Sula.

Toni Morrison. 1973/2002. Read by the author. Books on Tape. 4, 1.5 hour tapes. 0-7366-8730-0. $36.00. Vinyl; plot note. A

In a little river town called Medallion in Ohio, a slave is given "bottom" land and his freedom. Naturally, the "bottom" land is high up on the hill, windy and difficult to farm. Sula begins in The Bottom, the colored neighborhood, in the 19205. A mind-damaged man called Shadrack returns from WW I and in his madness and despair founds National Suicide Day. The locals laugh at first, but eventually they add January 3rd to their neighborhood calendar. Other residents are Helene Wright and her daughter Nell. Nell's grandmother is a prostitute in New Orleans. Sula's mother is Hannah Peace, who sleeps with whom she pleases but charges no money. Sula's grandmother, Eva, is a tough woman who is missing a leg. She is so tough that she kills her own son, who comes back from WW I a drug addict. Nell and Sula, daughters of distant mothers and absent fathers, become best friends in 1022 when they are both 12. Their lives and those of others in The Bottom are grim.

Morrison, who reads her own novel, writes evocative fiction, though it is so often sad. Nell marries and has three children, then her husband leaves when she discovers him with Sula. Nell abandons Sula for her treachery, visiting her only when Sula is on her deathbed. Only then does Nell realize that all those years she missed not her husband but the companionship of her best friend. A novel of loss, beautifully narrated by its author. For mature teens. Janet Julian, former English Teacher, Grafton H.S., Grafton, MA