Song of Solomon, Morrison's third novel, was met with widespread acclaim, and Morrison earned the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1978.[3] Reynolds Price, reviewing the novel for The New York Times, concluded: "Toni Morrison has earned attention and praise. Few Americans know, and can say, more than she has in this wise and spacious novel."[4]
The novel has faced several challenges and bans in schools throughout the U.S. since 1993.[5][6] As recently as 2010, the novel was challenged and later reinstated at Franklin Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana.[7]
The main character inspired the name of the band The Dead Milkmen, formed in 1983.[8][9]
In 2015, Robert McCrum's chronological list of the 100 best novels written in English, which was published in The Guardian newspaper, named Song of Solomon at No. 89.[10]
