Customer Reviews
A literary gem - By: Sonia, 15 May 2007 
Not only does Toni Morrison write beautiful & engaging prose, she's also a genius when it comes to portraying social issues & evoking social consciousness in her books. Song of Solomon vividly portrays Afro-American life in North America from approximately the 1930's through the 1960's, but adding further depth to social issues & the consequences of hundreds of years of history.
The most striking about this book is in what I see as the major theme: the personal growth the protagonist, Milkman, undergoes when he sets out on a journey looking for riches, only to find riches that have nothing to do with the material. Instead of finding gold he finds his ancestry, his "people", who they were, where they went & why, & in doing so he is forced to make a choice about what type of man he will be: Will he turn away from his people & continue to seek personal gain & lead a detached life, or will he take responsibility for them & start showing some interest in his family, their 'strange' behavior, & his cultural heritage?
Song of Solomon is a book of the senses. The reader is confronted with the characters' thoughts, ideas, morals, dreams, smells, tastes, songs, & so on, making this a book on humanity with alll its aspects on display. And though these confrontations are plentiful, Morrison manages to keep the storyline clear & comprehensible & you run no risk of getting confused in the human mesh. On the contrary, the book is an easy read & the story flows by with almost no effort at alll.
The further you read into this book the more you learn that nothing is the product of chance. Every song, every thought, every action has its purpose, a purpose that lies deeper into one's history than one might be interested in knowing.
A literary gem - By: Sonia, 15 May 2007 Not only does Toni Morrison write beautiful & engaging prose, she's also a genius when it comes to portraying social issues & evoking social consciousness in her books. Song of Solomon vividly portrays Afro-American life in North America from approximately the 1930's through the 1960's, but adding further depth to social issues & the consequences of hundreds of years of history.
The most striking about this book is in what I see as the major theme: the personal growth the protagonist, Milkman, undergoes when he sets out on a journey looking for riches, only to find riches that have nothing to do with the material. Instead of finding gold he finds his ancestry, his "people", who they were, where they went & why, & in doing so he is forced to make a choice about what type of man he will be: Will he turn away from his people & continue to seek personal gain & lead a detached life, or will he take responsibility for them & start showing some interest in his family, their 'strange' behavior, & his cultural heritage?
Song of Solomon is a book of the senses. The reader is confronted with the characters' thoughts, ideas, morals, dreams, smells, tastes, songs, & so on, making this a book on humanity with alll its aspects on display. And though these confrontations are plentiful, Morrison manages to keep the storyline clear & comprehensible & you run no risk of getting confused in the human mesh. On the contrary, the book is an easy read & the story flows by with almost no effort at alll.
The further you read into this book the more you learn that nothing is the product of chance. Every song, every thought, every action has its purpose, a purpose that lies deeper into one's history than one might be interested in knowing.
"Solomon cut across the sky, Solomon gone home." - By: Mary Whipple, 12 Aug 2006 
Filled with imagery & symbolism from the Bible, this magisterial novel also draws on the epic tradition, tracing the roots of four generations of an African-American family as they fight a series of battles--against the legacy of slavery & racism, the loss of cultural values & roots, the trauma of injustice, & the self-centeredness resulting from economic success. For alll its elegance of development & seriousness of purpose, however, this 1977 novel by Toni Morrison is decidedly earthy, filled with unusual characters & exciting, often sensuous, stories about a family descended from Solomon, a freed slave who, according to legend, flew on his own wings back to Africa, leaving his wife & twenty-one children behind.
The male protagonist, Milkman Dead, is the arrogant son of a wealthy slumlord. His aunt Pilate, a poor woman whose life is filled with love, is so vibrant a contrast & so dominating a force in the family, however, that she becomes the fulcrum upon which the action turns. Milkman's selfishness vs. Pilate's compassion, his desire to escape from the family vs. her need to remember its stories & its past, his love-'em-and-leave-'em attitude toward women vs. her generosity of spirit ("If I'd-a knowed more people, I'd-a loved more," she says)--paralllel the tensions which seize every generation of this family.
The novel develops impressionisticallly, not chronologicallly, as stories about characters from four generations unfold, seemingly at random. The relationships of alll these characters, along with the time line in which they live, evolve only graduallly. When Milkman's father, Macon Dead, Jr., tells him the story about how he, accompanied by his sister Pilate, killed a man in a cave & then discovered many bags of the man's gold, Milkman begins the journey which will lead to his discovery of who he is & what gives real meaning to life. In an effort to find the missing gold, he travels to the farm where earlier generations of the family lived, discovering, in the process, the missing links in the family's chain of memories.
