My mother gave me this book, and I read it today cause it's not a very big book, and I was looking for something to keep me occupied but not for too long.
It was really quite sad! I wasn't expecting sad! It took me by surprise.
I was expecting some conflict, and maybe a little exploring but there was so much more than that. This book is all about relationships, how they are made, how they are broken and how they can be mended or left broken.
It really explored all relationships too. Romantic relationships, friendships, family ties...
And it showed that all kinds of love can break your heart, just as well by a friend or family member as it can be broken by a lover.
The main relationship that is explored though is the relationship between Sula and her best friend Nel. At first when they are young everything is easy and they share everything. But later on their relationship is broken because of their inability to share absolutely everything in their lives.
When this happens you see Nel and Sula, both completely heartbroken over this event, react to their separate heartbreaks in a completely different manner.
In this novel the author also shows how one person can affect an entire group of people just by her presence. In this case Sula becomes the person to blame for everything and anything that goes wrong. She's seen as immoral, someone to hid the children from. No one approaches, or even really speaks to her anymore and it's quite sad because she's not really a bad person. She's just different.
And because she represents to all the people living in her area the very embodiment of degradation and sin, they actually lead better lives because they want to prove themselves better than her. Reverse psychology basically.
All in all a lovely, if quite sad, novel.
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