Song of Solomon
Macon Dead III, known to everyone as Milkman because his mother nursed him far past infancy, is the pampered son of a Black Michigan landlord who has spent a lifetime imitating the white men whose money he learned to respect. Into his adolescence comes Milkman's exile aunt Pilate, a rootwoman with no navel and a green burlap sack she will not open, and his cousin Hagar, whose love for him slowly becomes a kind of weather. When a grown Milkman sets off for a town in Pennsylvania his father has told him held buried gold, he finds instead the song that has been humming through his family for four generations, and a name. Toni Morrison's 1977 third novel, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, remains one of the defining works of American literature on inherited names, Black masculinity, and flight.
Themes & atmosphere
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What you might want to know about Song of Solomon
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Macon Dead III, called Milkman, grows up in a comfortable, brittle Detroit family and drifts through his early thirties until a hunt for old gold pulls him south to his grandfather's Pennsylvania town.
Yes. Song of Solomon won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1977. It was the first novel by a Black author selected as a Book-of-the-Month Club main selection since Native Son.
Song of Solomon uses Toni Morrison's signature lyrical prose, with significant biblical and folkloric symbolism. Most readers find it more accessible than Beloved while still demanding careful attention.
Song of Solomon was written by Toni Morrison, published in 1977 by Vintage International.
Song of Solomon is 341 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Song of Solomon takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
Song of Solomon is a standalone novel by Toni Morrison, not part of a series.
Song of Solomon is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.