Song of Solomon

I really enjoyed how unique and thought-provoking this story was. The plot is a pretty wild ride, the characters are quite memorable, and the whole thing says a lot about race, identity, ancestry, and belonging in America. I really appreciated how Morrison presented the struggle of being lost between multiple worlds or identities. But what stood out to me even more than that was how much of the novel is also about gender. It felt fitting that the story is centered on Milkman, even though almost every female character around him is more interesting and complex than he is. Pilate is a super cool lady, and Ruth and Corinthians are both fascinatingly broken. Meanwhile, Milkman is honestly kind of a dud of a person for most of the book.

We see Milkman go on a journey in an attempt to recover his history and understand where he comes from, but it is clear that the women around him are often the ones who pay the emotional cost of that journey. Ruth, Pilate, Corinthians, Lena, and especially Hagar are constantly loving, waiting, supporting, grieving, or being left behind. I’m sure there is a deep meaning behind all of the biblical names, but Hagar’s name stands out especially, because of how Hagar is cast aside and abandoned in both the Bible and in Song of Solomon. Milkman gets to search for identity and freedom, while Hagar is left behind in the wreckage of his self-discovery. Just as Ruth’s husband and father did to her, and just as Solomon reportedly did to his whole family.

The other main male character, Guitar, is an asshole pretty much any way you look at it, but that’s especially true if we think of him in a gendered context. His anger at racial injustice makes sense, but his idea of retribution is violent, male-centered, and selfish. He says he’s fighting for Black people, but his worldview doesn’t really seem to make room for Black women, or women in general.

Book author: Toni Morrison