I’m Jim McKeown, welcome to Likely Stories, a weekly review of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and biographies.
Toni Morrison is one of the great writers of her generation. Few writers have the emotional and literary power of Morrison. Add to that her development of many stories of the African American experience. She deftly spins tales of great passion, empathy, and love. Morrison gives readers a particularly intense focus of the tragedy of slavery as well as the aftermath leading up to the present day. Her numerous novels include The Bluest Eye, Beloved, and God Help the Child. My particular favorite is Sula. In honor of her recent passing, I am dedicating this review to Toni Morrison.
Sula is the story of two young women who live in the small town of Medallion City. The town has all the aspects of small-town life. “A good white man” offered his slaves a “piece of the Bottom” for his own—provided he performed a difficult chore. Morrison wrote, “When the slave completed the work, he asked the farmer to keep his end of the bargain. Freedom was easy—the farmer had no objection to that. But he didn’t want to give up any of the land. So he told the slave he was very sorry that he had to give him valley land. He had hoped to give him a piece of the bottom. The slave blinked and said he thought valley land was bottom land. The master said, ‘Oh, no! See those hills? That’s bottom land, rich and fertile’.” // ‘But it’s high up in the hills,’ said the slave.” // ‘High up from us,’ said the master, ‘but when God looks down, it’s the bottom. That’s why we call it so. It’s the bottom of heaven—best land there is // (5).
The majority of the story revolves around Nell and Sula, two friends who grew up together. Nell stayed home and took care of her mother and her three children. After five years, Nel’s husband, Shadrack, abandoned her. Then, one day, Sula arrives in town. While Nel managed the home and did most of the chores, Sula got a scholarship and forgot all about Nell for quite a while.
By this time, Nel had a relationship with BoyBoy. When Sula caught the eye of BoyBoy, she made a move. This devastated Nell. Morrison wrote, “So when they met, first in those chocolate halls and next through the ropes of the swing, they felt the ease and comfort of old friends. Because each had discovered years before that they were neither white nor male, and that all freedom and triumph was forbidden to them, they had set about creating something else to be. Their meeting was fortunate, for it let them use each other to grow on. Daughters of distant mothers and incomprehensible fathers (Sula’s because he was dead; Nel’s because he wasn’t), they found in each other’s eyes the intimacy they were looking for” (52).
The story has a tragic ending. Morrison wrote, “Leaves stirred, mud shifted: there was the smell of over-ripe green things. A soft ball of fur broke and scattered like dandelion spores in the breeze. // ‘All that time, all that time, I thought I was missing Jude.’ And the loss pressed down on her chest and came up in her throat. ‘We was girls together,’ she said as though explaining something. ‘O Lord, […] she cried, “girl, girl, girlgirlgirl’” (174.)
If you have never read any of the powerful stories from the pen of Toni Morrison, Sula is an outstanding place to start. I believe you will want to explore many more stories of this marvelous writer. 10 Stars
Likely Stories is a production of KWBU. I’m Jim McKeown. Join me again next time for Likely Stories, and happy reading!
