Paradise

Rating:
Summary: Read at your own risk!
Review: Morrison's story is brilliant, the characters are beautuful and the description's are breathtaking but the presentation makes Paradise nearly impossible to read. I had to struggle through the first few chapters to even find the strenght to continue reading this book. The telling of this story is confusing at best- and she interweaves past, present, good and evil before establishing any form to the characters Don't belive most of the early press reviews- they sound like they were writen out of the publishers ads and not by somebody who actually took the time to read this book. I stop short of calling this terrible, and only so because Paradise has tremendous potential to be all that it has been promised to be. Unfortunalty, Morrison's genius is blinding to both her story telling and those trying to read this book. I'm ,sorry, but I must disagree that if it must be read over and over before understanding- that does not make it automatically wonderful.

Rating:
Summary: SHEER GENIUS
Review: Twenty minutes ago, I finished reading PARADISE and let out a long sigh of amazement. What a beautiful symphony. A magical blend of myth, history, and morality. Lots of questions still swarm about in my mind, for instance many characters seem obviously symbolic and I'm still trying to figure out what their symbols stand for. Like BELOVED, its amazingly multi-layered. Its definitely a page turner - a glorious mystery with a suspenseful, powerful climax. Move over COLD MOUNTAIN, this is the best new book I've read in the past few years!! Toni, you're a lagend.

Rating:
Summary: "Paradise" is a beautiful book that needs to be read twice.
Review: Stripped down to bare bones, "Paradise" is about a town formed to provide safety and plenty for its inhabitants, and about an act of violence the town's strong but flawed men commit against a group of women living in a former convent nearby.

But Toni Morrison's saga of the 360 residents of Ruby, Okla., is really the story of all human civilization, condensed.

Ruby is formed after World War II as the successor of the town of Haven, whose African-American founders had held state office in the South during Reconstruction. Once they lost their public positions they found no place in the South among whites or lighter-skinned blacks. They traveled west, seeking to join other black towns on the American frontier, but were painfully rebuffed because of their material poverty and their dark skins.

In Ruby, the descendants of the original families create a version of paradise--a prosperous and self-sufficient town insulated from human predators and, less successfully, from the outside world's corrupting social influences. Like all utopias, Ruby achieves a veneer of perfection but inevitably declines because its human inhabitants aren't perfect.

Paralleling the town is the Convent, originally a mansion built with embezzled money to be a criminal's paradise. It becomes a Catholic school for Indian girls, then evolves into a '70s commune of damaged women who can't find safety or acceptance anywhere else.

In the center of Ruby is a brick oven, first built as a utilitarian gathering place and later serving as a symbol of community. The oven bears the hammered-iron inscription "Beware the furrow of His brow." By the early 1970s, the weather-worn words have become a source of conflict between older Ruby residents, who believe and adhere to the admonition to fear God, and younger residents who choose to believe that the inscription means to "BE the furrow of his brow."

But ultimately it is the town's most solid and respected citizens, the ones who believe they must fear God's wrath, who put themselves in the role of a wrathful God when dealing with the women of the Convent.

Morrison has imagined a fascinating place and populated it with characters who demand readers' respect and empathy even as they're doing some pretty hideous things to each other. Not one character is entirely unsympathetic--not even the spoiled-rotten K.D., who tarnishes his wealthy family's good name first by hitting his pregnant 15-year-old girlfriend, then by pursuing an obsessive, abusive relationship with a Convent woman.

If there is a flaw in "Paradise," and of course there is, it is that the story flows too freely among characters and years, and thus can be difficult to follow. But Morrison's gorgeous words and dead-on observations make it well worth the effort.

"Paradise" demands to be read twice, and thoughtful readers will want to do just that.

Rating:
Summary: Toni Morrison Does It Again!!
Review: Paradise is not a easy read, but it is a must. The last two chapters I read with a fury I haven't read in a long time. I had to go and reread some passages to have it all make sense, but as Ms. Morrison said herself, "That my dear, is called reading!" A wonderful novel from a wonderful writer.

Rating:
Summary: "Paradise" is a beautiful book that needs to be read twice.
Review: Stripped down to bare bones, "Paradise" is about a town formed to provide safety and plenty for its inhabitants, and about an act of violence the town's strong but flawed men commit against a group of women living in a former convent nearby.

But Toni Morrison's saga of the 360 residents of Ruby, Okla., is really the story of all human civilization, condensed.

Ruby is formed after World War II as the successor of the town of Haven, whose African-American founders had held state office in the South during Reconstruction. Once they lost their public positions they found no place in the South among whites or lighter-skinned blacks. They traveled west, seeking to join other black towns on the American frontier, but were painfully rebuffed because of their material poverty and their dark skins.

