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Song of Solomon: A Novel Paperback – June 8, 2004

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 5,404 ratings

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An official Oprah Winfrey’s “The Books That Help Me Through” selection • The acclaimed Nobel Prize winner transfigures the coming-of-age story with this brilliantly imagined novel. Includes a new foreword by the author.

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

Milkman Dead was born shortly after a neighborhood eccentric hurled himself off a rooftop in a vain attempt at flight. For the rest of his life he, too, will be trying to fly. As Morrison follows Milkman from his rustbelt city to the place of his family’s origins, she introduces an entire cast of strivers and seeresses, liars and assassins, the inhabitants of a fully realized Black world.

“Morrison moves easily in and out of the lives and thoughts of her characters, luxuriating in the diversity of circumstances and personality, and revelling in the sound of their voices and of her own, which echoes and elaborates theirs.” —
The New Yorker
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Popular Highlights in this book

From the Publisher

Stunningly beautiful says Anne Tyler

Intricate and inventive writes The New Yorker

Rhapsodic work writes The New Yorker

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A rich, full novel. . . . It lifts us up [and] impresses itself upon us like a love affair.” The New York Times Book Review

“A rhapsodic work. . . . Intricate and inventive.”
The New Yorker

“Stunningly beautiful. . . . Full of magnificent people. . . . They are still haunting my house. I suspect they will be with me forever.” —Anne Tyler, The Washington Post

“If Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man went underground, Toni Morrison’s Milkman flies.” —John Leonard, The New York Times Book Review

“It places Toni Morrison in the front rank of contemporary American writers. She has written a novel that will endure.” The Washington Post

“Lovely. . . . A delight, full of lyrical variety and allusiveness. . . . [An] exceptionally diverse novel.” The Atlantic Monthly

“Morrison is a terrific storyteller. . . . Her writing evokes the joyful richness of life.” Newsday

“Morrison dazzles. . . . She creates a black community strangely unto itself yet never out of touch with the white world. . . . With an ear as sharp as glass she has listened to the music of black talk and uses it as a palette knife to create black lives and to provide some of the best fictional dialogue around today.” The Nation

“A marvelous novel, the most moving I have read in ten years of reviewing.”Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Toni Morrison has created a fanciful world here. . . . She has an impeccable sense of emotional detail. She’s the most sensible lyrical writer around today.”The Philadelphia Inquirer

“A fine novel exuberantly constructed. . . . So rich in its use of common speech, so sophisticated in its use of literary traditions and language from the Bible to Faulkner . . . it is also extremely funny.” The Hudson Review

“Toni Morrison is an extraordinarily good writer. Two pages into anything she writes one feels the power of her language and the emotional authority behind that language. . . . One closes the book warmed through by the richness of its sympathy, and by its breathtaking feel for the nature of sexual sorrow.” The Village Voice

“Morrison moves easily in and out of the lives and thoughts of her characters, luxuriating in the diversity of circumstances and personality, and revelling in the sound of their voices and of her own, which echoes and elaborates theirs.” The New Yorker

From the Inside Flap

Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, a novel of large beauty and power, creates a magical world out of four generations of black life in America, a world we enter on the day of the birth of Macon Dead, Jr. (known as Milkman), son of the richest black family in a mid-western town; the day on which the lonely insurance man, Robert Smith, poised in blue silk wings, attempts to fly from a steeple of the hospital, a black Icarus looking homeward...

We see Milkman growing up in his father's money-haunted, death-haunted house with his silent sisters and strangely passive mother, beginning to move outward--through his profound love and combat with his friend Guitar...through Guitar's mad and loving commitment to the secret avengers called the Seven Days...through Milkman's exotic, imprisoning affair with his love-blind cousin, Hagar...and through his unconscious apprenticeship to his mystical Aunt Pilate, who saved his life before he was born.

And we follow him as he strikes out alone; moving first toward adventure and then--as the unspoken truth about his family and his own buried heritage announces itself--toward an adventurous and crucial embrace of life.

This is a novel that expresses, with passion, tenderness, and a magnificence of language, the mysterious primal essence of family bond and conflict, the feelings and experience of all people wanting, and striving, to be alive.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (June 8, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 140003342X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1400033423
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 870L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.15 x 0.71 x 7.95 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 5,404 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
5,404 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book easy to read and engaging. They praise the writing style as gorgeous and lyrical. The story is described as compelling, relatable, and thought-provoking. Readers appreciate the rich, multidimensional characters and emotional connections between them. The emotion level is described as deep and comforting.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

122 customers mention "Readability"122 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's readability. They find it interesting, powerful, and one of their favorite books to read that semester. The prose is described as remarkable and worthwhile. Many readers consider it a classic novel that will stick with them forever.

