Song of Solomon

After reading this one for a few days on and off again, I finished Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon.  Lots of levels in this one!  This one is best for the English major or at least someone who connects things at multiple points.  Macon “Milkman” Dead III is the protagonist.  How’d he get that nickname?  Well he was caught breastfeeding with mom at an older age than most thought he should! Love the characters names in this one – his sisters:  First Corinthians and Magdelene (Lena), his best friend: Guitar, and his aunt Pilate.  The book starts with a man “flying” to his death and ends in a similar situation with Milkman.  In between there is the tryst between characters, the desire of Milkman’s niece Hagar (for him!!), and the attempted murder of Milkman by his best friend Guitar (who believes Milkman has stolen gold that the two of them were to have found and shared the profits jointly).  Milkman lived in Michigan as an African American man trying to find out more about his heritage and also dealing with the challenges of being a black man in the US understanding his identity and what he could and should be able to experience.  As a reader there were scenes that really engaged me like the scene where Milkman drove down to Virginia in search for his heritage and parent’s history and landed in a situation where he was almost killed by Southern black men.  Many themes emerge in the text: the role of the black woman and what level of equality she has in the black community, and how does one find their heritage as a black person when so much was erased, even for Milkman who learns that his grandfather’s name was actually transcribed wrong when he registered after the end of slavery.  The names of a number of the characters have Biblical significance, as does the title.  There is also a spirit/evil theme in relation to some of the characters and how they act out.  This is a story with many stories throughout.  Morrison, in her own way, paints a picture that demonstrates the shear grit of life at the time, the struggles, the sexuality, the inability to escape, and the desires from one person to another.  Hard at times to place the cultural context of the time that the story was being told, as it resonated to me as 1930s, but certainly much more 1960s.  I know I missed a good deal of meaning and so this is a book that needs concentration AND probably a second or third read.  I liked it.