In Ruby, the descendants of the original families create a version of paradise--a prosperous and self-sufficient town insulated from human predators and, less successfully, from the outside world's corrupting social influences. Like all utopias, Ruby achieves a veneer of perfection but inevitably declines because its human inhabitants aren't perfect.

Paralleling the town is the Convent, originally a mansion built with embezzled money to be a criminal's paradise. It becomes a Catholic school for Indian girls, then evolves into a '70s commune of damaged women who can't find safety or acceptance anywhere else.

In the center of Ruby is a brick oven, first built as a utilitarian gathering place and later serving as a symbol of community. The oven bears the hammered-iron inscription "Beware the furrow of His brow." By the early 1970s, the weather-worn words have become a source of conflict between older Ruby residents, who believe and adhere to the admonition to fear God, and younger residents who choose to believe that the inscription means to "BE the furrow of his brow."

But ultimately it is the town's most solid and respected citizens, the ones who believe they must fear God's wrath, who put themselves in the role of a wrathful God when dealing with the women of the Convent.

Morrison has imagined a fascinating place and populated it with characters who demand readers' respect and empathy even as they're doing some pretty hideous things to each other. Not one character is entirely unsympathetic--not even the spoiled-rotten K.D., who tarnishes his wealthy family's good name first by hitting his pregnant 15-year-old girlfriend, then by pursuing an obsessive, abusive relationship with a Convent woman.

If there is a flaw in "Paradise," and of course there is, it is that the story flows too freely among characters and years, and thus can be difficult to follow. But Morrison's gorgeous words and dead-on observations make it well worth the effort.

"Paradise" demands to be read twice, and thoughtful readers will want to do just that.

Rating:
Summary: Misunderstood but beautiful
Review: Paradise is novel that HAS to be read more than once to be fully understood; that I don't think can be denied by anyone who has tried to wade through the complexity of this book. If you're going to read the novel, I think you should understand this as well because without going back over certain parts in the beginning, such as the differences of the twins and their wives or whom is actually pregnant, the novel will seem like a conglomeration of short stories about past and future residents of the town that appear to connect, but don't actually.

That being said, I feel this is an absolutely magnificent piece of literature when one reads it as its depth of characters and shifting of emotions between them is first rate. One of the best things that can be said about the book is that you could say you felt you were actually part of the history of Ruby as it was happening. Morrison demonstrates great care in connecting all the characters and their story arcs through subtle use of inference and bit of wit. The book is often critqued for leaving the reader to discern what is happening for themselves and I find this critique accurate. However, I like the fact that Morrison doesn't hand hold my way through the story and makes it challenging for me to understand what's going. That may put me in the minority but I find that I would rather be treated like an adult than lead in linear fashion through the story that assumes I can't comprehend the simplest clues. I would highly recommend this book to people who feel the same way. There is always John Grisham to read if this doesn't suit your tastes.

Rating:
Summary: Morrison Rated Way Too High
Review: If Morrison had not won the Nobel Prize there is no way that Paradise would have garnered an even adequate review. Paradise is a disjointed and erractic book. Morrison takes the liberty of inventing a 'style' that would have had a new author rejected by any publisher. It is not literature. Paradise is no more than a collection of words. Morrison is a wonder with descriptive phrases but she is not a wonder with a narrative tale. She simply, as another reviewer put it, can not get 'to the point'. Paradise is not worth the time, the effort or the money. If it becomes required reading in any class; it will be because the instructor does not like the students. It is simply awful. Morrison peaked before the Nobel and she is now on a downward slide.
If her name did not sell the book Paradise would have come and gone off the shelves quickly.
Give me Saramago, Ha Jin or Grass any day. They not only understand literature - they can write it. Morrison can not.

Rating:
Summary: I loved this book
Review: I must preface my review by admitting I've only read Paradise once.
The writing is the same brilliant and disorienting/nonlinear style as the rest of Morrison's oeuvre. What seemed most aberrant in her first post-Nobel Prize novel was, though it was highly intellectually stimulating, for me "Paradise" lacked the connection to the heart that is inseparable from her previous books. It seemed to try to meet expectations the public would have of a Nobel Prize Laureate. (Who can blame her? She remains a wonder.) But to me it was a bit forced, especially with an (overly?) dramatic opening line "They shoot the white girl first."
I will read any novel Morrison writes, they are all worth reading, including Paradise, but if you are new to her, you would be best off starting with Song of Solomon, Sula, and then Beloved.

Rating:
Summary: I've read it twice
Review: This book was very enlightening. I really enjoy all of Toni Morrison's books but this one is by far my favorite. There was so much to absorb here, I learned a great deal about the early years, after slavery but, before the "Civil Rights Movement". I'm sure that when you read this book you will be hooked on Toni Morrison books forever. There are so many levels to this story. Each character is significant in his/her own way. There was no wasted space in this book. Every page was worth reading.

Rating:
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.