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Book Salon
Song of Solomon

  • This month we're reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. Our faculty host is Joshua Landy.

    "I have always loved Song of Solomon, partly for the sheer musicality of Toni Morrison's voice, partly for the profound questions she forces us to ask ourselves: who we are, where we came from, and-above all-where we want to be going. With Morrison, it really is a matter of what you care about and why."

    Joshua Landy, associate professor of French

About this quarter's book selection

Macon Dead III, better known throughout the novel as Milkman because he was breastfed into his teens, is the first African American to be born at Mercy Hospital just a day after Robert Smith jumps off of the building in a declaration of his own ability to fly. In a journey of self-discovery portrayed throughout Song of Solomon, Milkman discovers the significance of the dramatic scene of his birth and much more.

The son of the richest black man in town, Milkman grows into a privileged and uncompassionate young man. At age 32 he embarks on a search for the supposed fortune of gold left by his father and aunt in a cave in their childhood hometown in the South. In this quest for material wealth he discovers something much more valuable: knowledge of his ancestry. Toni Morrison’s tale is a search for identity, love and friendship that craftily illustrates the black experience of the mid 20th century and before through the exploration of multiple generations of the Dead family.

Song of Solomon, Morrison’s third novel, was released in 1977 to critical and popular acclaim. It is the winner of the 1978 National Book Critics Award and was pivotal to Morrison being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.

The Stanford Book Salon [Seriously Unstuffy]