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Toni Morrison
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Paradise (Oprah's Book Club) Paperback – April 30, 1999

by Toni Morrison (Author)
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"They shoot the white girl first. With the others they can take their time." Toni Morrison's first novel since she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature opens with a horrifying scene of mob violence then chronicles its genesis in a small all-black town in rural Oklahoma. Founded by descendants of free slaves as intent on isolating themselves from the outside world as it once was on rejecting them, 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...

Paradise is a tour de force of storytelling power, richly imagined and elegantly composed. Morrison challenges our most fiercely held beliefs as she weaves folklore and history, memory and myth, into an unforgettable meditation on race, religion, gender, and the way a society can turn on itself until it is forced to explode.

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  1. Print length
    318 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Plume
  4. Publication date
    April 30, 1999
  5. Reading age
    18 years and up
  6. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  7. ISBN-10
    0452280397
  8. ISBN-13
    978-0452280397
  9. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Plume; First Edition (April 30, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 318 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0452280397
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0452280397
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 18 years and up
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.75 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:

About the author

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Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison

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Toni Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. She is the author of several novels, including The Bluest Eye, Beloved (made into a major film), and Love. She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize. She is the Robert F. Goheen Professor at Princeton University.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
935 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the writing quality interesting and beautiful, with descriptions of nature that illuminate the characters. Opinions are mixed on readability, storyline, and comprehensibility. Some find the book well-written and easy to read, while others find it difficult and convoluted. Readers also mention the book is intense, while other say it's hard to follow and waits too long.

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Writing qualityReadabilityStorylineComprehensibility
26 customers mention "Writing quality"21 positive5 negative

Customers find the writing quality interesting, heartbreakingly beautiful, and real. They also appreciate the poetic, original imagery, and sparkling figurative language.

"...The last few pages are so heartbreakingly beautiful that I sobbed for several minutes after closing the book...." Read more

"...34;Paradise" is no exception.The foreword is incredibly enlightening (and in my opinion, essential)...." Read more

"Very interesting read…Happy with this order" Read more

"...in ALL of her novels--the dialogue is consistently inventive and sparkling. With dialogue, she has few peers in American fiction...." Read more

19 customers mention "Readability"10 positive9 negative

Customers are mixed about the readability of the book. Some find it very well written and easy to read, with original imagery. They also appreciate the poetic style and the consistently inventive dialogue. However, some customers find the book difficult to read and use poetic language that is often unclear.

"...Morrison's prose is razor-sharp, with not a word wasted..." Read more

"...Morrison's writing style can be difficult to read as she may not specify a character's name but just refer to them as "he" or "she"..." Read more

"...Toni Morrison does very well in ALL of her novels--the dialogue is consistently inventive and sparkling...." Read more

"Her writing is beautiful. Descriptions of nature that illuminate the characters' thoughts...." Read more

14 customers mention "Storyline"9 positive5 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the storyline. Some find it complex and amazing, while others say it's convoluted and difficult to read.

"That is no faint praise, I cherish this book as one of the most amazing works of fiction to cross my desk...." Read more

"Toni Morrison never lets the reader down. Suspenseful and mysterious Paradise keeps the reader glued to the pages full of love, abandonment issues,..." Read more

"...It took so long to get going. The set up is expansive, confounding, disjointed, distracting, unfocused… but when Morrison reaches the point where..." Read more

"...style of narrative confused me at times, but the story and characters were compelling enough to override this...." Read more

10 customers mention "Comprehensibility"3 positive7 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the comprehensibility of the book. Some find it intense, riveting, and well worth the effort, while others say it's hard to follow and takes a long time to get going.

"At first I REALLY thought I did not like this book. It took so long to get going...." Read more

"...It makes it a little hard to follow at times. The novel was a good story about town founded by 9 black families in Ruby Oklahoma." Read more

"...Hard to get started because of all the characters, but well worth the effort! Stick with it :-)" Read more

"...to come together in the convent somehow but it's still hard to follow and make a connection...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Emma
5.0 out of 5 stars Book came in great condition
Reviewed in the United States on July 5, 2024
Verified Purchase
I was looking for a second hand copy of this book and I'm just so glad I could find it for an affordable price since I wasn't able to find it at my local library or book store.
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Jordan B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning.
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2020
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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, heartbreaks, triumphs, regrets, trauma, and 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.
24 people found this helpful
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Megan Giles
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best novels ever written
Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2013
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That is no faint praise, I cherish this book as one of the most amazing works of fiction to cross my desk. You have a strange setting: an all-black town called Ruby in the middle of nowhere, and you have an intro that features women being shot down with guns. What is going on? That is the magic of this novel, and you will be amazed at how Morrisson unfolds the secrets of Ruby and the women in the Convent. What gripping backstories they all have. It is a story of faith and community gone wrong, but also of love and transcendence. It is my personal belief that the mysterious tea-colored man who shows up in town is Jesus, but I could be off on this.

At any rate, you WANT to read this book.
2 people found this helpful
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Kevin__Sudsy
4.0 out of 5 stars A harrowing novel about men desperate to preserve their paradise at all costs
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2018
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"Paradise" is a deliberately paced book that doesn't so much slowly build as it does suddenly erupt with cathartic brutality. That brutality opens the book, as a group of nameless women are hunted by a group of men with rifles. The remainder of "Paradise" attempts to explain why this brutality occurred. Just like "Beloved", Toni Morrison refuses to hold the reader's hand, opting occasionally for impressionistic scenes with little internal explanation. Morrison's prose is razor-sharp, with not a word wasted (seriously, skip a line and you risk missing a major piece of information that will be addressed later on) and her figurative language is incredibly visceral. Morrison somehow balances the stories of the women of the Convent and the residents of Ruby with nimble finesse, though I wish some of the details of the women (namely, Seneca) were more fleshed out. But every character is imbued with a sense of sonder, a real triumph in a story that, in anyone else's hands, might be hundreds of pages longer.

