Paradise

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Overview

"They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time. No need to hurry out here. They are 17 miles from a town which has 90 miles between it and any other. Hiding places will be plentiful in the Convent, but there is time and the day has just begun.

"They are nine, over twice the number of women they are obliged to stampede or kill and they have the paraphernalia for either requirement: rope, a palm leaf cross, handcuffs, Mace and sunglasses, along with clean, handsome guns."

So begins Toni Morrison's hypnotic and arresting new novel, Paradise, and so will it effectively and hauntingly end. The visit of cruel rage to the Convent frames Paradise, it literally collects and distills all the rich, churning history of this community, focusing the past so that one can say, "[T]he venom is manageable now. Shooting the first woman (the white one) has clarified it like butter: the pure oil of hatred on top, its hardness stabilized below." The cruelty called forth at the Convent will hold and completely transform Morrison's searing account of Ruby, Oklahoma, transform it for the reader as well as for the unhinged citizens of this town. And the slaughter will transform Ruby's "true if aloof neighbor," the mansion-turned-Convent, known, among other things, for its delicious pecan pies and its strings of peppers, "hot as hellfire."

Between the bookends of violence, Morrison unfolds her long-reaching history of Ruby, an insular black enclave in the flatland fields of Oklahoma, pop. 360. The town keeps a vivid memory of slavery and the infinite sacrifices of its ancestors by maintaining a brick oven with a suggestive, oracular grillwork inscription. The Oven once read, "Beware the furrow of His brow," but time has made the iron grill as protean as the history of the town itself, as susceptible to revision as any of their memories.

Chapter by chapter, Morrison patiently spins out the cast of women of the Convent, Connie, Mavis, Gigi, Seneca, and the intertwined lives of the townspeople: Soane, Dovey, Patricia, Reverends Pulliam and Misner, the formidable twins Deacon and Steward Morgan, who own the town bank. This is Morrison at her most sure-handed, creating the myths behind the lives of her many characters, at once entangling and disentangling their collective and individual fates. It is why she is perhaps the most celebrated writer in America.

The 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Toni Morrison has forged a hard-edged and lyrical portrait of the American story, exploring the experience of black Americans in her fiction, tracing slavery's roots and the reach of it into life today. Her previous novels include The Bluest Eye (1970); Sula (1973); Song of Solomon (1977), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award; Tar Baby (1981); the successful Beloved (1987), which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; and the beautiful and brilliant Jazz (1992).

Admirers of this previous work will recognize in "Paradise" an affecting undertow of redemption beneath the vivid pull of violence. As with her other novels, it is in Morrison's attention to language that she is able to show her obvious love and respect for the characters in "Paradise". The lyrical intensity and poetry of her language will be familiar, as will her unflinching portrayal of the town's life. With all of their passions, lusts, grudges, dreams, fears, and loves laid bare, the men and women of Ruby and of the Convent seem as fragile and as morally ambiguous as any of us.

What the sins of the Convent are, finally, is not completely apparent to everyone in Ruby, but the prejudices and injustices that fuel the violence are unmistakably clear. As with William Golding's "Lord of the Flies," the lingering question is, How can something so profane rise out of something so seemingly sacred? Just as on the island of those bestial children, there is an impetus toward a violence in islandlike Ruby. And as successful and convincing as the ratcheting up of that violence is, it is in the heart-catching aftermath of the event that Morrison shines brightest, that her writing is the most poignant.

Near the close of the novel, after the slaughter at the Convent, one of the Morgan brothers, Deacon, tells a story about his and his brother's grandfather, one of the town fathers. Grandfather Zechariah "walked barefoot for two hundred miles rather than dance," Deacon explains.

