Song of Solomon Extended Quote

I had to read Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison for my Creative Writing Workshop. Needless to say, I neglected to start it in time. I read 95% of it the day before (the other 5% the day before that). It. Sucked. It's not a bad read at all, it's just a bad read when you do it in one night without breaks. But I'm sure that's true of lots of books. Anyways, I just wanted to post an excerpt because it really struck me and I do what I want.

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Truly landlocked people know they are. Know the occasional Bitter Creek or Powder River that runs through Wyoming; that the large tidy Salt Lake of Utah is all they have of the sea and that they must content themselves with bank, shore, and beach because they cannot claim a coast. And having none, seldom dream of flight. But the people living in the Great Lakes region are confused by their place on the country's edge-- an edge that is border but not coast. They seem to be able to live a long time believing, as coastal people do, that that they are at the frontier where final exit and total escape are the only journeys left. But those five Great Lakes which the St. Lawrence feeds with memories of the sea are themselves landlocked, in spite of the wandering river that connects them to the Atlantic. Once the people of the lake region discover this, the longing to leave becomes acute, and a break from the area, therefore, is necessarily dream-bitten, but necessary nonetheless. It might be an appetite for other streets, other slants of light. Or a yearning to be surrounded by strangers. It may even be a wish to hear the solid click of a door closing behind their backs.

-Song of Solomon Chapter 7 Opening

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I don't think I really need to explain why this speaks to me.

Peace,

Lo