A few caveats: The weakest part of the book is the "Patricia" chapter, wherein the entire town's history is laid out rather austerely. The payoff of that chapter would have been so much stronger if I had a deeper connection to that genealogy, rather than having felt like I just read chapter 7 out of the book of Nehemiah. The magical realism that characterized much of the horror of "Beloved" is barely present in this book, but it is present, and it may turn some readers off. And lastly, Toni Morrison isn't known for tying up her novels with a neat little bow at the end. "Paradise" is no exception.

The foreword is incredibly enlightening (and in my opinion, essential). It sheds light on themes present in the novel as well as our present day.

My takeaway: If dissent threatens your sense of Paradise, then you are almost certainly creating an equal and opposite Hell for someone else.
4 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Toni M.
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2023
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Very interesting read…Happy with this order
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Naomi Drake
5.0 out of 5 stars Spelling Binding
Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2021
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Toni Morrison never lets the reader down. Suspenseful and mysterious Paradise keeps the reader glued to the pages full of love, abandonment issues, and a Convent fit for healing. Except, the men don't like it...
4 people found this helpful
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Reader2307
3.0 out of 5 stars Still Not Sure What To Think Of This Book
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2015
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Paradise is set in the small town of Ruby. Nine black founding fathers who felt ostracized in the white towns they lived in built Ruby to be a place where black people could freely pursue their own way of life. This existence is threatened by a convent on the outskirts of town which has become a refuge where outcast women may heal.

They are lot of themes to contend with in this book; the oppressed becoming the oppressor, the war of the sexes, religion and its ability to divide instead of unite, complexion wars within the black community, small town politics, feminism, racism and genealogy. I think Morrison should've whittled it down to two or three themes so that certain themes weren't glossed over or she should have written a much longer book so each theme got the attention it deserved.

Morrison's writing style can be difficult to read as she may not specify a character's name but just refer to them as "he" or "she" and the reader begins to wonder who she is referring to. This may have been intentional and serve a deeper purpose but it can be confusing. Morrison has a lyrical way of writing which is beautiful but can be a bit heavy handed and complicated especially when coupled with her love of symbolism.

If you are looking for a rewarding challenge you should definitely read this book but be warned that it may warrant more than one read to fully reap its rewards.
21 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

D
4.0 out of 5 stars It is the new cover
Reviewed in India on March 1, 2021
Verified Purchase
Bought it because I was looking for the older vintage covers which are issued no longer. However, I was delivered the new red vintage version. Disappointed with the cover but oh well, another Toni Morrison to my collection.
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CinDY
5.0 out of 5 stars Super
Reviewed in France on December 3, 2019
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Super
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Gillian Shaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating read.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 8, 2018
Verified Purchase
Beautiful hardback copy. Delighted with that.
Then the actual story itself, complex and interesting and a little disturbing of the calibre one would expect from a writer of Toni Morrison's stature.
2 people found this helpful
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Kiyoko
5.0 out of 5 stars Rewarding !
Reviewed in Japan on March 19, 2003
Verified Purchase
　　　The story is at first terrifying. Unlike its title, Paradise begins by describing how a group of men conduct a mass slaughtering of a group of women. The women had been living in an abandoned mansion/convent near the all black town, Ruby, in rural Oklahoma. Then the story backtracks to show why the tragedy happened.
　　　Ruby was founded by ex-slaves who traveled from Louisiana after the Civil War. They originally founded the town, Haven, however, the next generation moved away from it and founded a new town, Ruby. Since these people were oppressed by whites and even turned away by the light colored of their own people, their community had become solid and didn't like outside people and the outside world. To protect their community, they despised change. It seemed like they segregated themselves to create their own paradise.
　　　But the change came from the outside world in the wake of the citizens' movement for black people. Inwardly, they also changed themselves. The younger generation was changing, as is often the case in any community. Another change occurred when some unhealthy babies were born, because some marriages were against the "blood rule" of such a small community. Being threatened by changes that they were unable to cope with, they needed something to blame.
　　　In the convent (which use to be a school for Indian girls), several women with traumatic pasts caused mainly by men, came to stay one by one from the outside world. They were very different from Ruby's people, for they were from the modern world of the 1970s. The men in Ruby decided that those women were the cause of their misfortune, so they decided to evict them from the convent. So, they found scapegoats. Even though those women were oppressed by society, the same as the original founders of Haven and Ruby, the men became their new oppressors.
　　　With this terrible tragedy, Morrison starts to talk about the lives of the women of the convent, one at a time. Alongside of it, she introduces the complicated history of Haven and Ruby and the conflict of the people in the community. "They shoot the white girl first," is the first line of the novel. But in the convent, women didn't care about the color of their skin. They were battered women, that was enough for them. Morrison describes when one girl reached the convent, "The whole house felt permeated with a blessed malelessness, like a protected domain, free of hunters but exciting too."
　　　While reading I often felt I was lost and later found what the author was talking about. Her writing style is an unusual one, more like verse than ordinary sentences. So I had to concentrate on reading, or I'd be lost.　But reading this novel is rewarding, though it is a little hard. I like the author's intellectual and warm attitude toward people, and I felt her deep understanding for humanity.
One person found this helpful
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R Valayapathi
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in India on October 27, 2017
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good
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