Sula

Sula by Toni Morrison, 178 pages.
Morrison's second novel, from 1973, is still considered a classic.
The story of two women living in an African-American community in post-World War I Ohio. They are friends with a secret from their childhood; they accidentally caused the death of a younger boy, and that haunts them both. Sula's family swirls in casual violence, her grandmother, Eva, desperate for money to feed her starving children, allegedly let a train amputate her leg for the insurance money, her uncle was killed in a fire, as was her mother, though under drastically different circumstances. Morrison's second novel, it's puzzling to see now, with my clear and wondrous hindsight, that Sula won no major awards. Sure, I can see giving the Pulitzer to The Killer Angels, but two novels won the National Book award that year (and since I haven't read either of them, I won't cast stones), and neither one of those was Sula. Really one of those must-reads.