Few knew and fewer remember that Zechariah had a twin, and before he changed his name, they were known as Coffee and Tea. When Coffee got the statehouse job, Tea seemed as pleased as everybody else. And when his brother was thrown out of office, he was equally affronted and humiliated. One day, years later, when he and his twin were walking near a saloon, some whitemen, amused by the double faces, encouraged the brothers to dance. Since the encouragement took the form of a pistol, Tea, quite reasonably, accommodated the whites, even though he was a grown man, older than they were. Coffee took a bullet in his foot instead. From that moment they weren't brothers anymore. Coffee began to plan a new life elsewhere. He contacted other men, other former legislators who had the same misfortune as his -- Juvenal DuPres and Drum Blackhorse. They were the three who formed the nucleus of the Old Fathers. Needless to say, Coffee didn't ask Tea to join them on their journey to Oklahoma.

"I always thought Coffee -- Big Papa -- was wrong," said Deacon Morgan. "Wrong in what he did to his brother. Tea was his twin, after all. Now I'm less sure. I'm thinking Coffee was right because he saw something in Tea that wasn't just going along with some drunken whiteboys. He saw something that shamed him. The way his brother thought about things; the choices he made when up against it. Coffee couldn't take it. Not because he was ashamed of his twin, but because the shame was in himself. It scared him. So he went off and never spoke to his brother again. Not one word. Know what I mean?"

You'll know and feel precisely what he means and more by the end of "Paradise". And the knowledge will not fail to haunt you, just as it haunts all those in Ruby, Oklahoma.--William Lychack

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Paradise is an incredible story brought to life by Toni Morrison's dramatic, powerful reading. A former leisure home converted into a convent by a group of battered women in an African-American town becomes the site of a brutal attack when nine men force their way in. Morrison weaves together the history of the town with the present lives of its inhabitants, resulting in her trademark multilayered narrative style.

D. T. Max

For me there are two Toni Morrisons. The first Morrison is intimate and republican. Her theme, most brightly handled in The Bluest Eye, is family. The second Morrison is impersonal and imperial. Her theme, majestically handled, is history. The ironically titled Paradise, like Beloved, belongs to the work of the second Toni Morrison. Sentences roll on like breakers. The generations are born, till the earth and lie beneath. Sing, oh muse!

Paradise begins in 1976 in Ruby, an affluent all-black Oklahoma town with a population of 360, and flashes back to the men and women who founded the town's precursor, Haven, after the Civil War. Haven was decimated not by whites (there are hardly any whites in Paradise) but by the Depression, leading the children of its founders to pick up and move 240 miles to the west and try again.

Nearly every townsperson gets a cameo in the course of this narrative of flawed nation-building. What I wouldn't give for a relationship chart. There are the town's macho leaders, the twins Deacon and Steward Morgan. There are their wives, Soane and Dovey. Both know tragedy. One has had two sons die. The other has had multiple miscarriages, each punished according to the sins of the husband. There is an insurgent outside preacher named Reverend Misner, who is keeping court with an independent woman and store owner named Anna Flood. They are the closest thing to common sense in the town. And there is a no-good lothario named K.D., son of Deacon and Steward's deceased sister Ruby, eponym of the town. Imagine a family reunion when you're not quite catching the names.

The action, though, is simple. As the novel opens, a woman lies dead in the front hall of the Convent, a former Catholic retreat just outside Ruby. The town's alpha menfolk have driven over and shot her, and now they are hunting down the house's remaining inhabitants. Connie, Seneca, Grace, Pallas and Mavis are the prey, female refugees who gathered in this safe place. They have done nothing wrong. Their crime is otherness. Their practices are vaguely occult, vaguely Sapphic and vaguely threatening to law and order. The men mistrust them. In short, they are killed because they can be slain without consequence.

And afterward Ruby is a little bit sorry. Morrison writes: "Bewildered, angry, sad, frightened people pile into cars, making their way back ... How hard they had worked for this place; how far away they once were from the terribleness they have just witnessed. How could so clean and blessed a mission devour itself and become the world they had escaped?" It would not, I think, be a leap to say there is a metaphor here.

