Sula

by Toni Morrison

Book Overview

Sula and Nel are born in the Bottom--a small town at the top of a hill. Sula is wild, and daring; she does what she wants, while Nel is well-mannered, a mamma's girl with a questioning heart. Growing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0452263492
• ISBN13: 9780452263499
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Plume Books
• Length: 174 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Sula is one of my favorite books I purchased it 10 years ago. I recently moved and I boxed this book

I can't say something about the book without giving a spoiler so I'm just going to say it was an awesome book.

Sula

This book is incredible !

GREAT "LISTEN"

Loved this book. I always enjoy books read by the author and like all of Ms Morrison's audio books this one did not disappoint. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading or listening to novels. The story is wonderfully thought provoking and entertaining.

Vivid descriptions and powerful.

I read this book during the summer of my senior year in high school. It is a very powerful book, with an interesting story line. You learn to love Sula. However, there was a scene that may not be appropriate for younger readers. I loved this book and read it quickly. I would read Toni Morrison's other novels based on Sula. Her writing style is very vivid and captivating. I would recommend this book to others.

Dark, Intense, Uncompromising Portrait of Hard Life

The central themes that Toni Morrison tackles in this work are relevant today and wonderfully executed, although very dark and in rough territory. Friendship, death (of more than the physical kind), a hard life, and little regard for morality comes across in this novel. Her primary characters are women, featuring her as an important writer in any Women's Lit class worth its salt. She holds a mirror, making us, forcing us to look, to reinvaulate American Society, to learn from our past so we do not repeat it in our future. However, younger readers should not be allowed this, because the language is harsh and there is some descriptive sexual scenes. Morrison in detail develops the relationship between Sula and Nel, and show, in this short novel, how each move into different paths and how each must cope with the other's decisions. Sula becomes a seductress whilst Nel becomes a housewife. This woman who so loved Nel she cut off part of her finger to protect her later destroys Nel's family. Sula finds it difficult to stay within proper boundaries, apt to be irresponsible, whereas Nel counteracts her. Morrison also shows the product of the slave mentality: black men who did not feel responsible for their children. She keeps this consistently thruout her works. In the slave nightmarish world, black men did not have to provide for them, because that was the owner's job, and because the white man treated them as stock the black's family structure suffered very extensive damage which that is reflected even today in present society. The men would, when they wanted too, just disappear (Jude and BoyBoy here, Paul D in Beloved). The sins of the men are very great indeed.Shadrack, who you find in the opening section, plays an important part with his National Suicide Day (January 3). Traditionally, water symbolizes life, but in this novel it harkens death, and Shadrack is linked to the water, being a fisherman. One of the central elements Morrison allows us to perceive is the black community's desire to better themselves, and the white community setting them back. The whites give the blacks hills for farmland, saying it is prime farm land. In one central scene, Shadrack, leading people like a pied piper, go down, and try to cross over a bridge unfinished. On the symbolic level, the blacks, want of work, wanted to cross over to the white man's land that the white man had unfairly dominated. Shadrack, although none follow him for years (National Suicide Day deals with Shadrack's disgust of being alive in a society that has a good deal of racial injustices), which culminates, with everyone following him down to the bridge, and he, like the Pied Piper (although Shad has a better cause) watch as death comes upon them. Water is important here in another scene as well, as illustrated in another scene involving Nel and Sula when they are children. Over all, an ugly novel about harsh and bitter things. The situat

A fabulous and well written book that everyone should read.

A compelling story of two best friend girls who grew up together through the hard times and happy times of life. Tweleve year old Sula and Nel grew up at "The Bottom" a place where Negros lived, even though it was high up in the hills.Each find comfort in themselves and share every moment with one another. But things start changing as both witness a death of a friend and wonder if anyone will accuse them of murder. As the girls get older, other obstacles gather. Such as a man who comes between them and the unbelieveable betrayal that Sula bestows upon Nel. As both suffer the consequences, they wonder if their friendship will be the same and if the value of trust can ever be regained. I really liked this book it was a remarkable story of two best friends who's friendship broke any obstacle that stood in their way. I recommend that everyone read this novel because it is good for all ages. It's fast-reading and a great novel for everyone to enjoy.