Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Song of Solomon

5 stars implies that I recommend it, and I really don’t. If you aren’t gonna tough it out, then it isn’t worth your time, but if you make it to the end, it’s truly life changing. I am better for having read this book.

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zeldazonks's review against another edition

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challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Took me a little bit to get into it and then I devoured most of it in one sitting because Toni Morrison's writing is just so good. Incredible book. Felt a bit more accessible than Beloved and was less emotionally devastating, but still just so good.

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purplehulk713's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Stirring. Toni Morrison certainly knew how to construct wholly unique worlds with realistic racial values and constructs but also her own fictional, ”local” almost, patterns of living that give true character to her novels like Song of Solomon. I felt bad having to rush through it for school, especially since it was a book that we would not discuss for very long, though there a semester’s worth of material to unpack. Though there are definitely hateable characters like Macon Dead II, Milkman’s father, he is characterized so well over the course of the book that you come to empathize with him if not like him for all that he has experienced in his life. Names are incredibly relevant—Milkman, for example, whose name is not his given name, but as he is colloquially known, most likely because since he was born in whatever shape or form, anyone could see that he only sought life for what it could give him, sucking it dry as if it were a milk cow. This is why he forsakes Hagar, whose name literally means “forsaken”, and this is truly so relevant to her character because

she becomes so dependent on his approval of and desire for her that her ultimate realization that she will never have it kills her.

Even the book’s name is so relevant—an allusion to a biblical book of Jewish erotic love poetry, describing a depth of passion for another person without which neither one of them could live. Milkman never truly has this in his life, not with his family, with any of his girlfriends, or with his difficult-to-describe relationship with Guitar. It’s the sense of flight which he seeks the whole novel. The final mysteries including the origins of the Dead family, Shalimar, and the children’s song was so tantalizing both to read and to analyze. My favorite character was Pilate—I found her character most compelling for what I felt was her sincerity despite her position of sentencing (another emphasis on the relevance of names). I only did not give this book five stars because it does not totally click with me, you know? Maybe if I were to read it again. But anyway, will surrender to the air and take flight?

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lqne's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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chalkletters's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

One of my university modules was on Toni Morrison, so I read quite a few of her novels over the course of a single semester, which has meant that — apart from Beloved, which I read first — they’ve kind of blurred into an amorphous mass in my memory. I wanted to revisit them, more slowly, so that I’d have a more distinct understanding of which book was which. With Song of Solomon, all I really remembered was that it had something to do with flying and that I liked it better than some of the others.

What stood out to me the most about Song of Solomon was how complete it felt — it’s hard to know how to break it down into characters and plot and setting for a review. Even though I couldn’t pinpoint the structure of the story, it flowed naturally from one thing to another, even the events that might feel weird in another novel.

The characters are particularly strong, to the extent that I’m surprised I didn’t remember more about them. Milkman and Pilate are the primary focus, but Guitar and Corinthians and Macon are all interesting in their own way. Guitar’s subplot with the Seven Days is compelling by itself, let alone when it weaves into the main narrative.

Toni Morrison’s language isn’t difficult — it fits that adage that good prose should be transparent, letting you see the action without getting in your way. There weren’t any lines that stood out to me as particularly beautiful, but perhaps I was just too swept away in experiencing the story as it came.

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