Song of Solomon

“It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love”

4/5⭐

A book far too complex to appropriately review in just a few paragraphs.

In the simplest terms, it’s a book that begins and ends with a leap; one a suicide, the other a jump into danger, but both convoluted attempts at flight.

The characters were intricate and deeply flawed and, despite the heavy focus on discovering the past, the pace was quick.

There are a thousand topics worthy of discussion: the meaning of names, family roots, navigating paradoxes, and lasting trauma, but I will focus on two things.

First is the word ‘deserve’, which the main character, Milkman, wrestles with throughout the story. He feels he doesn’t deserve bad luck, bad treatment, dependence on others, the weight of other’s burdens, or the vengeance of those he’s wronged, but in the end, he describes the word as “old and tired and beaten to death.”

He realizes he has been telling those around him, “share your happiness with me but not your unhappiness.”

By the end of the book, in his ambiguous leap into danger mentioned earlier, he may finally realize that “if you surrendered to the air, you could ride it.”

The other thing I was struck by was the dialogue.

It was spectacular.

There were times—especially in Milkman’s conversations with his best friend—that I felt less like I was reading words from a page, and more like I was overhearing a true conversation. The quotation marks and dialogue tags disappeared.

These conversations were packed with non sequiturs and double meanings. Milkman would talk with his friend about some topic or another, but for very different reasons and very different motivations. The subtle game of push and pull going on behind the words was clear and incredibly entertaining.

I know that in whatever I read next, the dialogue will feel stilted and manufactured by comparison.

A book that really deserves a second read before much more can be said about it.

Underline-worthy quotes:

“He can't value you more than you value yourself.”

"They listened to what he said like bright-eyed ravens, trembling in their eagerness to catch & interpret every sound in the universe.”