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clara_mai's review against another edition
5.0
What a brilliant, complex and powerful novel. While telling the coming-of-age story of the protagonist Milkman, how he grows up in Michigan and eventually moves from North to South in a hunt for gold and a discovery of his ancestry, Morrison also fans out the narrative and introduces about a dozen side characters. They and their stories, and relationships add layer after layer and the further you get into this story, the more connections are revealed to you, if you just read carefully enough. I definitly had to focus and work quite a bit to keep up the level of attention this book demands and it was quite a challenging read. The second half of the book was significantly easier for me and towards the end I coninued to be even more captivated than before. This is the first book by Toni Morrison that I read in the English original (I read an older German translation of Beloved last year and had a feeling that it did not do justice to the original, the newer ones might be better though) and it was such a pleasure to experience the beauty and power of her prose first hand. I won't even try to sum up all the themes and symbolism Morrison incorporated into this story and would instead suggest to everyone to pick up the book and embark on the absolutely wild and enriching journey that is Song of Solomon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder
aparizo704's review against another edition
challenging
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
5.0
Song of Solomon should be essential reading for your late 20s/early 30s. Self-exploration during this time is almost a second puberty, where roots firmly planted in the communities around us blossom into more concrete relationships, and complexity in others is met with cautious curiosity, rather than contemptuous dismissal. With a national identity shaped by religion (particularly in the South), each generation is confronted with inheriting “the sins of the father”, until, at some point, one realizes both punishment and redemption are self-inflicted. Morrison is the master of creating characters who showcase the duality of finding freedom and self-love in their most destructive traits.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Racism
Minor: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Violence
lanid's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Abortion, and Murder
sofipitch's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.75
This is absolutely brilliant novel. Writing a review that isn't a college level essay on the themes of this book feel insufficient to the degree of genius it has. Some of the Christian symbolism was lost on me and I had to look it up. But over all this a beautiful book on family/generational trauma, and the power to become better.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Stalking, and Abandonment
Minor: Gore, Incest, and Abortion
chalkletters's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy
_lia_reads_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Murder
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