But she had gone on a real trip, and now she was different

I'd expected to write a few posts about this book as I tried to take it all in. There is a lot to take in but I didn't want to stop reading. Or rather, I didn't want to stop reading and take time to write. I did have to put the book down a few times and gather my thoughts but I wasn't ready to write anything down yet.

Morrison never makes her work easy. Her characters never feel like caricatures. They are contradictions, at once beautiful and ugly, good and evil. Ambiguous. Sula takes place in a predominately black town in Ohio from the years 1919 - 1965. It's the story of girlhood friendship between Nel Wright and Sula Peace, of a tight-knit African-American community in a racist world, of the fear of death and change and of the ambiguity of love: a mother's love for her children, love between friends and love between lovers.

Sula isn't a long book (173 pages in my edition) but it takes time to make it through. At least after each chapter, and sometimes in the middle, I had to stop and digest what I'd read, what had happened. I read SparkNotes after each chapter to compare my thoughts to their analysis. Sometimes I came to the same conclusions, sometimes it showed me something new and sometimes I didn't agree. The beginning is my favorite part and I found myself stopping a lot early on. Why did Shadrack initiate and celebrate a National Suicide Day? Why did Helene smile at the racist train conductor and why did the black soldiers react to her the way they did? What did Sula's birthmark mean and how did that meaning change for different characters at different times? It isn't confusing to follow the story but just to understand what's and why it happened.

It's a beautiful book but a sad one. Not depressing, not melodramatic but sad. Most of the books I read are humorous. Sula is not funny. It does not temper moments with humor. The characters might laugh and dance (life isn't always awful) but there's nothing there for the reader to laugh at. It wouldn't suit the story if there was. I was going to say it would make the story as strong, but I don't think something being a comedy automatically means it's lightweight. The book's also not what I would consider quirky, like Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. It's mostly a straightforward narrative with a lot hidden just below the surface.

There's one character in particular that I liked reading about, although I can't really describe her without spoilers so if you've read the story, or don't particularly care if know plot details ahead of time, read on.

*Spoilery spoilers*
I mentioned the characters are contradictions. Eva Peach, titular Sula's grandmother, is my favorite character. She's the strong and proud patriarch of the Peace household and resides over her family and a variety of boarders. Her husband BoyBoy left her with "$1.65, five eggs, three beets and no idea what or how to feel," (32). From these seemingly insurmountable circumstances Eva manages to keep her children alive and in turn keeping them alive is what keeps her alive. But she was never able to play with the children or express her love as any sort of affection because "there wasn't no time" (69).

This being said, Morrison seems almost incapable of creating a character the can be strong a simple. That's wrong. I believe Morrison is capable of creating a simple, two-dimensional character; she's just a better author than that. Eva Peace fiercely loves her three children, especially his son Plum. Plum comes home from war without hope but with a heroin addiction. Eva can't stand to watch her son destruct in this way so she holds him tight, rocks him for awhile and then douses him in kerosene and sets him on fire. Eva takes "I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it" very literally. Is this just an act of violence? Is it an act of love, saving him from his addiction? Is it selfish? A little of everything? See these are the complications Morrison throws at you.
*Spoilers over*

I'm glad Tony decided to challenge himself this month by reading books that are either by African-American authors or deal with the African-American experience and I'm glad he encouraged others to join him. I brought Sula with me with the hope that I would re-read it, but I don't know without this challenge if I would have ever gotten around to it. I can easily talk myself out of things.


Title quote from page 28

Morrison, Toni. Sula. Vintage, 1973.

Outlaw women are fascinating

Tony over at Keeping Up With Mr. Jones put forth a reading challenge for February: in honor of Black History Month read books by African-American authors or else about the African-American experience. I've taken up this challenge and decided to read Sula by Toni Morrison, mostly because I already own the book AND I have it with me. So essentially, I'm doing this because it's easy. Rather coming up with the book is easy. Morrison on the other hand is never easy. She's worth the challenge, but she makes you work for it.

My copy of Sula comes with a foreword by Morrison in which she discusses the experience of being an African-American writer and writing about female characters. Sounds like just the thing to read into for this challenge huh?

Even before getting into the actual story Morrison has given me a lot to think about. Here are some key points  from the intro I want to keep in mind during my reading:

Morrison discussing the political nature forced onto African-American writing

"If Phillis Wheatly wrote "The sky is blue," the critical question was what could blue sky mean to a black slave woman? If Jean Toomer wrote "The iron is hot," the question was how accurately or poorly he expressed chains of servitude." (xi-xii)

Female characters I'll encounter in Sula

"Outlaw women are fascinating -- not always for their behavior, but because historically women are seen as naturally disruptive and their status is an illegal one from birth if it is not under the rule of men." (xvi)

And finally the questions Morrison wanted to ask with this novel

"What is friendship between women when unmediated by men? What choices are available to black women outside their own society's approval? What are the risks of individualism in a determinedly individualistic, yet racially uniform and socially static, community?" (xiii)

I have a feeling this book is going to take me awhile to get through. It's a short but dense book, like her others, and Morrison chooses her words carefully. I find myself putting the book down after a few pages and absorbing exactly what it is she's said. With that I'm both nervous and excited for where this book will lead me.

Morrison, Toni. Sula. Vintage, 2004.

Literary Blog Hop: A difficult literary read

In the past when I've participated in blog hops I've taken part of the welcome-to-anyone hop hosted by Crazy-for-Books.  I have found some great reads over there but the majority of the blogs are not my style.  As such I'm happy those over at The Blue Bookcase have started their own literary blog hop.  Not every book I read and talk about on this site is a literary masterpiece, but this is far more my thing.  I missed the hop last week as I had already posted for the other hop when I saw this one going around so I decided to wait around until this week to join in.  I also would have probably held off on my final World War Z post until tomorrow had I realized this hop started today.  I'm not good at the small details or planning in general so I suppose doing it this way is more my style anyway.

Sorry for the rambling and now onto the question: What's the most difficult literary work you've ever read?  What made it so difficult?

When I saw this question Toni Morrison's Beloved instantly came to mind.  There is so much to take in, so many themes and devices and it can be difficult to follow what's going on, not because the book is poorly written but because it is so rich there are so many different ways to see each scene, particularly the character Beloved.  And the subject matter itself is heartbreaking.  The experiences the characters have gone through are hard to read and hard to believe that while the characters themselves are fictional the abuse they went through was true for so many. I've mentioned in a previous post how other novels by Morrison deal with such heavy topics but Beloved is at the top of that list.  It's hard not to emotionally start to shut down while reading it.  But having said this, it is worth it.