, comfortable opening to orient the outsider (possibly white) reader.Ignor[ing] the gentle welcome [would] put the reader into immediate confrontation with his wounded mind ['the emotional luggage one carries into the black-topic text']. It wo [...]

Ψαχνοντας μικρα σε μεγεθος βιβλια για να εχω ετοιμα για διαβασμα στο κινητο μου επεσα πανω σε αυτο το μικρο διαμαντακι. Την Toni Morrison την ειχα ακουστα απο διαφορα post που εβλεπα απο σελιδες που εχουν σα θεμα τους τα βιβλια και μπορω να πω πως μου ειχε δημιουργηθει μια ενδομυχη π [...]

I want to first preface this with a concept presented by Harold Bloom. Bloom was discussing the admission or omission of 'ethnic' writers from the canon. He argued the reason there were so many white male writers is because, obviously, of societal factors of oppression, but also because they were the ones doing most of the writing. Bloom does not think we should rewrite the canon with new ethnic writers just because there aren't any. He DOES think an ethnic writer is important and should be ackn [...]

What a captivating book. Can't get over it.

I received this book for free through a complimentary Quarterly Literary Box. After hearing much about her, I have finally read a book by Toni Morrison. I really enjoyed this book. The way Morrison writes is so beautiful. She definitely has a way with words. The story itself was interesting. Sula and Nel together were so interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a female friendship quite like that before. Sula had this ethereal quality about her that was really captivating.

Find this and other Reviews at In Tori Lex When I first read this in high school, I loved it but I didn't have the life experience to understand it, that I do now. This book connects with me, because the culture is familiar. Growing up in a black family,  knowing how burdensome and destructive racism is, this broke my heart all over again. The story focuses on Nel and Sula, two best friends who lose each other and have to deal with the after. Friendship between women, is an undervalued part of [...]

I disliked Sula.Sula the book was great; a bit dry at points, but - of course - very well written, very well rendered by Toni Morrison. This is my first TM book, and I think it was a good introduction.Hannah is one of my favorite characters. I am quite baffled as to how someone could describe a woman who basically sleeps with every man in town but make her seem so tame and likeable that I can't count it against her. I think that's the point; she was dependent on someone else for her financial se [...]

I teach this book in my English classes because it’s short, which curtails the student’s whining somewhat, it satisfies the multi-culti demands by the college, but mostly I teach it because it’s a great fucking book.Morrison wrote an introduction in which he says she wanted to talk about social problems, always a kiss of death for good stories, but her literary genius took the reins from her social activist. That is to say, her characters don’t stop to scold the reader or go through puni [...]

Quick re-read for Max' bookclub Uncovered.

The usual caveats apply with regards to my review and rating of this book (see my profile), but overall I didn't enjoy Sula because it made me profoundly uncomfortable. I distinctly remember feeling depressed and disheartened by the premise put forth by the novel that in order for a woman to be truly free, she had to behave like Sula--whose behavior I found quirky at best and reprehensible at worst. What's more, even Sula with all her freedom didn't seem to be truly happy--there were still too m [...]

I really enjoyed Sula, although The Bluest Eye, my first Toni Morrison read, remains my favorite. The book lays open the stark choices that women had for most of the 20th century, between staid, upright housewife and woman of the world. I still don’t know how to discuss the book without giving away too much. Let me just say that Sula follows the relationship of two African-American girls — the polar opposites, Nel and Sula — in an Ohio river town from the 1920s into 1940.Unlike a lot of � [...]

'The Bottom' is a community of black families in the hills above the valley city of Medallion, Ohio where white families live. The story begins in the early 1920's - just after the end of WWI - and traumatized soldiers are returning to town. The main characters in the story are Nel and Sula, who bond as young schoolgirls in 'The Bottom.' Nel is the only child of a repressed mother determined to control every aspect of Nel's life, while Sula grows up in a rather raucous extended family. This incl [...]

“It was a fine cry - loud and long - but it had no bottom and it had no top, just circles and circles of sorrow.” My entire literary education has been filled with vague references to Toni Morrison - and yet despite years and years of knowing her name, knowing she was brilliant and hearing so, so much about the beauty of her novels I never picked up one of her books until now. Sula is a beautiful book. Toni Morrison understands the hearts of people, seems to be able to perceive the souls of [...]

Sula was a gift to me from an old boyfriend who I had been having trust issues with. I never forget he gave me this book as a birthday gift. I read it feeling mixed with emotions regarding my thoughts of his cheating or potential cheating with other women. Nonetheless, I read this book. I remember getting mad at Sula because it seemed no matter who was nice or extended kindness to her she always managed to have a negative reaction towards them. After finishing this book I recall feeling angry wi [...]

2 stars - Meh. Just ok.Toni Morrison has been on my personal "must read" authors list for years, so it is especially disappointing to find that her style is simply not a good fit for my tastes. This book jumps from one unpleasant subject to the next, bouncing in and out of a stream of consciousness flow. While appropriate for the time in which the novel is set, I also found the repetitive, constant focus on race to be platitudinous and unfortunate. There are far more things I would like to know [...]

Sula is controversial and she doesn't care. This is a novel about friendship in its most overwhelming form - not two women as friends, but two women as one: sharing, sharing, sharing until sharing was no longer appropriatebut does Sula know that? Did Nel?Best lines:1. "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."2. "She had been looking all along for a friend, and it took her a while to discover that a l [...]

I can now say I've read this author whom I've heard of for years now & can agree that she's a terrific writer, her way with words is lovely & leaves a lasting impression & I'll definitely read some of her other books. That said I will regretfully admit this story was deeply depressing & I disliked almost all the characters. I found them all to be pretty selfish & cruel & just a really unpleasant lot. The friendship between Nel & Sula was completely unimaginative as it [...]

It could be that I read this book a long time ago and am misremembering it. It could be that I read this book for a college lit class and had a terrible professor. However, I did not much care for this book.Here is what I remember about this book as it was taught to me by an awful college professor who would scream at the class and give bad grades to anyone who disagreed with her:Sula and Nel are super-best friends throughout their childhood. Sula moves away. Nel gets married and has some kids. [...]