Wow. I've been meaning to re-read that for 10 years now. You're an inspiration, Emma!
When I was in junior high, maybe high school, I read an excerpt of Song of Solomon in my mother's Redbook magazine. I thought it was a short story, had no idea it was a book.
Five or six years later I found the book, and instantly remembered the short story. There are things I read as a young woman that stuck with me, but most of them I read several times. I read that excerpt once and remembered it for half-a-dozen years.
Morrison blows me away and takes me away, all at the same time. (Although I remember loaning my copy of Beloved to Sister Francis, an English prof in college; she was not impressed - said the symbolism was "too broad." I've never felt quite the same about Beloved since...)
