Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Sula

Sula
Sula
Author: Toni Morrison
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Paperback
reviewed on + 471 more book reviews


This rich and moving novel traces the lives of two black heroines-from their growing up together in a small Ohio town, through their sharply divergent paths of womanhood, to their ultimate confrontation and reconciliation. The one, Nel Wright, chooses to stay in the place of her birth, to marry, to raise a family, to become a pillar of the tightly knit black community. The other, Sula Peace, rejects all that Nel has accepted. She escapes to college, submerges herself in city life, and when she returns to her roots, it is as a rebel, a mocker, a wanton sexual seductress. Both must decide if they can afford to harbor the love they have for each other; and both combine to create an unforgettable rendering of what it means and costs to exist and survive as a black woman in America. From a smoke-free home.