Chapter 1
Song of Solomon opens with a note written by an insurance agent named Robert
Smith announcing that he will fly from the top of Mercy Hospital to the other
side of Lake Superior. About fifty people - mostly unemployed, self-employed or
very young - gather for the spectacle. Mercy Hospital lies on "Not Doctor
Street," a strange street name dating back to 1896 when a colored doctor
moved there and set up his practice in an area otherwise inhabited only by
whites. The Negroes who visited the doctor, and who later moved there
themselves, took to calling the street "Doctor Street." One day,
however, city politicians decided to post notices around town saying that the
road had always been called and always would be called "Mains Avenue and
not Doctor Street." Hence, the Negroes now called the road "Not Doctor
Street."
The year is 1931 and the place is Ohio. While the crowd outside the hospital is
completely absorbed in Mr. Smith's flight of fancy, a colored pregnant woman is
making her way to the hospital entrance. The following day she will be the first
colored woman permitted to give birth inside the hospital's ward; as fate would
have it, she turns out to be the daughter of the (now deceased) doctor after
which "Not Doctor Street" was named, making her something of a local
celebrity. Seeing Mr. Smith high up on the hospital's roof, the distracted
pregnant woman drops the basket she is carrying, spilling red velvety rose
petals everywhere. Her teenage daughters scramble to pick them up before the
February snow soils them. Simultaneously a shabbily clad woman begins singing at
the back of the crowd. Finally, some hospital staff notice that a man is about
to leap from the hospital's roof, and so they dutifully scurry outside to
intervene. The narrator briefly recounts the insurance agent's role in town -
"he was heavily associated with illness and death" - and says that his
prospective jump from the top of this building would qualify as the most
interesting thing he'd done in life. The firemen finally arrive, but not before
it is too late: Mr. Smith has already dived to his death.
The following day the baby, a healthy bouncing boy, is born inside the hospital.
The narrative then fast-forwards four years. We learn that the mother's name is
Ruth Dead, and that her husband - Macon Dead - is not particularly well-liked in
town (and so, by extension, neither is she). They live in a big house that
formerly belonged to Ruth's father, the doctor, and they have a green Dodge
sedan reserved strictly for Sunday drives. Furthermore, we learn Macon's family
lives in fear of him and that he thoroughly despises, if not outright hates, his
wife. The only person he hates more than his wife, we are told, is his younger
sister named Pilate. To cope with her husband's hatred, Ruth allows herself a
few secret indulgences, one of which is that she still breastfeeds her son (and
delights in it!) even though he is four years old. One day, however, her joy is
permanently spoiled when the family flunky, Freddie, happens to witness this
peculiar ceremony. Freddie also happens to be the town's biggest gossip and he
sees no reason to keep this indecent incident quiet. We learn that the boy is
hereafter called "Milkman Dead" even before we learn his real name:
Macon, named after his father and his father's father and so forth. Everybody
takes to calling him "Milkman," however, much to his father's dismay.
Macon never finds out the story behind his son's strange nickname - nobody dares
or cares to tell him - but he has a definite inkling that its origin is lewd.
Names, it turns out, are of supreme importance to Macon Dead and his clan. They
are always chosen from the Bible, frequently at random. Macon's two daughters
are thus named Magdalene and First Corinthians. Macon's sister, Pilate, was
named at birth by their illiterate father (also named Macon, naturally) who
opened the Bible haphazardly and pointed to a group of letters that appeared
strong and handsome to him. The midwife had politely clarified to him that
"Pilate" was a man's name, and the name of the Roman governor who
presided over Christ's crucifixion at that. She pleaded with him to pick another
name. Embittered because his wife died while giving birth, Macon Senior was
quite insistent on naming his daughter Pilate. Unsurprisingly, he prevailed in
his stubbornness. Like father, like son.
We witness two interactions with Macon (Junior) Dead which confirm the negative
things people say about him. He owns a number of houses in the neighborhood,
having begun collecting them in his mid-twenties. As a landlord he is completely
ruthless; moreover, he firmly believes this ruthlessness is the key to his
success. In one scene he threatens to evict a grandmother and her grandchildren
if she doesn't catch up on her rent - she is already two months behind - by the
coming Saturday. He ignores her pleas about the many mouths she has to feed. In
the second exchange Macon confronts a drunk man - one of his tenants - who is
perched high up in an attic window, threatening to kill himself if a woman
doesn't come and "satisfy" him. The women below, enjoying the sheer
insanity of his request, mock and tease him. Macon is eager to get his rent
money before this man kills himself, and he tells the man this bluntly, without
hesitation. The drunkard laughs, but not without also aiming his shotgun at
Macon. In his now familiar merciless manner, Macon taunts the inebriated man,
unflinchingly standing his ground. The man, in the middle of a heated speech,
falls fast asleep. Macon then sends his lackey, Freddie, to retrieve his monthly
rent from the slumbering drunk.
With a sense of triumph, Macon leaves the scene and heads home, quite content
now that he has his rent. It is dusk. He decides to take a shortcut even though
it forces him to pass by his sister's house. The narrator fills us in on Pilate.
She is notorious for selling the wine she produces with her daughter (Reba) and
granddaughter (Hagar) to anyone and everyone, and she lives "pretty much as
though progress was a word that meant walking a little farther on down the
road," without gas or electricity. Perhaps most oddly, Pilate does not have
a bellybutton - the result of her strange birth which claimed the life of her
mother. Macon hears music coming from the house and finds himself unable to
resist the melody despite his dislike and disapproval of Pilate. He secretly and
silently savors the scene from the window, never announcing his presence; the
serenity helps him unwind from a stressful day. Entranced, he finds it difficult
to move on.