There's also a helluva trick, a real coup de theatre, in these last pages. Beloved is no longer Morrison's only ghost story. But you'll have to read from the opening scene, when the guns go off, to the final one, when the chickens come home to roost, to figure this out. This is an extraordinary novel from a Nobel Prize winner confident enough to try anything.
— Salon

More Reviews (12) Fewer Reviews

Geoffrey Bent

In Paradise [Toni Morrison] has produced, unfortunately, her weakest book.... A theme can be pursued as relentlessly as an idea, and repeating a pattern twelve times doesn't make it twelve times more convincing... Paradise has about it a belligerent singlemindedness&#151one that gives the author's plea for tolerance the uninflected purity of a religious tract.
— The Southern Review

Los Angeles Times

...[A] fascinating story...profound and provocative.

Michiko Katukani

[The novel] addresses the same great themes [as Morrison's] 1987 masterpiece, Beloved: the loss of innocence, the paralyzing power of ancient memories and the difficulty of accepting loss and change and pain. . . .[Paradise is] a heavy-handed, schematic piece of writing, thoroughly lacking in the novelistic magic Ms. Morrison has wielded so effortlessly in the past. . . .a clunky, leaden novel.
—The New York Times

New Yorker

The strangest and most original book Morrison has written.

Time Magazine

One of the great novels of our day. . .At once gripping, moving, and imbued with [a] mysterious charm.

Publishers Weekly

So intense and evocative in its particulars, so wide-ranging in its arch, this is another, if imperfect, triumph for the Nobel Prize-winning author (Song of Solomon, Beloved, etc.). In 1950, a core group of nine old families leaves the increasingly corrupted African American community of Haven, Okla., to found in that same state a new, purer community they call Ruby. But in the early 1970s, the outside world begins to intrude on Ruby's isolation, forcing a tragic confrontation. It's about this time, too, that the first of five damaged women finds solace in a decrepit former convent near Ruby. Once the pleasure palace of an embezzler, the convent had been covered with lascivious fixtures that were packed away or painted over by the nuns. Time has left only "traces of the sisters' failed industry," however, making the building a crumbling, fertile amalgam of feminine piety and female sexuality. It's a woman's world that attracts the women of Rubyand that repels the men who see its occupants as the locus of all the town's ills. They are "not women locked safely away from men; but worse, women who chose themselves for company, which is to say not a convent but a coven." Only when Morrison treats the convent women as an entity (rather than as individual characters) do they lose nuance, and that's when the book falters. Still, the individual stories of both the women and the townspeople reveal Morrison at her best. Tragic, ugly, beautiful, these lives are the result of personal dreams and misfortune; of a history that encompasses Reconstruction and Vietnam; and of mystical grandeur.

Library Journal

Nobel laureate Morrison creates another richly told tale that grapples with her ongoing, central concerns: women's lives and the African-American experience. Morrison has created a long list of characters for this story that takes place in the all-black town of Ruby, Oklahoma, population 360, which was founded by freed slaves. In what could be seen as an attempt to create some of the same mysticism that was present in many of her previous works, Morrison alludes to Ruby's founding citizens, now ghosts, and only minimally focuses on the present generations that have let the founding principles of Ruby's forebears deteriorate. Paradise is an examination of the title itself and deliberately builds into a plot that is unexpected and explosive. This is Morrison's first novel since her 1993 Jazz, and it is well worth the wait. -- Emily J. Jones

Library Journal

Los Angeles Times

...[A] fascinating story...profound and provocative.

NY Times Book Review

...[A]n ambitious, troubling and complicated piece of work, proof that Toni Morrison continues to change and mature in surprising new directions.

People Magazine

A memorable work of epic range and monumental ambition.

The New Yorker

The strangest and most original book Morrison has written.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780452280397
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Publication date: 4/28/1999
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 352
Sales rank: 157,365
Series: Oprah's Book Club Series
Product dimensions: 5.40 (w) x 8.04 (h) x 0.75 (d)

Meet the Author

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison is Robert F. Goheen Professor at Princeton University. She has written six previous novels, and has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.

