Bad Milkman

I’m reading Song of Solomon by Toni Morrision at the moment, and I just got really angry with Milkman, the protagonist. I don’t usually get angry with main characters. I might get annoyed because they’re making bad decisions or falling in love with people who aren’t good enough for them (I guess that’s the mother-in-me coming out), but Milkman made me angry, disgusted really. And that’s surprising, given the fact that his crazy ex-girlfriend has been trying to kill him for several months. Yet, after the words he just tossed at her, I feel sorry for her. He’s being a rat, no rats get a bad rap, he’s being a demon. It is strange and interesting to feel this animosity for the protagonist. It will probably go away as I read on, but for now I like being surprised by it. Is it strange that I’ve never experienced this before? I think I remember being taken in by the narrator in John Irving’s The 158-Pound Marriage, but that experience wasn’t quite the same.