Paradise

Rating:
Summary: Trying to finish
Review: after two weeks of reading, re-reading, and starting over. There are so many characters that float in and out and back again, not to mention the oven. Perhaps if I could find the time to read thru the whole book, I might catch on. Not a book I would suggest.

Rating:
Summary: For Morrison Fans Only!
Review: I love Morrison's work generally, but this book was not her best. There are flashes of excellent work but unfortunately it seems that Morrison's genius evaporated with her Nobel Prize. Hopefully her next will be better!

Rating:
Summary: For the Morrison lover!
Review: "They shoot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time. No need to hurry out here. They are seventeen miles from a town, which has ninety miles between it and any other. Hiding places will be plentiful in the Convent, but there is time and the day has just begun." And so begins Toni Morrison's Paradise. With such great works as Song of Solomon, Beloved, and Jazz, Nobel Award winning author Toni Morrison brings back her original writing style with her first book in over 8 years. Set in 1978, Morrison takes the reader deep into the heart of Oklahoma just as the 2nd World War is coming to an end. As always Morrison is not afraid to discuss the relations between race and gender, as many of life's lessons are dealt with throughout the book, with at times devastating consequences. Morrison's Paradise should be read by everyone, it's the type of book you won't want to put down, and it will linger in your mind for days to come.

Rating:
Summary: mistress of the craft
Review: flannery o'connor once remarked that the future of novels would have them looking more and more like poetry....toni morrison has managed it, and it is breathtaking...and the fact that this kind of fiction (innovative, challenging, sparkling) is hitting bestseller lists is at once astounding and wonderful...there is no good enough reason to not read toni morrison: she is a mistress of the literary craft, with language that glimmers and hurts, with subject matter that is constantly relevant, with structures that get at the very innards of human experience.....i finished jazz and immediately started reading it a second time, just hit the last page of paradise this morning and am ready to start in all over again this afternoon....that all seven of these novels have emerged from a single mind is really somewhat mind-blowing...read all of her work, then read it again, then go out and write some of your own....

Rating:
Summary: a must read--what men are really afraid of.
Review: Classic Toni Morrison. Thought provoking with multiple hidden messages. Clearly a story that illustrates what men are truly afraid of--a 'culture' of women who don't need them. Historical significance of all Black township must not be overlooked. Less dense than Beloved but much stronger message. A must read.

Rating:
Summary: I never did understand this book.
Review: This is the most confusing book I have ever tried to read. It started out good then it jumped to other things and I was lost. I never could understand if the characters were living or dead, old or young, or male or female. And the oven???? This book was too much for me, there are too many good books to waste my time with one I don't understand.

Rating:
Summary: Too much Morrison and not enough story.
Review: A perfect set-up for conflict is deflated by character sketches, backstory, and an annoying 3rd person omniscient narrator who refuses to plausibly build the tension between the town and the women. Instead, we get the same message--men are violent and women magically realistically escape their violence. Anyone buy that ending?

Rating:
Summary: I haven't even finished it yet.
Review: I started this book over a year ago. I have read everything that Toni Morrison has ever written, and I am determined to get back to this one as well. Ms. Morrison is a fabulous writer who knows how to weave a tale like no one else I have ever read. Her ability to develop characters and to tie them together in a way that is both cohesive and entertaining is wonderful. I was amazed when I read the reviews of this book at how people berate the book and each other because they "don't get it." Although I have not finished this book it was not because it was too difficult, I simply could not maintain my interest in it. It is not the best book that I have read by Ms. Morrison ("Sula" was), but I am determined to start again from the beginning, since it has been a whole year since I picked it up, and then finish this book. At that time I will review it, but I needed to put my two cents in now.

Rating:
Summary: To read or not to read, that is the question.
Review: After spending half an hour reading all the diverse commentaries on this book, I can't decide whether to read it or not. Maybe I'll sleep on it for a day or two. To the 18 year old from Toronto and the February writer from Michigan, "soaly" is spelled s-o-l-e-l-y.

Rating:
Summary: One you start reading, you want to finish it.
Review: This is the first Toni Morrison novel I have read, I enjoyed it. I had to think and to think is good for the brain. I plan to read Beloved and Jazz, because according to book reviewers Paradise is the last of the trilogy where Beloved is the first and Jazz the second in the series. I am a Toni Morrison fan.