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Paradise (Vintage International)

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Format: Paperback


Description

The acclaimed Nobel Prize winner challenges our most fiercely held beliefs as she weaves folklore and history, memory and myth into an unforgettable meditation on race, religion, gender, and a far-off past that is ever present—in prose that soars with the rhythms, grandeur, and tragic arc of an epic poem.“They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time.” So begins Toni Morrison’s Paradise, which opens with a horrifying scene of mass violence and chronicles its genesis in an all-black small town in rural Oklahoma. Founded by the descendants of freed slaves and survivors in exodus from a hostile world, 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.“A fascinating story, wonderfully detailed. . . . The town is the stage for a profound and provocative debate.” —Los Angeles Times Read more


Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (March 11, 2014)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0804169888


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 82


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.1 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #27,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #79 in Black & African American Historical Fiction (Books) #532 in Black & African American Women's Fiction (Books) #2,622 in Literary Fiction (Books)


#79 in Black & African American Historical Fiction (Books):


#532 in Black & African American Women's Fiction (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • 4.3 stars
At first I REALLY thought I did not like this book. It took so long to get going. The set up is expansive, confounding, disjointed, distracting, unfocused… but when Morrison reaches the point where she pulls all facets, narratives, histories together in one swift yank of the rope, a very complex story and painful commentary emerges. This one is not for the faint of heart. Getting to the culmination takes effort, faith, and dedication… a reading experience that, now that I think about it, mimics the toil and journey of those who trudged through Oklahoma wilderness to finally found their town, Ruby. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2022 by Colleen McClintock
    • Stunning.
TRIGGER WARNING: novel contains some references to infanticide, mental illness, child neglect, sexual assault, statutory rape, alcoholism, forced abortion, self-harm, and femicide. Paradise is set in Ruby, a small, all-Black town in rural Oklahoma. Founded by nine families recently descended from freed slaves, Ruby has remained vehemently patriarchal since its inception. However, it's the five women who reside in the Convent on the outskirts of town and shun the town's traditions who will forever change Ruby. In lyrical prose steeped in magical realism, Toni Morrison tells a story of women — of their joys, of their heartbreaks, of their triumphs, of their regrets, of their trauma, of their healing — finding themselves and finding peace in a town that turns out to be anything but paradise. Be mindful that the novel is divided into chapters (primarily named after the women of Ruby), in which the eponymous woman's story is told. However, the events are not arranged completely linearly, and at times, vacillate between past and present day, so the style can be slightly confusing. That being said, I became accustomed to the style after the first chapter or so. The last few pages are so heartbreakingly beautiful that I sobbed for several minutes after closing the book. Toni Morrison ends the novel, not with a "happily ever after" but with something much better — a catharsis for lost souls. Paradise is irrefutably one of Toni Morrison's greatest masterpieces. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2020 by Jordan B.
    • A Discussion of Toni Morrison's Paradise
A Discussion of Toni Morrison's Paradise By Mo Saidi Paradise is the story of a mythical town, which is founded and inhabited by freedmen and freedwomen. A narrator with total grasp of the characters' feelings, thoughts, and backgrounds tells the story in the third person voice. In this less than stellar work by Toni Morrison, the author uses mythical and metaphoric language to describe a paradise turned around and torn apart by corruption and war. The novel is set in 1997, but it travels through several eras; first to a period shortly after World War II, when the all black town Ruby was founded by blacks, then further back to earlier times when Haven was founded by a band of former slaves in Oklahoma. It depicts a story of Exodus: Wandering ex-slaves searching for a home, a paradise to settle and a desirable community of their own to live in. The people of Ruby also experience, though only second hand, the changes that America went through in 1970s-student uprising, rioting in the streets, police brutalities, and cities more dangerous for young blacks than war zones. "Safer than anywhere in Oklahoma outside Ruby. Safer in the army than in Chicago, Safer than Birmingham, than Montgomery, Selma, than Watts. Safer than Money, Mississippi, in 1955 and Jackson, Mississippi, in 1963. Safer than Newark, Detroit, Washington, D.C. She had thought war was safer than any city in the United States." But Ruby changes and becomes a center of a murderous plot against a small group of unconventional women in a former girls' school named, "the Convent." Now the war erupts on their home front as nine black men go on a deadly hunt to destroy the four women and a baby of the Convent. Paradise is a novel, which reflects the bitter memories of the slavery, and of the reconstruction era. An era that they can not bury or forget: "Deacon Morgan cut (Sergeant Person) off. `That's my grandfather you're talking about. Quit calling him an ex-slave like that's all he was. He was also an ex-lieutenant governor, an ex-banker, an ex-deacon and a whole lot of other exes, and he wasn't making his own way; he was part of a whole group making their own way." Toni Morrison reveals in Paradise how a relatively short and peaceful period in Ruby's history quickly gets replaced initially by the social unrest and then by a bloody civil war. The novel should have been titled "War" not "Paradise". The description of paradise appears at the end of the novel, in the aftermath of the recent devastation, at a shore occupied by a woman presumably a mother who is "black as firewood" and "is singing," and a younger girl, a daughter? "Around them on the beach, sea trash gleams. Discarded bottle caps sparkle near a broken sandal. A small dead radio plays the quiet surf." They see "Another ship, perhaps, but different, heading to port, crew and passengers, lost and saved, atremble, for they have been disconsolate for some time." "They have been brought to paradise and they will rest before shouldering the endless work." ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2002 by Mo H Saidi

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