Sula

Toni Morrison

Jul 2007 · Sold by Vintage

About this ebook

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?

Ratings and reviews

I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it either. I can tell you if it had been any longer I likely wouldn't have finished it but it was a pretty quick read. I liked this book more toward the end, the last few chapters. Morrison can be 'overly wordy' in some parts then immediately her writing becomes clear again, this was annoying to me. I could've deleted a bunch of passages that ended up just cluttering the storyline -- at the same time she delivers a couple lines that are just genius writing.

After reading this book, I've realized that we all need a person like Sula, no matter how horrifying the idea is. Chaos is truly needed to keep peace among the people in The Bottom. Toni Morrison proves that chaos—or the "bad"—is necessary for the "good" to be noble. Very easy read, but many *important* metaphors that one needs to look out for! Highly recommended—especially if you're a Toni Morrison fan!

The best word I can use to describe this book is "startling." It is striking, surreal, and a delightfully wild ride from start to finish. Morrison achieves some amazing things with the characters she uses, her writing style and use of imagery is so unique and everything comes together in a beautiful way. She diverts the reader's assumptions again and again, and almost everything is unexpected, but perfectly sensible. Even the most arbitrary details have purpose and meaning, and among the surrealism and magical realism of the story you still manage to find very real characters quite unlike any other.

About the author

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.