Biography

Toni Morrison has been called "black America's best novelist," and her incredible string of imaginative contemporary classics would suggest that she is actually one of America's best novelists regardless of race. Be that as it may, it is indeed difficult to disconnect Morrison's work from racial issues, as they lie at the heart of her most enduring novels.

Growing up in Lorain, Ohio, a milieu Jet magazine described as "mixed and sometimes hostile," Morrison experienced racism firsthand. (When she was still a toddler, her home was set on fire with her family inside.) Yet, her father instilled in her a great sense of dignity, a cultural pride that would permeate her writing. She distinguished herself in school, graduating from Howard and Cornell Universities with bachelor's and master's degrees in English; in addition to her career as a writer, she has taught at several colleges and universities, lectured widely, and worked in publishing.

Morrison made her literary debut in 1970 with The Bluest Eye, the story of a lonely 11-year-old black girl who prays that God will turn her eyes blue, in the naïve belief that this transformation will change her miserable life. As the tale unfolds, her life does change, but in ways almost too tragic and devastating to contemplate. On its publication, the book received mixed reviews; but John Leonard of The New York Times recognized the brilliance of Morrison's writing, describing her prose as "...so precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry."

Over time, Morrison's talent became self-evident, and her reputation grew with each successive book. Her second novel, Sula, was nominated for a National Book Award; her third, 1977's Song of Solomon, established her as a true literary force. Shot through with the mythology and African-American folklore that informed Morrison's childhood in Ohio, this contemporary folktale is notable for its blending of supernatural and realistic elements. It was reviewed rapturously and went on win a National Book Critics Circle Award.

The culmination of Morrison's storytelling skills, and the book most often considered her masterpiece, is Beloved. Published in 1987 and inspired by an incident from history, this post-Civil War ghost story tells the story of Sethe, a former runaway slave who murdered her baby daughter rather than condemn her to a life of slavery. Now, 18 years later, Sethe and her family are haunted by the spirit of the dead child. Heartbreaking and harrowing, Beloved grapples with mythic themes of love and loss, family and freedom, grief and guilt, while excavating the tragic, shameful legacy of slavery. The novel so moved Morrison's literary peers that 48 of them signed an open letter published in The New York Times, demanding that she be recognized for this towering achievement. The book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize; and in 2006, it was selected by The New York Times as the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years.

In addition to her extraordinary novels, Morrison has also written a play, short stories, a children's book, and copious nonfiction, including essays, reviews, and literary and social criticism. While she has made her name by addressing important African-American themes, her narrative power and epic sweep have won her a wide and diverse audience. She cannot be dismissed as a "black writer" any more than we can shoehorn Faulkner's fiction into "southern literature." Fittingly, she received the Nobel Prize in 1993; perhaps the true power of her impressive body of work is best summed up in the Swedish Academy's citation, which reads: "To Toni Morrison, who, in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality."

Good To Know

Chloe Anthony Wofford chose to publish her first novel under the name Toni Morrison because she believed that Toni was easier to pronounce than Chloe. Morrison later regretted assuming the nom de plume.

In 1986, the first production of Morrison's sole play Dreaming Emmett was staged. The play was based on the story of Emmett Till, a black teen murdered by racists in 1955.

Morrison's prestigious status is not limited to her revered novels or her multitude of awards. She also holds a chair at Princeton University.

1. Also Known As:
  
  Chloe Anthony Wofford (real name)
  Toni Morrison
2. Hometown:
  
  Princeton, New Jersey, and Manhattan
1. Date of Birth:
  
  February 18, 1931
2. Place of Birth:
  
  Lorain, Ohio
1. Education:
  
  Howard University, B.A. in English, 1953; Cornell, M.A., 1955

Reading Group Guide

1. Why has Toni Morrison chosen to use the poem "for many are the pleasant forms..." as an epigraph for this novel?

2. Why is the Oven such an important symbol for the people of Ruby? What is implied in the various phrases which different groups in Ruby want to inscribe upon it? Soane believes that the Oven has become too important a symbol: "A utility became a shrine (cautioned against not only in scary Deuteronomy but in lovely Corinthians II as well) and, like anything that offended Him, destroyed its own self" (103). Is she right? Does this indeed come to pass?

