Song of Solomon

This is one of my favorite books. I recommend that people read this before tackling any other Toni Morrison novels. I like this book better than her other novels because I could understand it more. I feel as if there is less symbolism here than in her other work. She is not as flowery here and uses more "plain everyday language." Overall, a great book. It is a good purchase for a home library.

Toni Morrison were letting the youth know about, people with amazing collection of losers and fighters, innocents and murders, followers of ghosts and followers of money, all of whom add to the pleasure of this exceptionally diverse novel. When Toni was a little girl she was raised in a bad neiborhood. Toni was scared to come out side the house because of the dangerous surroundings around here. Toni had a miserable life. She listened to stories from her friends about them getting raped and abused by their parents. She was very scared of her father as a young child.
I like this book because it's a good example about a freighting childhood inside of a bad neiborhood. I was raised in a bad nationhood but I wasn't scared of nothing I was very brave. She teaches our youth today to watch your surroundings. If you read this boot you would be like what a child life. You would never want to put your feet in her shoes.

Every time I read a novel by Toni Morrison, I feel like I must be missing something. I am able to take a step back and appreciate the beauty of her writing. Sentence by sentence, she puts together wonderful phrases that create stunning imagery. She is, without a doubt, a great writer.

However, I feel like her stories are supposed to have deeper meaning than I'm finding. I think I'm probably missing an underlying message somewhere, but I'm not sure how to analyze her books in order to get at this message.

I liked this book better than others of hers I've read; some have been too depressing for words and this one, although it had its moments, also had some redeeming characters and hopeful attitudes.

Milkman is a man whose adulthood is shaped by his childhood as the son of a dependent mother and a cold father, the much younger brother of two dissatisfied sisters. His father is obsessed with acquiring things as status symbols, and his mother is obsessed with the memory of her father, a prestigious doctor whom her husband is never able to measure up to.

Mostly because it is forbidden, Milkman begins spending time with his eccentric aunt, who lives with her daughter and granddaughter across town. Soon he starts up a relationship with the granddaughter, his cousin, but breaks it off when he tires of it, never considering his cousin's feelings.

Partly because of his cousin's murderous response to their breakup, partly as a quest for family treasure and partly because he is simply feeling smothered by his life, Milkman sets off on a journey to trace his family's roots. What he discovers about the past and about himself surprises him.

Toni Morrison has never disappointed. This is a deep, rich experience. Ms. Morrison writes in beautifully overlapping, intertwining layers and vines, like a French braid from head to floor, the strands only coming together inches above the plush carpeting. It is not possible to completely crack and embrace this gem encrusted geode in one read. About every ten years I discover something new to appreciate when I treat myself to another swim in Song of Solomon.

I'm no prude, but some of the actions described in this book go beyond crude to disgusting and repulsive. Who needs to waste time reading about such behavior? Don't we see enough of the depths of human depravity on the news? I would have expected a huge protest from families of middle class black people, who are portayed with every variety of perversion and obsession...the only ones who are shown as decent human beings are strange in their own ways, nonformist to the extreme.