Racism is a pervading theme, from the flight of Solomon to the execution of Macon Dead on his own land, and, in the 1960s, the formation of The Seven Days, a vigilante group that kills whites in direct proportion to the number of blacks killed & left unavenged. The novel is primarily about an arrogant young man's self-discovery, however, & the importance of being connected. Lyrical, richly descriptive, powerfully dramatic, & filled with symbols & motifs that connect Milkman in universal ways to the Bible & to the earliest epics, this is Toni Morrison at her best. Mary Whipple
"Solomon cut across the sky, Solomon gone home." - By: Mary Whipple, 22 May 2006 Filled with imagery & symbolism from the Bible, this magisterial novel also draws on the epic tradition, tracing the roots of four generations of an African-American family as they fight a series of battles--against the legacy of slavery & racism, the loss of cultural values & roots, the trauma of injustice, & the self-centeredness resulting from economic success. For alll its elegance of development & seriousness of purpose, however, this 1977 novel by Toni Morrison is decidedly earthy, filled with unusual characters & exciting, often sensuous, stories about a family descended from Solomon, a freed slave who, according to legend, flew on his own wings back to Africa, leaving his wife & twenty-one children behind.
The male protagonist, Milkman Dead, is the arrogant son of a wealthy slumlord. His aunt Pilate, a poor woman whose life is filled with love, is so vibrant a contrast & so dominating a force in the family, however, that she becomes the fulcrum upon which the action turns. Milkman's selfishness vs. Pilate's compassion, his desire to escape from the family vs. her need to remember its stories & its past, his love-'em-and-leave-'em attitude toward women vs. her generosity of spirit ("If I'd-a knowed more people, I'd-a loved more," she says)--paralllel the tensions which seize every generation of this family.
The novel unfolds impressionisticallly, not chronologicallly, as stories about characters from four generations unfold, seemingly at random. The relationships of alll these characters, along with the time line in which they live, evolve only graduallly. When Milkman's father, Macon Dead, Jr., tells him the story about how he, accompanied by his sister Pilate, killed a man in a cave & then discovered many bags of the man's gold, Milkman begins the journey which will lead to his discovery of who he is & what gives real meaning to life. In an effort to find the missing gold, he travels to the farm where earlier generations of the family lived, discovering, in the process, the missing links in the family's chain of past memories.
Racism is a pervading theme, from the flight of Solomon to the execution of Macon Dead on his own land, and, in the 1960s, the formation of The Seven Days, a vigilante group that kills whites in direct proportion to the number of blacks killed & left unavenged. The novel is primarily about an arrogant young man's self-discovery, however, & the importance of being connected. Lyrical, richly descriptive, powerfully dramatic, & filled with symbols & motifs that connect Milkman in universal ways to the Bible & to the earliest epics, this is Toni Morrison at her best. Mary Whipple
A complex, magical exploration of African-American identity - By: , 24 May 2002 First published in 1977 Song of Solomon was Morrison's most successful novel to date. In a way it is a bildungsroman about the development of a young man, Milkman Dead, but it also taps into cultural & family memory to explore the complexities of black identity. There is an element of a puzzle, as Milkman graduallly uncovers his family past & the past of his culture. Morrison shows how for black people in America, family identity is closely connected to the wider culture & history of America. In travelling South Milkman casts off the trappings of one identity - middle class modernity - & delves into his roots & true legacy. Yet there is nothing simplistic in Morrison's view of black history & identity as we see in Milkman's discovery of his Native American side & the complex blending of modes of narrative & expression. Her work could never be described as narrowly "black" fiction or "women's" fiction. Set mainly in the 1960s, the novel explores the issue of assimilation into white middle class America but it doesn't set up essentialist oppositions of black vs white society. There is an acknowledgement of the hybrid nature of America, as well as an assertion of the right of oppressed peoples to a culture & history often denied them.
Morrison deals with these issues but at the same time the novel succeeds on a dramatic level, with superb characterisation & facsinating sub-plots. It is at times angry, moving & even funny - the scene where Milkman & his friend Guitar satirise white hypocrisy towards race could be a Richard Pryor routine.
The novel confirmed Morrison as a serious writer, one who innovates technicallly & addresses serious themes, while maintaining a masterful grasp on plot, dialogue & characterisation.