3. How has the history of Ruby (and Haven before it) shaped the nature of the town in the 1970s? What did "freedom" mean to the original settlers? What varying views of freedom do the modern inhabitants of Ruby hold?

4. Each of the young women living at the Convent is in some way lost. Why does each feel so entirely friendless? What caused Gigi's feeling of hopelessness? What about Pallas? Do you believe that Mavis's children were really trying to harm her, or did she imagine this?

5. "Almost always, these nights, when Dovey Morgan thought about her husband it was in terms of what he had lost" (82). She adds up some of Steward's losses: his taste buds, the election for church Secretary, the trees on his land, and his discovery that he and Dovey could not have children. What has Steward lost in a larger, more symbolic sense: which of the convictions of the earlier generation he so admires has he himself lost sight of? What do his feelings about his brother Elder's defense of a Liverpool whore (94-95) tell us about his character? Can you see, early in thenovel, intimations of what we discover at the end: that Steward and Deacon are essentially different?

6. Who is Dovey's "Friend" and why is he so important to her?

7. The conservative elements in Ruby ultimately find it impossible to keep the impact of the Sixties from affecting their town. What "Sixties" ideas turn out to be the most powerful, the most resonant, for the people of Ruby? Do these ideas destroy the town's social cohesion or give it new strength?

8. What new ways of thinking does Richard Misner represent, and how is he received by the people of Ruby? When Patricia tells him that "Slavery is our past" (212), he insists that "We live in the world.... The whole world." Which of them is right? What does Misner mean when he says he thinks the people of Ruby love their children "to death" (212)?

9. "Who could have imagined, " think the men who attack the Convent, "that twenty-five years later in a brand-new town a Convent would beat out the snakes, the Depression, the tax man and the railroad for sheer destructive power?" (17). It is clear that the Convent, and the harmless women who have taken refuge there, are not destructive. What is the destructive element in Ruby, and what is it destroying?

10. "Minus the baptisms the Oven had no real value, " Soane reflects. (103). What did these baptisms at the Oven symbolize, and how does their removal to the church change Ruby? At the Convent, the women dance in rain and reconcile themselves, finally, to the tragedies in their lives (283). Why does Morrison use, here, the imagery of baptism? Does she imply that this dance is a true baptism; that the Convent has achieved a more genuine spirit of community than the town?

11. What are the circumstances of the death of Ruby, K. D.'s mother, and what effect does the manner of this death have upon on the character of the town that is named after her? What is the "bargain" or "prayer in the form of a deal" (114) that is struck after her death, and who strikes it?

12. Why does Sweetie make for the Convent when she finds herself at the breaking point? Why does she then try to get away from the Convent, and then tell the people of Ruby that the women there are evil?

13. In what ways does the wedding of Arnette and K. D. symbolize the current state of affairs in Ruby?

14. What does the school nativity play tell us about the way Ruby sees itself and mythologizes itself?

15. Is it fair to say that the people of Ruby have perpetuated racism in the town that was supposed to be a haven from it? If so, in what does the town's racism consist?

16. Why does Patricia burn all her research on the history of the Ruby and Haven families?

17. What does Consolata mean when she says "Dear Lord, I didn't want to eat him. I just wanted to go home" (240)? What sort of home does she long for, and why does she associate it with Deacon? Who is the Piedade to whose company Consolata returns after her death (321)? What is the meaning of Consolata's vision on p. 254?

18. How does the death of Sweetie and Jeff's daughter Save-Marie subtly change Ruby? What sort of a future do you envision for the town? Is it possible to see the murders at the Convent as ultimately helping Ruby to evolve and to survive?

19. What do you think lies behind the door or window that Anna and Misner notice as they leave the Convent? Why do they choose not to open it?

20. What is the meaning of the novel's title? What does Paradise mean within the context of the book? "How exquisitely human was the wish for permanent happiness, and how thin human imagination became trying to achieve it, " thinks Misner. Does Morrison imply that it is impossible to create a paradise on earth?

