Song of Solomon Reading Response

This book was very different than anything I have ever read. I am still deciding whether I liked it or not. It was hard for me to follow because it kept jumping back in forth in time. The first three chapters I hap kept re-reading to focus and grasp what was going on. I was extremely confused and it went from the opening scene in 1931 to Milkman being four years old in one paragraph. I do feel this is a book you need to read over and over again to fully gain an understanding of the messages and symbols the author was displaying through each character. I thought the book was interesting that although it dealt with racial issues and focused on how characters such as Guitar and Milkman had different views of status and discrimination, their was very little mention of white characters in the book. The majority if not all the characters were black decent and it was purely one sided view on how the black race dealt with racial issues in a small town at that time. I think Pilate was a crazy character and I didn't like how long it dragged out to find the true nature of why her relationship was the way it was with her brother Macon Dead Jr. I feel like the author was changing the subject and jumping around so much that you never fully get to know any one character. I didn't like how the author killed Milkman in the end, it was as if you finally made some self discovery and then he jumps to his death. The book just builds and layers and builds, and when you finally feel like you might understand where it's leading three of the main characters die within the last pages. Aside from racial views and Milkmans self discovery from his life as his fathers son, to discovering his family history and where he wants to be in the future, I didn't really connect with any other character in the book, or understand their significance in his discovering