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by: Toni Morrison
List Price: $15.00Amazon.com's Price: $10.20 You Save: $4.80 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780452280397
ISBN: 0452280397
Label: Plume
Manufacturer: Plume
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: April 01, 1999
Publisher: Plume
Sales Rank: 45549
Studio: Plume
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
'They shoot the white girl first. With the others they can take their time.' Toni Morrison's first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature opens with a horrifying scene of mob violence then chronicles its genesis in a small all-black town in rural Oklahoma. Founded by descendants of free slaves as intent on isolating themselves from the outside world as it once was on rejecting them, the patriarchal community of Ruby is built on righteousness, rigidly enforced moral law, and fear. But seventeen miles away, another group of exiles has gathered in a promised land of their own. And it is upon these women in flight from death and despair that nine male citizens of Ruby will lay their pain, their terror, and their murderous rage...
Paradise is a tour de force of storytelling power, richly imagined and elegantly composed. Morrison challenges our most fiercely held beliefs as she weaves folklore and history, memory and myth, into an unforgettable meditation on race, religion, gender, and the way a society can turn on itself until it is forced to explode.
Amazon.com Review:
Oprah Book Club® Selection, January 1998: Toni Morrison's Paradise takes place in the tiny farming community of Ruby, Oklahoma, which its residents proudly proclaim 'the one all-black town worth the pain.' Settled by nine African American clans during the 1940s, the town represents a small miracle of self-reliance and community spirit. Readers might be forgiven, in fact, for assuming that Morrison's title refers to Ruby itself, which even during the 1970s retains an atmosphere of neighborliness and small-town virtue. Yet Paradises are not so easily gained. As we soon discover, Ruby is fissured by ancestral feuds and financial squabbles, not to mention the political ferment of the era, which has managed to pierce the town's pious isolation. In the view of its leading citizens, these troubles call for a scapegoat. And one readily exists: the Convent, an abandoned mansion not far from town--or, more precisely, the four women who occupy it, and whose unattached and unconventional status makes them the perfect targets for patriarchal ire. ('Before those heifers came to town,' the men complain, 'this was a peaceable kingdom.') One July morning, then, an armed posse sets out from Ruby for a round of ethical cleansing.
Paradise actually begins with the arrival of these vigilantes, only to launch into an intricate series of flashbacks and interlaced stories. The cast is large--indeed, it seems as though we must have met all 360 members of Ruby's populace--and Morrison knows how to imprint even the minor players on our brains. Even more amazing, though, are the full-length portraits she draws of the four Convent dwellers and their executioners: rich, rounded, and almost painful in their intimacy. This richness--of language and, ultimately, of human understanding--combats the aura of saintliness that can occasionally mar Morrison's fiction. It also makes for a spectacular piece of storytelling, in which such biblical concepts as redemption and divine love are no postmodern playthings but matters of life and (in the very first sentence, alas) death.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - I'm No English Major, And This Was Great
Seems to be a lot of disagreement on this book. While I can understand a lot of people not liking it (not a conventional plot driven novel), what I can't understand is how so many people found it "confusing". I'm a handyman, not some english major grad student, and I didn't have any problem following along, though the ending was NOT straight forward. I loved it. It was one of the best books I've read in years. Another reviewer called it "Faulkner light"; they were right. Actually they could have ... Read More
Rating: - About as near perfection as you can get!
After reading Paradise, I found myself going back and rereading parts of the text. Toni Morrison is a breathtaking, experienced writer who proves why she won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. This book really talks about two cultures, the male-dominated Ruby, Oklahoma and a Convent run by Catholic nuns who also take in women seeking refuge. The first chapter named Ruby explains the circumstances surrounding the possible massacre at the Convent caused by the angry men of Ruby who sees the Convent ... Read More
Rating:  - beautifully written but confusing story
I considered myself a fan of Toni Morrison but I had a
really hard time with this one. The stream of consciousness
that made her a star with her other highly-elevated novels,
for example Beloved, doesn't quite come together correctly
in this book. The book has too many characters, which is
fine but all of them are given equal importance, making
it extremely difficult for the reader to understand what
to grasp onto. I think Morrison may be trying to too hard ... Read More
Rating: - Divisive and Fantastic
I find it disturbing that many reviews, some of which are listed on this site, devalue this book because it doesn't deliver "a point"; but I would find this, or any devaluation, disturbing since this is one of my favorite books by Morrison. There is something to be said for subjectivity in the enjoyment of any work; often this is what separates a fine or noteworthy novel from a disappointing or lackluster one. I would, however, question the validity of those who look for a conspicuous or conclusive ... Read More
Rating: - Worth the Effort
This complex cluster of stories will keep you guessing and trying to figure it all out. It can be a difficult read, but it's well worth it.
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