"Part I was remarkable, but Part II was truly amazing and puts the novel in the category of masterpiece...." Read more

""Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison is a powerful novel that delves into themes of identity, family, and the African American experience...." Read more

"I enjoyed the whole book. A friend of mine had suggested that I read it. It is similar to another book I have read...." Read more

"...The adventures of Milkman Dead made for interesting reading, even if the first half of the novel is slow and nothing much happens...." Read more

90 customers mention "Writing style"73 positive17 negative

Customers appreciate the writing style. They find the prose gorgeous, with a lyrical and elevated tone. The writing structure is described as unbelievable. Overall, readers describe the book as stunning, original, and well-written.

"A brilliant sparkling bevel full of brilliant passages great jazz improvs full of bitterness and wisdom about the pain of black history of black..." Read more

"...Overall, "Song of Solomon" is a thought-provoking and beautifully written novel that offers deep insights into the human experience and the search..." Read more

"...the story line and it's poignant lessons, I'm in awe of the piecing together of words. simply amazing...." Read more

"...A little complicated, but the talented writing, the reoccurring and meaningful themes and the wisdom that is weaved into the prose makes it all..." Read more

80 customers mention "Story quality"62 positive18 negative

Customers enjoy the compelling and relatable story. They find the story mystical and soul-searching, with rich characters and scenes that seem magical. Readers praise the storytelling ability and appreciate the hauntingly beautiful narrative.

"...Toni Morrison is a powerful novel that delves into themes of identity, family, and the African American experience...." Read more

"...So while I'm enjoying the story line and it's poignant lessons, I'm in awe of the piecing together of words. simply amazing...." Read more

"...This story is rich with characters unlike anyone I’ve ever know, yet relatable. Some are searching for fulfillment. Others are fiercely impulsive...." Read more

"...Toni Morrison does an amazing job of capturing a compelling realistic story highlighting topics like segregation, family conflicts, etc...." Read more

41 customers mention "Thought provoking"41 positive0 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking and inspiring. They appreciate the poignant lessons and how the storyline weaves simple truths into delicate circumstances. The characters are enigmatic, with shared histories and perspectives. The book is a great allegory of the African American experience, motivating the protagonist with a sense of purpose. It's rich in cultural anthropology and makes an insightful study of prejudice.

"...passages great jazz improvs full of bitterness and wisdom about the pain of black history of black violence against whites but mainly against blacks..." Read more

"...Overall, "Song of Solomon" is a thought-provoking and beautifully written novel that offers deep insights into the human experience and the search..." Read more

"...From the beginning, he is motivated by a sense of purpose and despises material comforts...." Read more

"...So while I'm enjoying the story line and it's poignant lessons, I'm in awe of the piecing together of words. simply amazing...." Read more

30 customers mention "Character development"30 positive0 negative

Customers find the characters rich and believable. They feel connected to them and can hear each character's voice as if they were real. The story develops from character to character, shifting focus from one to the other, building their shared experiences. It is the author's first book to feature male leading characters.

"...Throughout the book, Morrison weaves a rich tapestry of characters and settings, exploring the complexities of race, class, and gender...." Read more

"...the death of Morrison’s father, it is her first book to feature male leading characters...." Read more

"I could see the characters clearly as I saw them described. I felt them as strongly as I saw them...." Read more

"...Milkman Dead is a unique character that you won't soon forget, and the supporting characters hold their own weight as well. An excellent read." Read more

10 customers mention "Emotion level"10 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's emotional depth and wisdom comforting. They describe it as riveting and a masterful storyteller who offers words of wisdom and comfort.

"...And yet it’s Guitar who offers words of wisdom and comfort to the devastated Hagar (p. 306)...." Read more

"...This book was a rollercoaster of emotions and Morrison specific word choice and writing structure is unbelievable...." Read more

"...stop and you are okay to spill the water all over you because it feels incredible." Read more

"...Thank you for writing such a great novel. It brought me comfort while being deployed." Read more

9 customers mention "Emotional content"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the language poignant, heartbreaking, and inspiring. They describe the book as a mix of dark and lighthearted with elements of magical. The author conveys an atmosphere that sounds real and comes alive.

