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In this celebrated novel, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison created a new way of rendering the contradictory nuances of Black life in America. Its earthy poetic language and striking use of folklore and myth established Morrison as a major voice in contemporary fiction.
Song of Solomon begins with one of the most arresting scenes in our century's literature: a dreamlike tableau depicting a man poised on a roof, about to fly into the air, while cloth rose petals swirl above the snow-covered ground and, in the astonished crowd below, one woman sings as another enters premature labor. The child born of that labor, Macon (Milkman) Dead, will eventually come to discover, through his complicated progress to maturity, the meaning of the drama that marked his birth.
Toni Morrison's novel is at once a romance of self-discovery, a retelling of the Black experience in America that uncovers the inalienable poetry of that experience, and a family saga luminous in its depth, imaginative generosity, and universality. It is also a tribute to the ways in which, in the hands of a master, the ancient art of storytelling can be used to make the mysterious and invisible aspects of human life apparent, real, and firm to the touch.
Overall, what did you think of The Bluest Eye? (no spoilers, please!)
I must say that I was very happy that I had the opportunity to read this novel. On a scale of one to five, I definitely give it a five. I have read "Song of Solomon" and "Beloved," but I think this is my favorite. If you are Black, what does it mean to be beautiful? It means you have light skin, ...
-Lorraine_R
"A rich, full novel... . It lifts us up [and] impresses itself upon us like a love affair." —The New York Times Book Review
"A rhapsodic work... . Intricate and inventive." —The New Yorker
"Stunningly beautiful... . Full of magnificent people... . They are still haunting my house. I suspect they will be with me forever." —The Washington Post
This information about Song of Solomon was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Toni Morrison is the author of eleven novels, from The Bluest Eye (1970) to God Help the Child (2015). She received the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and in 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She died in 2019.
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