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7781993

Posted April 1, 2011

Defective Product. Do not buy!

This is the greatest distopian novel ever written! Buy it in paperback if you actually want to enjoy it. I was unable to read the last 4 chapters and was assured by tech personel that that it was an 'older book', published way back in 1997. I guess that means that the Nook was only designed for the latest best sellers and required high school reading. Not for groundbreaking works of fiction by classic contemporary authors.
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LCordero

Posted March 15, 2010

Isolation and Seperation

Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison's Paradise is not only a story of the tragedies of an overlooked history, but the spiritual and physical powers within a community. However, Paradise is not a mere social justice statement; it serves, instead, a higher purpose. With the publication of this novel and several others, Morrison was able to actively engage the power of the individual voice and link together the cultural spheres that define it. Although religiously and spiritually powerful, one of the novel's primary focuses were themes of isolation, separation, and their operation within a social structure.

By dictionary definition, a paradise is "a place of extreme beauty, delight, or happiness." Perhaps such paradise does not exist in separation of one's own mind. A "paradise," after all, is made up of those who do not exist within it. Power successfully encapsulates the idea of achieving primal bliss in congruence with the idea of separation and isolation. However, most importantly, it raises the question: can good (idea of perfect paradise) exist without the influence of evil (human sin)? In tackling a social, moral movement, Morrison has gravely insinuated that perhaps, one reaches paradise only after one has accepted the fatality of collective sin separate from the individual's potential.
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lola08

Posted December 6, 2008

Very Good Book!!!!!!!!!!!11

before I read this book I heard it was not easy to understand, after reading it I realized why that was said. Allthough it was a bit confusing at time to remember who the characters were and kept up with the story. the stories where simply beautiful Mrs. Morrison outdone herself once again. If you take time to read this book you will not regret it. it is a great read, only thing..... How did the leadie,specialy Connie,ascape from the house?
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Anonymous

Posted March 17, 2007

Paradise

This book helped me realize how wonderful I am. I think it had something to do with gays in South Africa, but I'm not sure. I really liked how Carrot Top was portrayed in the book, and how Toni Morrison talked about her gray hair. I love Barnes and Noble. WOOTANG.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted September 21, 2003

I was not ready.

I bought this book years ago in my twenties and put it down because it appeared to be too complicated . But I found it now in my thirties and I find it brillant , I can't put it down
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Anonymous

Posted November 26, 2002

Mavis or Grace/Gigi?

This book is not my favorite of the five T.Morrison books i've read, thus far. It is less complicated than JAZZ, but infinitely more exciting and therefore, a fully entertaining read. Just one thing: Who was the white girl?
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Anonymous

Posted September 8, 2002

loved all of her novels except this one

Toni is a true genius but i was terribly disappointed in this one. It took a few months to force myself to complete it........ i love you anyways Toni , you are still one of the GREATS!!
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Anonymous

Posted July 15, 2002

Question

I adore the book but do not know who or what Piedades is at the end....can anyone out there tell me?
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Anonymous

Posted July 14, 2002

Brilliant

If you have trouble with this book, just read each sentence and milk the beauty...don't try to piece it all together...it flows together. If you can't understand it put it away but by all means return to it later. It's perhaps one of the best books ever written...for it's brilliance and poetry. Pure Morrisen at her very best.
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Anonymous

Posted April 11, 2002

Can't Get Through It!

I checked out the other reviews to see if anyone was in the same boat as I am - just can't finish this book! I enjoyed Beloved and Tar Baby, but this one, like many have mentioned, is both rich in dialogue and in characters. Names, nicknames, then endless pronouns; a whole chapter full of 'she's' until we find out who 'she' is! I've flashed forward, backward and sideways, and can't keep track of where I left off.
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Anonymous

Posted November 6, 2001

Morrison and an old friend

Toni Morrison, forever bitter, and yet, amazingly uplifting and enlightening, gives us again another extraordinary performance with Paradise. However, I can not separate the style of her writing and the subjects that she so poetically defines from William Faulker's novels. They both have such a similar style, it is impossible to separate his influence on her work. Incredible co-authorship!
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Anonymous

Posted July 8, 2001

This woman is a genius

Please take your time and give your full attention to this book. The themes and motifs (beautifully expressed in this novel) will leave you pondering the values of your life and your view of society. I highly recommend this book.
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Anonymous

Posted April 10, 2001

She didn't win the Nobel Prize for nothing...