"...A beautiful momento to her father and the every day lives and struggles they faced and we continue to face." Read more

"...Plus the author is able to convey an atmosphere that sounds real and comes alive within the story. Just not my kind of story." Read more

"...But Toni Morrison captures emotional tones and atmospheres and many other details that give great verisimilitude and deep understanding of the..." Read more

"...Couldn't pick just one mood. I'd say it is a mix of dark and light-hearted with elements of magical realism. Very Thoughtful." Read more

13 customers mention "Pacing"3 positive10 negative

Customers find the book's pacing slow in the first half. They say it takes a long time to get going and needs to be read slowly to grasp its valuable lessons. Some readers found parts tedious and boring, making it difficult to finish.

"...Although not my favorite novel, this is definitely a must read. A little complicated, but the talented writing, the reoccurring and meaningful..." Read more

"...The beginning is super slow but picks up once Milkman starts his journey to the south mainly because Milkman presents himself as sort of a spoiled..." Read more

"I read this book for a book club. The first half was rather slow and followed the life of our main character, Milkman...." Read more

"...Overall, I give it five stars for its addictiveness. Morrison kept me mesmerized the entire time. Can see myself reading again in the future." Read more

Great Book
5 out of 5 stars
Great Book
What a book!!!! Incredible writing and story, as always with Toni Morrison…
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2024
    Part I was remarkable, but Part II was truly amazing and puts the novel in the category of masterpiece. I have read several other works by Morrison, but this will now be my favorite.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2024
    A brilliant sparkling bevel full of brilliant passages great jazz improvs full of bitterness and wisdom about the pain of black history of black violence against whites but mainly against blacks and black women. The pain of it all.
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2024
    "Song of Solomon" by Toni Morrison is a powerful novel that delves into themes of identity, family, and the African American experience. The story follows Macon "Milkman" Dead III, a young man on a journey to discover his roots and heritage.

    Throughout the book, Morrison weaves a rich tapestry of characters and settings, exploring the complexities of race, class, and gender. The novel is known for its lyrical prose and vivid imagery, drawing readers into the world of the Dead family and their history.

    One of the central motifs in the book is the idea of flight, both literal and metaphorical. Flight symbolizes freedom, escape, and self-discovery, as Milkman seeks to break free from the constraints of his past and find his own path in life.

    Overall, "Song of Solomon" is a thought-provoking and beautifully written novel that offers deep insights into the human experience and the search for personal identity. It's definitely a book worth reading and reflecting on.
    3 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2015
    AS A BROTHER TO ME: ‘SONG OF SOLOMON’ BY TONI MORRISON

    [NOTE: This review may contain plot spoilers.]

    1.
    ’Song of Solomon’ (1977) is Toni Morrison’s third novel, and it’s the one that put her on the literary map, winning the National Book Critics award, getting chosen for Oprah’s book club, and inspiring at least two collections of critical essays and the name of a punk-rock band. Written following the death of Morrison’s father, it is her first book to feature male leading characters. The first part of the book is set in an unnamed city in Michigan. The part of the city called ‘Southside’ - i.e. away from the desirable lakefront property to the north - is implied to be the black neighborhood. (The geography is somewhat ambiguous, as some of the landmarks named in Chapter 1 are consistent with Morrison’s native Ohio.) And like Pecola Breedlove in ‘The Bluest Eye’, its chief protagonist, Milkman Dead, is born in the same year as Morrison herself - in fact, one day after TM’s own birth date. The main action of the story takes place in September 1963, in the days following the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama.

    ‘Song of Solomon’ is a family drama; unlike its predecessors, all of the principal characters of ‘Song of Solomon’ - with the seeming exception of Guitar Bains - are connected with a single family, the Dead family, by blood or marriage.

    Macon III “Milkman” Dead has problems. To begin with, well, there’s that nickname. He’s not sure how he got it, and he’s pretty sure he doesn’t want to know. His father, the elder Macon, doesn’t know either, but thinks it sounds “dirty, intimate, and hot”, and correctly suspects that it has some connection to Milkman’s mother, Ruth. Enough said, then.

    His girlfriend (who’s also his cousin, NTTAWWT) is hot, but clingy. When he dumps her (in a note, with which he thoughtfully includes a tip) she goes all crazy and tries to kill him. And his best friend has fallen in with some rather strange characters. Things just don’t seem to be going his way. So when he gets word of a lost family fortune - a bag of gold buried somewhere in Virginia - Milkman sees his chance to leave home in search of freedom.

    2.
    The story centers around the legacy of the first Macon Dead, who was murdered by racists for the Virginia farm he had worked so hard to build. His two orphaned children (their mother died in childbirth), Pilate and the second Macon Dead (Milkman’s future father) escape. The brother and sister remain close until a dispute over their inheritance - a bag of gold, illegal to possess in the early 1930s - leads to their parting.

