Toni Morrison’s "Sula" & playing with meaning

This was my first Toni Morrison book, and it was magnificent. It is clear as you read it that a master is at work. You feel you are in the palm of her hand, and you like it that way.

Horrifying and painful yet life-affirming all at once. Dramatic but in a playful, deft way. Compassionate but not pitying. Pensive but not preachy or judgmental. Especially on this last note - this novel brought back to mind David Chapman’s schematic of predominant stances toward meaning. I think the lens of this schematic helped me to more deeply appreciate the novel. The intertwining of Nel and Sula’s lives is in a way the interplay of eternalist and nihilist-ish philosophies.