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Song of Solomon (Everyman's Library (Cloth)) | 
| Author: Toni Morrison
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
Buy Used: $0.46
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Avg. Customer Rating:  217 reviews
Sales Rank: 133232
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 1.1
ISBN: 0679445048
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780679445043
ASIN: 0679445048
Publication Date: November 14, 1995
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Amazon.com
The third novel from one America's most powerful writers turns 20 years old in 1997, but Song of Solomon long ago ascended to the top shelf in the ranks of great literature. This Everyman's Library hardcover edition of the Nobel Prize-winning Morrison's lyrical, powerful, and erudite novel contains a chronology that situates the book in its historical context, and an introduction from author Reynolds Price.
Product Description
(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
In this celebrated novel, Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison created a new way of rendering the contradictory nuances of black life in America. Its earthy poetic language and striking use of folklore and myth established Morrison as a major voice in contemporary fiction.
Song of Solomon begins with one of the most arresting scenes in our century's literature: a dreamlike tableau depicting a man poised on a roof, about to fly into the air, while cloth rose petals swirl above the snow-covered ground and, in the astonished crowd below, one woman sings as another enters premature labor. The child born of that labor, Macon (Milkman) Dead, will eventually come to discover, through his complicated progress to maturity, the meaning of the drama that marked his birth. Toni Morrison's novel is at once a romance of self-discovery, a retelling of the black experience in America that uncovers the inalienable poetry of that experience, and a family saga luminous in its depth, imaginative generosity, and universality. It is also a tribute to the ways in which, in the hands of a master, the ancient art of storytelling can be used to make the mysterious and invisible aspects of human life apparent, real, and firm to the touch.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 212 more reviews...
 Morrison's gold July 31, 2008
The language is inescapably lush and beautiful. The layers of storytelling are breath-taking. The emotional power is undeniable. This novel has humor, pathos, tragedy and hope. A joy from beginning to end.
perfection! July 9, 2008
So far my favorite by Toni Morrison who is just incredibly creative, original. There is really nobody who writes like her, able to convey multiple topics in such a magical way. Every page is filled with beauty, magic, history, and sharp observations on human psychology. The stories of the characters are unpredictable, but make perfect sense in the end. The writing is fluid, poetic, and mythical. Toni Morrison truly is one of the best writers of our time!
 A total distortion of the novel June 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I can't believe that an artist like Toni Morrison would allow the book to be slashed and altered with this abridgment. The result of this Reader's Digest style alteration is a work that bears no relation to the novel. If you want to misunderstand the novel, use this recording. You'd be better off in Sparknotes than in listening to this. What a waste.
Song of Solomon is... May 17, 2008
0 out of 6 found this review helpful
... pretty terrible. I had to read this book for a class in high school. It has the appearance of being deep and meaningful, but in reality, Toni Morrison just throws a bunch of symbols together and calls it a book.
Masterpiece [25] January 1, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Morrison's "Song of Solomon" encapsulates her strongest skills into one novel.
The story line is unparalleled - it eclipses even some of her other highly acclaimed pieces like "Sula" or "Beloved." The dialect delivered by the people is equal to that shown in "Jazz" or "Beloved." And, her weaving of the story lines throughout the pages of the novel, sews the novel's fabric or philosophies deeply into the reader's mind - as only great novels seem to be do.
This may be the Southern America's finest glory in literature - rivaled only by Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" or Faulkner's greats - "As I Lay Dying" or "The Sound and the Fury." This is one of the great African American novels - rivaled only by Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man", Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" or James Baldwin's "Go Tell It On The Mountain." In short, this a great novel.
Many aspects of the life of Macon Death III, a/k/a Milkman - whose life we watch from birth to his early 30's - are happy and dreary. We learn about his witch-like aunt, Pilate, whose lazy daughter Reba birth's his lover, Hagar. As he grows in wealth, his soul feels closer to his name. "My name's Macon; I'm already dead." And, many are trying to prompt invitation to his dying to his name - first his father, then his girlfriend, then a knife-wielding maniac in a small town, and lastly his best friend.
During a search for life, and seeking to find an exit from his "Death", Milkman seeks to find what others may know about his past. His parent's contradictory statements about what the other did to present the dysfunctional aspects of their family both confuse and anger him. His aunt delivers more light on who he is as she speaks about his grandfather's apparition's requests. His father silently will not negate this statement. And, others see ghosts too - something not uncommon for a Morrison novel - particularly in "Beloved."
And, like most Morrison novels, inhumane treatment by men upon other men delivers premature death or destruction of family. Morrison's novels commonly have white man's grotesquely cruel acts upon innocent black children affect the innocents - so affected that main characters often become morally corrupt. This novel is no different. But, the degree of corruption establishes new heights with an organization called the Seven Days. This organization belays the Judeo-Christian ethic, its vigilantes become terrorist murderers of innocent whites - reciprocating to the whites what happened to them or their peers. Southern communities are akin to Palestine. Fighting "bad people" apparently backfires - the acts of violence (whites upon blacks or vice versa) does not exterminate the "other's" hatred, it breeds more hatred which concurrently breeds more violence.
If one uses metaphor to describe Morrison's writing, her high couture is not fundamentally created by the fabric - but rather a composition founded upon the artistry, the sewing. She does not use large words or deeply rooted symbolism which may confuse some readers. Instead, she writes in a manner which can be understood by a wide audience.
Powerfully written, this book makes you pour through the pages to see what happens next. This is the premier work by a premier author and should not be overlooked.
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