    By 1963, Macon II has raised three children, and has achieved financial success, and a measure of power in the black community, on his own. His two daughters, now both over 40, remain unmarried and still live at home with their much younger brother. Macon still harbors hatred toward Pilate (lifelong sibling grudges are never pretty) and rules his house with an iron fist. Milkman’s first meeting with his aunt Pilate - against Macon’s strict orders - led to his passionate romantic involvement with Pilate’s granddaughter and his friendship with Guitar, both of whom are a few years older than Milkman himself.

    Guitar Bains will play a central role in the story, and yet we are given remarkably little detail about his background. We learn that he lost his father at the age of 4 to a sawmill accident (which, in a grotesque detail, severed his body in half along the sagittal plane), and that he acquired a lifelong aversion to sweets when the mill owner callously handed out candies at his father’s funeral. Eventually, Guitar will fall in with a group known as the Seven Days, whose other members include Robert B. Smith (whose suicide begins the book) and Porter (whose clandestine affair with Milkman’s sister Corinthians is cut short after Milkman blows the whistle to Macon). The Seven Days are dedicated to avenging white violence against blacks, and the Birmingham killings give new urgency to their need for operational funds.

    It is hinted (pp. 32 - 33) that Macon Dead enjoyed extramarital liaisons with “a slack or lonely female tenant” prior to Milkman’s birth; these encounters could have included Guitar’s mother prior to her disappearance (p. 21). If that’s the case, then it is not impossible that Macon is in fact the natural father of Guitar. This would make Milkman and Guitar brothers, for as Reba pointedly observes (p. 44), siblings may share a single parent. If, as Pilate asserts to Milkman’s confusion (p. 38), there are “three Deads alive”, this would make Guitar the third Dead, and the reference to the two as “brother[s]” at the end of the book is not a figure of speech.

    Milkman and Guitar have different visions of life, and this is clearly shown by their different visions of what the gold will bring them: Milkman sees wealth as the ticket to comfort, independence, and a life away from his family and home; Guitar sees the gold as a means to further the goals of the Seven Days.

    3.
    Milkman’s struggle began before his birth. When Ruth’s father, Dr. Foster, took ill, Macon murdered his father-in-law by destroying his medicine; Lena and Corinthians were toddlers at the time. Ruth and Macon stopped having marital relations after that, but as the years passed, Ruth, desperate for affection and for a third child, went to Macons sister Pilate - a healer - for help. In short order, the youngest Macon Dead, “Milkman”, was conceived.

    When he learned of his wife’s pregnancy, the enraged Macon tried to force Ruth to abort her child, resorting to various strategies including knitting needles. But these attempts failed, and Milkman came into the world alive. It’s possible that a subconscious, prenatal memory of those knitting needles informs the wording of Milkman’s obscene suggestion to Hagar (p. 130) regarding the knife she is holding.

    One of the themes running through ‘Song of Solomon’ is the debilitating effect of a life of ease and comfort. The city-bred Milkman is at a distinct disadvantage in both the physical and the human terrain of rural Virginia. Corinthians, whose elite education rendered her “unfit for work” and alienated most of the eligible black men in the community, is destroyed when her desperate affair with Porter is put to an end. And from the ghostlike figure of Circe we learn that Mrs. Butler, the white lady who inherited the stolen Macon Dead property, took her own life when the money ran out - preferring death to the menial work of keeping up the estate.

    4.
    The shadowy, driven figure of Guitar accompanies Milkman throughout the book, as friend, confidant, mentor, and finally assassin. The novel’s narrative POV is tightly focused on Milkman, and Guitar appears only twice in Milkman’s absence: first, as one of the unnamed children at #3 Fifteenth Street (then being cared for by their grandmother, Mrs. Bains, following the mother’s recent abandonment - p. 21), and again in Chapter 13, where he attempts to comfort Hagar after her rejection by Milkman.

    Guitar’s early rejection of sweets sets the pattern for his response to violence and oppression. From the beginning, he is motivated by a sense of purpose and despises material comforts. At an early age, he internalizes his grandmother’s declaration that “a n****r in business is a terrible thing to see” (p. 22) - a reference to Macon Dead, and to the power that Macon holds over her and much of the community as a property owner. Later, Guitar makes it clear to Milkman that he is willing to overlook, but not to forget, the “sins” of Milkman’s father (p. 57, p. 102).

