Reviews
"Extravagantly beautiful. . . . Enormously, achingly alive. . . . A howl of love and rage, playful and funny as well as hard and bitter." The New York Times "Exemplary. . . . The essential mysteries of death and sex, friendship and poverty are expressed with rare economy." Newsweek "In characters like Sula, Toni Morrison's originality and power emerge." The Nation "Enchanting. . . . Powerful." Chicago Daily News "Toni Morrison is not just an important contemporary novelist but a major figure in our national literature." The New York Review of Books " Sula is one of the most beautifully written, sustained works of fiction I have read in some time. . . . [Morrison] is a major talent." Elliot Anderson, Chicago Tribune "As mournful as a spiritual and as angry as a clenched fist . . . written in language so pure and resonant that it makes you ache." Playboy "In the first ranks of our living novelists." St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Toni Morrison's gifts are rare: the re-creation of the black experience in America with both artistry and authenticity." Library Journal "Should be read and passed around by book-lovers everywhere." Los Angeles Free Press From the Trade Paperback edition., "Extravagantly beautiful. . . . Enormously, achingly alive. . . . A howl of love and rage, playful and funny as well as hard and bitter." -The New York Times "Exemplary. . . . The essential mysteries of death and sex, friendship and poverty are expressed with rare economy." -Newsweek "In characters like Sula, Toni Morrison's originality and power emerge." -The Nation "Enchanting. . . . Powerful." -Chicago Daily News "Toni Morrison is not just an important contemporary novelist but a major figure in our national literature." -The New York Review of Books "Sulais one of the most beautifully written, sustained works of fiction I have read in some time. . . . [Morrison] is a major talent." -Elliot Anderson,Chicago Tribune "As mournful as a spiritual and as angry as a clenched fist . . . written in language so pure and resonant that it makes you ache." -Playboy "In the first ranks of our living novelists." -St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Toni Morrison's gifts are rare: the re-creation of the black experience in America with both artistry and authenticity." -Library Journal "Should be read and passed around by book-lovers everywhere." -Los Angeles Free Press From the Trade Paperback edition., "Extravagantly beautiful. . . . Enormously, achingly alive. . . . A howl of love and rage, playful and funny as well as hard and bitter." -The New York Times "Exemplary. . . . The essential mysteries of death and sex, friendship and poverty are expressed with rare economy." -Newsweek "In characters like Sula, Toni Morrison's originality and power emerge." -The Nation "Enchanting. . . . Powerful." -Chicago Daily News "Toni Morrison is not just an important contemporary novelist but a major figure in our national literature." -The New York Review of Books "Sula is one of the most beautifully written, sustained works of fiction I have read in some time. . . . [Morrison] is a major talent." -Elliot Anderson, Chicago Tribune "As mournful as a spiritual and as angry as a clenched fist . . . written in language so pure and resonant that it makes you ache." -Playboy "In the first ranks of our living novelists." -St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Toni Morrison's gifts are rare: the re-creation of the black experience in America with both artistry and authenticity." -Library Journal "Should be read and passed around by book-lovers everywhere." -Los Angeles Free Press From the Trade Paperback edition., "Extravagantly beautiful. . . . Enormously, achingly alive. . . . A howl of love and rage, playful and funny as well as hard and bitter." - The New York Times "Exemplary. . . . The essential mysteries of death and sex, friendship and poverty are expressed with rare economy." - Newsweek "In characters like Sula, Toni Morrison's originality and power emerge." - The Nation "Enchanting. . . . Powerful." - Chicago Daily News "Toni Morrison is not just an important contemporary novelist but a major figure in our national literature." - The New York Review of Books " Sula is one of the most beautifully written, sustained works of fiction I have read in some time. . . . [Morrison] is a major talent." -Elliot Anderson, Chicago Tribune "As mournful as a spiritual and as angry as a clenched fist . . . written in language so pure and resonant that it makes you ache." - Playboy "In the first ranks of our living novelists." - St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Toni Morrison's gifts are rare: the re-creation of the black experience in America with both artistry and authenticity." - Library Journal "Should be read and passed around by book-lovers everywhere." - Los Angeles Free Press, "Extravagantly beautiful. . . . Enormously, achingly alive. . . . A howl of love and rage, playful and funny as well as hard and bitter." -- The New York Times "Exemplary. . . . The essential mysteries of death and sex, friendship and poverty are expressed with rare economy." -- Newsweek "In characters like Sula, Toni Morrison's originality and power emerge." -- The Nation "Enchanting. . . . Powerful." -- Chicago Daily News "Toni Morrison is not just an important contemporary novelist but a major figure in our national literature." -- The New York Review of Books " Sula is one of the most beautifully written, sustained works of fiction I have read in some time. . . . [Morrison] is a major talent." --Elliot Anderson, Chicago Tribune "As mournful as a spiritual and as angry as a clenched fist . . . written in language so pure and resonant that it makes you ache." -- Playboy "In the first ranks of our living novelists." -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch "Toni Morrison's gifts are rare: the re-creation of the black experience in America with both artistry and authenticity." -- Library Journal "Should be read and passed around by book-lovers everywhere." -- Los Angeles Free Press
Synopsis
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 up they forge a bond stronger than anything, stronger even than the dark secret they have to bear. Strong enough, it seems, to last a lifetime--until, decades later, as the girls become women, Sula's anarchy leads to a betrayal that may be beyond forgiveness. One of The Atlantic 's Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years Masterful, richly textured, bittersweet, and vital, Sula is a modern masterpiece about love and kinship, about living in an America birthed from slavery. Nobel Prize laureate Toni Morrison gives life to characters who struggle with what society tells them to be, and the love they long for and crave as Black women. Most of all, they ask: When can we let go? What must we hold back? And just how much can be shared in a friendship?, Two girls who grow up to become women. Two friends who become something worse than enemies. In this brilliantly imagined novel, Toni Morrison tells the story of Nel Wright and Sula Peace, who meet as children in the small town of Medallion, Ohio. Their devotion is fierce enough to withstand bullies and the burden of a dreadful secret. It endures even after Nel has grown up to be a pillar of the black community and Sula has become a pariah. But their friendship ends in an unforgivable betrayal--or does it end? Terrifying, comic, ribald and tragic, Sula is a work that overflows with life. "You can't go wrong by reading or re-reading the collected works of Toni Morrison. Beloved , Song of Solomo n, The Bluest Eye , Sula , everything else -- they're transcendent, all of them. You'll be glad you read them."--Barack Obama
