Rating: 
Summary: Very intelligent, very disappointing
Review: As is the case with all of Morrison's novel's, PARADISE is not an easy go and should not be taken up as light reading. The complex layering of allegory onto the storyline is brilliantly done, and I admired the elaborate construction of the narrative, but it seemed as if Morrison was much more interested in telling the somewhat hackneyed stories of the women at the Convent (guess what: they're all victims!) rather than telling the much more interesting story of how the women and men of the town were turned away from another all-black community, came to settle in Haven, and then went forward to Ruby.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing , Beautiful , Captivating .... I'm 16 and "got it" !
Review: This is Morrison's best novel ; an intricate and enthralling examination of topics as diverse as moral machismo , ageism , self corruption , sexual freedom and the very nature of the human soul ! The power of these ideas and this novel in general do not , however , lie souly in Morrisons ability to engauge her audience in phillisophical theorising but equally in her ability to entertain with a good story and delight with fantastic desciptions , images and brilliantly alagorical occurances ......
Rating: 
Summary: I must lack perseverance
Review: The first of the book naturally caught my attention. I labored intensely through too long chapters for somewhat more than half the book. The characters were complex and moreso their relationship to each other. I found no thread to place any continuity on what I was reading. It was a waste and I gave it one star because there no options for less than one.
Rating:
Summary: What?!--What is this book about?
Review: Come on Toni, are you kidding? In the beginning the book is intriguing. There was so much potential. Soon, however, the confusion becomes unbearable and the story becomes unrealistic and silly. Don't start. You'll be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Please no movie!
Review: This has to be one of her worst. She must have combined about 5 brainstorms of book topics and wrote one book. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Toni's but come on!!!!Toni, Toni, Toni. I'll give it one star since I was crazy enough to buy it and another for attempting to read it. There is no way on God's green earth, that this could become a movie. If anyone even thinks about it, I'll play one or more of the many characters myself. Just to see how far it goes and get a good laugh out of the cast confusion.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but be prepared to _study_ it
Review: Like Beloved, Paradise is layered with meanings and resonances. Some of this can be caught more or less subconsciously when you read it the first time--there was a _definite_ emotional impact on the first reading, but like most people the story confused me completely. I've read it four times through, and it was worth the effort. But it is meant mostly (I think) for people who've been studying literature; this is NOT intellectual snobbery, but learning to see symbolism and connections in the author's writing is a skill, and studying literature (especially Ms. Morrison's other works) is necessary in a lot of ways. For quick entertainment, this book rates very lowly; it's aimed at a different audience.That said, I think overall I preferred both Beloved and Jazz; Beloved especially took the reader into the character's minds much more effectively. Possibly that's because the aims of the novels are different. One of the most important aspects of Beloved is how it maintains sympathy with Sethe without condoning her actions; Paradise' message is much more ambiguous and hence the characters are as well. Altogether, very worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Pretentious and disappointing
Review: I don't like books that are so pretentious that they make me feel stupid. I got about fifty pages into this book, realized that I still had no idea what the hell was going on, and returned it to the library. To the author: why don't you try writing a book for real people, instead of the academics? That's what all real art is about: to create something that resonates with the common man, not just with an exclusive set of art-minded elitists.
Rating:
Summary: a confusing deliberately contrived book
Review: The reviewers of this book have not been honest .There is nothing to praise.A struggling prose,contrived ideas and perhaps a feeling that as the Nobel Prize winner the writer had to come up with something different.Thoroughly confusing and poorly written.Very weak characters not worth writing about.Losers like Mavis.Perhaps they should have given two Nobels to Arundhaty Roy for her God Of Small Things.
Rating:
Summary: Hard to follow but worth the read.
Review: In the beginning it was a difficult book to read in as the story jumped between past and future and back again. Once I made a conscious effort to retain the information, the story moved right along. In spite of this I thought it was very well written and I realized I really enjoyed sorting out the story in my mind. This is a book that really makes you think.
Rating:
Summary: challenging, provocative, unpredictable; a must read.
Review: Our bookclub meets once monthly and reads african writers. We've read all Sister Morrison's books. We never ran out of ideas and concepts during our Paradise discussion which we did for two sessions. Following are a few of our comments/observations: Myriad layers and people mingle and the only certainty is that life will change and we must accept and validate these changes. This book will change your reality. It should be shared with thoughtful people who care about ideas. You will find out a lot about who you are. Paradise is a book that must be discussed. It is deep, provocative and unpredictable. The reader must be interested in the community at large and the personalities that inhabit it. Morrison's ability for strange names and unusual metaphors keep the reader enthralled. Paradise needs to be read and re-read as we mature. Readers must suspend usual notions of plot, chronology, reality. A book you must stay with! Randomness of evil. Can we create Paradise? Paradise is in the moment. Paradise is in our heads,not in our hearts Who was the white girl? Why was she shot first? In guessing that you'll reveal your own stereotypical thoughts about racial images. What holds it together is Morrison's packing it with incidents,characters. She stuffs this book with everything.
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