    Guitar repeatedly chides Milkman for being naive about white racism (pp. 82 - 88) and for generally lacking seriousness (p. 104). So it’s not too surprising when we learn about his induction into the Seven Days, a group dedicated to violent reprisals against whites:

    <i>‘But when a Negro child, Negro woman, or Negro man is killed by whites, and nothing is done about it by their law and their courts, this society selects a similar victim at random, and they execute him in a similar manner if they can.’</i>

    Joining the Seven Days gives Guitar the sense of meaning and purpose he craves. (In another place and time, it’s not difficult to imagine him joining a jihadist group.) He adopts a more disciplined, spartan lifestyle, giving up drinking and smoking. He must turn himself into an efficient killing machine.

    And yet it’s Guitar who offers words of wisdom and comfort to the devastated Hagar (p. 306). Always more of a loner by nature than Milkman, he understands that “you can’t own a human being” and he understands the dangers of overly-enmeshed love. He also understands that Hagar is profoundly unlike her mother and her grandmother (both single mothers) and that being raised without the extended family of “a chous of mamas, grandmamas, aunts, cousins … and what all to give her the strength life demanded of her” has taken a terrible toll on her.

    Of Guitar’s love life we are told very little; he seems to find the solitary lifestyle of the Seven Days congenial. Only on p. 307 is there a hint of a romance in his past:

    <i>“But I did latch on. Once. … But I never wanted to kill her. Him, yeah. But not her.”</i>

    5.
    Anyone who grew up in a dysfunctional family should read ‘Song of Solomon’. Milkman’s struggle for independence from his own smothering family of origin is also his journey towards the discovery of his larger family and heritage. In struggling with his parents (sometimes literally), he comes to understand their world and the forces that shaped them, and he learns to accept them for who they are, with their faults and their strengths.

    In his relationship with Guitar, Milkman is forced to confront his own lack of purpose. In tramping through the swamps and hunting with the black rednecks of Virginia, he confronts his own weakness and pettiness. Having set out to find gold, Milkman ends up losing gold instead (his gold watch, p. 325), and so, like Frodo, finds that his purpose was to lose a treasure and not to find one.

    ‘Song of Solomon’ ends (as will Morrison’s 10th novel, ‘Home’) with a reburial - and the final showdown between Guitar and Milkman, which costs Pilate her life. What he gains instead is the capacity to sacrifice, and the readiness to sacrifice even his own life itself. Having discovered the wonderful secret of his family - the legend of the flying African children - he chooses, not to escape, but to struggle for life itself with his brother.
    86 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2024
    I could see the characters clearly as I saw them described. I felt them as strongly as I saw them. I engaged with each one what they were experiencing and felt it as if I were telling my own story except Guitar. I understood Hagar and Milkman's relationship when it was new and that it would want, but didn't expect Hagar's inability to move on.
    Toni Morrison certainly earned her Nobel prize.
    2 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2024
    This is my favorite book since I was a teenager and it is such great quality hardcover copy of the book with a built in satin bookmark I love this so much thank you for such great quality
  • Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2024
    I really enjoyed this read because who wouldn't! Ms. Toni Morrison (MHSRIP) is literary genius her flow of writing is amazing, it glides.
    So while I'm enjoying the story line and it's poignant lessons, I'm in awe of the piecing together of words. simply amazing.
    I'll be reading this book for a long time. Beautiful
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2023
    Book arrived dented.

Top reviews from other countries

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  • agan
    5.0 out of 5 stars Nice book my son loves it
    Reviewed in Canada on August 26, 2022
    Bought it for my son, a high school student, to read in the summer. The book is good that he spent more time reading the book and less time on games. Love it.
  • flainou
    5.0 out of 5 stars Song of Solomon
    Reviewed in France on September 16, 2023
    Livre de 337p, texte écrit petit. Acheté pour ma fille en Fac mais ne l'a pas encore lu.
  • Natalia
    5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely amazing
    Reviewed in Germany on March 18, 2019
    A magical novel. Beautifully written, engaging, enchanting. I loved submerging in its world.
  • Abdulla shaarif
    5.0 out of 5 stars my friend read this and he said it was wonderful, so on behalf of him
    Reviewed in India on May 2, 2018
    my friend read this and he said it was wonderful, so on behalf of him, 5*
    weird cuz he never actually read a book of this size before
  • Kim Buxton
    5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful
    Reviewed in Australia on November 24, 2020
    I loved everything about this book. The story, the prose. Toni Morrison is now one of my favourite authors, I’m devouring her books.