The only real way to understand this book is to not rush your way through it. Take your time to get to know the characters and their connections to eachother. The plot, though confusing at first, was one of many peaks and few valleys with which you have to keep up in order to follow the book. I thought this was an outstanding book not only because she touched upon an issue that african-americans have been dealing with since slavery days, but because of the literary aspect. Ms. Morrison is an excellent writer and storyteller and one can tell that by the way she intertwined all of the characters' lives. I would definitely reccommend this book to someone in need of a solid plot and good storyline.
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Anonymous

Posted June 7, 2001

an amazing thought provoking story

i just finished reading the book and all i can say is that i am overwhelmed at the way this book was written. toni morrison does an amazing job off linking the characters of the story to form a bigger picture. however i think this book is best understood if read twice and i plan to reread it. it is not an easy read but it is a book that makes you think and because of that i love it.
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Anonymous

Posted February 4, 2001

Who is the white woman?

I enjoyed this book immensely, couldn't put it down. But, when I turned the last page and sat back to contemplate it, I realized I had no idea what had transpired. I plan to read it again but I'm not sure I'll know anymore then, than I do now. I felt the same way about Beloved, though Paradise was easier for me. So was Bluest Eye, which I also enjoyed.
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Anonymous

Posted January 27, 2001

Paradise is pure heaven for Morrison fans

Toni Morrison's Paradise opens with a punch in the gut and takes the reader on a wild ride that inevitably leaves one questioning the importance of race in self definition. The juxtapostioning of dark skin as more desirable than light skin turns social constructs of race on their collective ear. Morrison once again proves why she is one of the great American writers of the modern age.
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Anonymous

Posted December 14, 2000

The Best

It's a brilliant novel. Toni is a master story teller. She takes you on a journey. You must be patient however, because it's not a simple trip. It's an exercise for your mind.
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Anonymous

Posted August 12, 2000

with or w/o faith; keep reading & living

simply awesome,rich rich reading. whether you attempt & give up or keep pushing forward, you will forever be affected by the writing of this great artist. I've read PARADISE twice so far and know i will again. if nothingelse you'll be forever haunted by 'what is Paradise?' thank you t.m. I hunger for more.
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Anonymous

Posted May 18, 2000

Who's Who?

I'm not sure about anyone else (I didn't read any other reviews yet because I didn't want them to slant my own view), but I was utterly confused just about the entire time I was reading Paradise. There were way too many characters, and unfortunately, each character had at least two or three different names throughout the story, making it very difficult to understand exactly who was involved in the story's events. The story in itself was excellent, but I believe it was told in such a confusing way that it was difficult to truly enjoy.
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Anonymous

Posted April 22, 2000

Bluest Eye is still the best!

Wonderful book, but Toni has yet to top her classic Bluest Eye. I was fascinated by the way Pecola was depicted and my insight on abuse was broadened by that book. Other books that help you escape into another world are 'Masks of the Darkest American Game (about urban crime)' and 'I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (about child abuse)'
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Isolation and Seperation

Very Good Book!!!!!!!!!!!11

Paradise

I was not ready.

Mavis or Grace/Gigi?

loved all of her novels except this one

Question

Brilliant

Can't Get Through It!

Morrison and an old friend

This woman is a genius

She didn't win the Nobel Prize for nothing...

an amazing thought provoking story

Who is the white woman?

Paradise is pure heaven for Morrison fans

The Best

with or w/o faith; keep reading & living

Who's Who?

Bluest Eye is still the best!