Book Review of Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison
Novel May Easily be Morrison´s Masterpiece
Jul 22, 2009
The novel is a mosaic of characters driven by their impulses of both a loving and sexual nature. It is a song about a black family that merely three generations after the end of slavery have managed to be rich and successful, but that have dysfunctions that cripple their growth.
But mostly the book is about Macon Dead the third, also known as Milkman.
Mr. Smith Tries to Fly
Milkman is born the 18th of February, 1931. The day he was born was marked by a gruesome event: a man named Mr. Smith had taken his life that day. It had all been accidental; he had been trying to fly. Possibly because of the commotion that Mr. Smith´s dead had caused, Milkman´s mother was the first colored woman to give birth inside Mercy hospital.
Milkman came into the world to a family that was already laden with emotional problems. His father, Macon Dead the second, is a cold, mean spirited man who hates his wife, Ruth Foster. He finds her disgusting, and other than the time that they make Milkman, he doesn´t sleep with her for nearly 20 years.
Macon Dead is also disappointed in his two daughters, Magdalena called Lena, and First Corinthians.
Easy Life
Milkman grows up having an easy and pampered life. Regardless of the family problems, he has everything he wants and needs: money, women wherever he goes, good friends, and the knowledge that he will inherit his father´s business later in life.
In time though, he begins feeling asphyxiated by his life; the hatred that punctuates all of his parent´s movements, the racism that permeates his friends thoughts and actions, and the boundless passionate love that his second cousin Hagar has for him. More importantly, he becomes tired of knowing he isn´t truly independent, since all he has he owes to his parents.
Something Better Than Gold
For these reasons he decides to go on a quest to the town where his father and aunt grew up in, in order to find bundles of gold they once saw. He finds something much more important: himself, and his past.
He learns that the strength that lies within him is far stronger than he ever imagined. He learns that regardless of who wants to take him down he can overcome, and he learns that maybe, just maybe, it is possible to fly after all.
Strong Characters
A number of characters make a backdrop to Milkman´s life, but at times take center stage in the book, making Song of Solomon richer. Characters like Pilate Dead, who, without a bellybutton, and with a stronger will than anybody, creates her own path regardless of society´s norms.
Then there is Hagar Dead, a woman whose strong, bratty love may lead to Milkman´s death, or to her own.
There are also Guitar, Empire State, and Henry Porter, three of the seven men who make the Seven Days. The Seven Days are an organization that fights racism in the most violent and sadistic way.
Perfect Read
The book itself is a contradiction, since it leaves readers satisfied, but at the same time yearning for more.
(Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison is published by Plume, 1987. ISBN: 0-452-26011-6)
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