Toni Morrison's Sula

     If I could chose any one author to sit down with and have a little chat, Toni Morrison would be at the top of my list. I read this gem in one day. Sula is heavy, rich, and lighthearted all at once. The effect is intoxicating, just as strong as the spirits Shadrack drinks by pint.
    Sula is about the broken families and the broken women that make up the community of the Bottom, a section in a small town named Medallion. Morrison is capable of writing about race in a manner that is attentive, but not tedious in any way. Mostly though, this novel is about friendship and the bonds formed between women. It follows Sula and Nela, two girls who grew up together but eventually take separate paths-- one conventional and one eccentric. Two guesses who takes the eccentric path. Sula is a testament to energy, courage, and having a mine of one's own.
   On another level, the novel is about good and evil and questioning our conceptions of what is immoral as opposed to natural inclinations coined as evil. Of course Sula and Nel symbolize this dichotomy, with Shadrack as the perfect blend of both good and evil. Nel embodies and internalizes societal expectations while Sula debunks and subverts them. Shadrack on the other hand, who suffers from PTSD, is referred to as evil, when he is really misunderstood by those who surround him. He drinks and swears and yells at small children, but he is harmless. Ultimately, Morrison communicates that deciding what is good and evil boils down to human intent.
     I will probably pick this novel up again next year. It's haunting and acerbic. It left me speechless and aching.