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Summary: must read - at least twice
Review: This is well worth the time to read slowly. It is an intricate plot with many things going on at once. There are a lot of characters (too many?) and it can be hard to follow. I recommend taking notes. The second time I read it, I understood it better and decided I liked it. The first time, I was unsure but it did produce a strong reaction. Men will enjoy it but women of all colors will really appreciate the story. This was the first of her books that I read. I just bought 3 others based on my experience with this one.
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Summary: Hot and Cold
Review: Others have recapped this story too well to be improved upon by me. I'll just say I like it and I didn't like it, but it did keep me reading. I often find Oprah's book list heavier reads than I sometimes want. There is a distinct undertone throughout the story and while it does get those brain cells going, sometimes it's not the best relaxing read. It is a good novel and worth the read, but know what you're getting into so you can best enjoy it.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing lickety-split
Review: Between 1962-65, Toni Morrison wrote "Bluest Eye" and had something to say about her race; she won Nobel Prize for Literature. What I liked was her mastery of English, her lively depiction of details mingled with a word of wisdom here and there. All that is gone by now, 1997, when she published "Paradise". Don't feel that you are lacking the intelligence to understand what is going on in this book, because you are lost in a quagmire of pointless characters and murky action. To read a book like this from alpha to omega....not my cup of tea. It has come to the point, were I am going to avoid books with the "..."stamp, because they have been in general a disappointing mediocre pick. gerborguta
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Summary: A Discussion of Toni Morrison's Paradise
Review: 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."
Rating: 
Summary: Not Toni's best, but not her worst
Review: Toni Morrison is my favorite author, and I have, by finishing Paradise, now read all of her books. And this falls in the high end. (just for the record, I rank her novels, from highest to lowest, as such: Jazz, Beloved, Song of Solomon, Paradise, Sula, Bluest Eye, Tar Baby)Yes, it was difficult to keep some of the characters straight, and even towards the end I would occasionally forget who was with what family(especially the Fleetwoods and the Morgans). Like all Toni Morrison novels, there are sometimes questions left unanswered, but that is because she is trying to shift your focus from the details to what really matters, the effects. We learn about a mysterious man who Dovey has been having an affair with, we never learn his name. His identity is not important; what is important is what theses scenes reveal about Dovey's personality and the state of her marriage with Steward. If you go into a Toni Morrison novel hoping to be satisfied by a final chapter of wrapping up all of the facts, you will be disappointed. To the reader who said s/he could not remember learning about Seneca's mother(actually it is her older sister), it is in Seneca's chapter; the scene where her sister leaves her, she lives by herself for a few days eating only cookies, and then finds the letter with lipstick that smudges in her shoe. One thing I did NOT get, however, was the final page. And I never quite understood how Piedade fit in with everything. And, some of the events in the final chapters with the showdown and the drawings on the floor seemed like the were ripped out of a bad Stephen King novel. But, hey, Ms. Morrison is a great writer and even where the plot seems a little contrived you can still fall back on the fantastic prose, structure, and wordplay.
Rating: 
Summary: This book was more like Hell than Paradise
Review: I read for pleasure, not to have to re-read a book in my precious spare time. Although a nobel prize winner for literature wrote this, I find Morrison's books (particularly this one) to be like a riddle. New characters were brought in, within the last few chapters. Characters are implied but, not developed. Some trite characters are far too developed and dealt with. Far too many characters were thought of and brought into the book. Morrison writes several books into one verbal dirreah novel.
Most common of all, characters appear, as if we are already to know them. This bothers me greatly as if I am missing something. However with Morrison's terrible grammer, it would not surprise me if this were true. I do not want to think while I am reading a book, books are there to escape with, to venture to a different dimention. With Toni's I feel stupid, and I know I am not.
I found 'Paradise' interesting as a story, particularly the parts containing Gigi, Mavis and Pallis. There witty remarks were very entertaining. The connection Ruby had with this outstanding town (until ages in, I thought Ruby was the town)!
I usually commend Oprah's picks and enjoy them but, Morrison, my God, just not good. I will not be purchasing anymore of picks but I will keep the ones that I have already purchased. I may, and that is the operative word, borrow one from the library.
Rating:
Summary: Didn't like it
Review: I don't understand what it is about Toni Morrison...maybe it's me? I didn't enjoy the story. I had to "push" through it. It was hard to understand a lot of what was going on- and I am an avid reader with a large vocab.
Rating:
Summary: Not For the Faint of Heart
Review: Toni Morrison is my favorite writer, and I won't hold this book against her. For me, though, my experience with Paradise began much the same as my experience with Beloved: I tried to read it a couple of times, got into the first few pages, then put it down. It seemed just so complex. In both cases, though, I finally picked up the book a third time and read it all the way through. I loved Beloved, but this book was different. It's basically about people in a black town who think that a lot of the evil in that town is due to the presence of the strange women who live in the "Convent". Toni takes a lot of time to develop the characters, and that is commendable, but there are just TOO many characters...in the end I got just plain confused, trying to keep up with who was married to whom, and who lost what child in what year. It just was a bit too busy for me. But to her credit, Toni Morrison, paints colorful imagery; I simply love the way she writes, and that's what is giving this book three stars. She is a master of her craft. Granted, I don't like to have my intelligence insulted by having the writer explain every little thing to me, but with this book, I'm like, "insult my intelligence already!" There were just so many unanswered questions for me in this book, and I don't think you should have to go back and re-read a book (what I'm doing now) just to understand what on earth is going on. This is a lengthy book, so if you've got some time to kill, and you enjoy a challenge, you may actually want to give it a try.
Rating:
Summary: I read for pleasure, and this book was truly awful.
Review: I only bought this dog of a book because my mother saw it on Oprah and said how good it was supposed to be. This is my first (and probably only) Oprah selection that I will knowingly buy. If any future titles pique my interest, then I will wait for them at the public library.
I don't read to try to decipher garbage, and to me that's what this stupid book was all about. I couldn't stand it and shipped it to my mom after reading up to page 37, wishing her the best of luck in figuring out what it was all about!!!
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: I had to read this book for my Honors English class, and I loved it. It's a classic Toni Morrison novel, and everyone who likes other books by her should read this one.
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