https://padlet.com/kpaigewilliams/hx1ystpdw56x "Books are a uniquely portable magic." -- Stephen King en-us 2016-08-28 05:01:08 UTC 2023-05-04 07:25:32 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Apple.png kpaigewilliams https://padlet.com/kpaigewilliams/hx1ystpdw56x/wish/120169591 I picked up Sula because I absolutely loved Morrison's Beloved and Song of Solomon for their dense, meaningful, and beautiful writing. No wonder she won the Pulitzer Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature! Over the years, Morrison has become one of my favorite authors, and I was craving a book that made me think and work as a reader. I was craving Morrison, so Sula it was.
Sula is about the life of Sula Peace, her family, and her interactions with various individuals in the Bottom, a mostly black neighborhood in Ohio. Sula is a very strong female character who defies many social norms -- speaks her mind, does not marry, sleeps with white men -- and because of this she is considered 'evil' by many in the town. However, her so-called evil nature is a catalyst for good -- mothers take better care of their children, wives appreciate their husbands, the elderly are looked after with care. Sula is juxtaposed with the townspeople and, most notably throughout the book, with her best friend Nel. These juxtapositions reveal and make the reader grapple with issues of race, gender, superstition, the complexities of love, coming-of-age, war, poverty, and more. 
Here's a sample passage describing Sula: “Sula was distinctly different. Eva’s arrogance and Hannah’s self-indulgence merged in her and, with a twist that was all her own imagination, she lived out her days exploring her own thoughts and emotions, giving them full reign, feeling no obligation to please anybody unless their pleasure pleased her. As willing to feel pain as to give pain, to feel pleasure as to give pleasure, hers was an experimental life…" (118).
The book was everything I was craving and I believe is a great candidate for a book club. I would've loved to have discussed the book with someone along the way and just might pick it up again in the future to do so. [Rating: 5 / 5 stars]

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