SULA

It was called "the Bottom," the hilly Negro section of town that a white farmer fooled his freed Negro into thinking was bottom land. "The bottom of heaven," he had called it. But it was a deceit and, because it was payment for a favor, a betrayal. Those who live in the Bottom, like Nell and Sula, have learned to endure betrayal and go on, smothering their anger with betrayal in their turn. Lynne Thigpen's narration possesses a grace and reserve that moderates Morrison's rich irony and makes tolerable her pain. Thigpen has a controlled intensity that ranges from anger, to wearied acceptance, to a lilting embrace of this betrayal. Thigpen's reading and Sula's own treachery remind us that the bottom of heaven, after all, is not far from hell. P.E.F. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/SEP 02]