false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165518258m/5198.jpg 5198 25 <b>Oprah Book Club® Selection, January 1998</b>: Toni Morrison's <i>Paradise</i> takes place in the tiny farming community of Ruby, Oklahoma, which its residents proudly proclaim "the one all-black town worth the pain." Settled by nine African American clans during the 1940s, the town represents a small miracle of self-reliance and community spirit. Readers might be forgiven, in fact, for assuming that Morrison's title refers to Ruby itself, which even during the 1970s retains an atmosphere of neighborliness and small-town virtue. Yet Paradises are not so easily gained. As we soon discover, Ruby is fissured by ancestral feuds and financial squabbles, not to mention the political ferment of the era, which has managed to pierce the town's pious isolation. In the view of its leading citizens, these troubles call for a scapegoat. And one readily exists: the Convent, an abandoned mansion not far from town--or, more precisely, the four women who occupy it, and whose unattached and unconventional status makes them the perfect targets for patriarchal ire. ("Before those heifers came to town," the men complain, "this was a peaceable kingdom.") One July morning, then, an armed posse sets out from Ruby for a round of ethical cleansing. <P> <i>Paradise</i> actually begins with the arrival of these vigilantes, only to launch into an intricate series of flashbacks and interlaced stories. The cast is large--indeed, it seems as though we must have met all 360 members of Ruby's populace--and Morrison knows how to imprint even the minor players on our brains. Even more amazing, though, are the full-length portraits she draws of the four Convent dwellers and their executioners: rich, rounded, and almost painful in their intimacy. This richness--of language and, ultimately, of human understanding--combats the aura of saintliness that can occasionally mar Morrison's fiction. It also makes for a spectacular piece of storytelling, in which such biblical concepts as redemption and divine love are no postmodern playthings but matters of life and (in the very first sentence, alas) death. 2458248 1997 Paradise (Oprah's Book Club) total:3510|5:866|4:1189|3:992|2:337|1:126| 3510 12862 4720 270 3 13 false false Sat Jan 17 07:33:19 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 07:41:38 -0800 2009 paradise. ah… paradise. a profound frustration. here we have the best and worst of toni morrison. check the story: nine families trek across the west to create an all-black town in oklahoma divorced from mainstream american society. cut off from:

“Television.”
The congregat...more...]]> 2 2 false false Thu Jun 21 06:41:07 -0700 2007 Wed Jul 11 12:43:30 -0700 2007 Toni Morrison is one of my favorite authors and, up until this book, I've liked everything she's written. Her writing is ripe with imagery and she imbues her characters and settings with tangibility as if they were people she knew and places she'd been rather than figments of her imagination. The ...more...]]> 3 2 false false Sat Oct 06 16:38:46 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 15:25:54 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 15:29:48 -0700 2007 I actually finished the book a week ago and the last chapter has got me still milling over whether I think it's a masterpiece or a flop. Any book that still...more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Thu May 03 06:55:47 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 12 07:40:01 -0700 2007
I just loved the complexity of this non-linear book. Each chapter is devoted to the main women i...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jul 15 07:38:35 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 08:25:27 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Jun 21 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 16:50:37 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 17:00:26 -0700 2009
Either people loved it or they hated it. If they loved it, they had...more...]]> 1 0 false false Fri Oct 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 15:58:24 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 08 15:58:24 -0700 2009
Kind of like in the Bluest Eye when I thought she diverted from the most interesting charac...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Apr 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 02 19:27:56 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 08:43:44 -0700 2009 "They shoot the white girl first."

I have yet to be disappointed in Toni Morrison. This novel centers around a town founded by freed slaves who were rejected in other towns, immersed in its own history and fully self-sufficient. But there is an underlying current of unease. T...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 10 06:07:10 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 05:55:25 -0700 2009
I found this a very thought provoking story about our tendency, as humans, to build structures...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Nov 04 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 06 16:23:54 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 06 16:43:37 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 2 false false Wed Jun 25 09:23:43 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 29 17:22:55 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Tue May 19 12:13:30 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 20:10:14 -0700 2009
244, Consolata to Lone:
" '...faith is all I need.' "
Lone to C...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 11:58:10 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 04 12:09:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Mar 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 09 10:11:09 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 19 18:28:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Feb 06 22:02:17 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 06 22:06:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Mar 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Feb 14 10:48:24 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 12 13:59:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 08:40:22 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 09:41:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false true Thu Jul 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 01 06:00:21 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 09 11:59:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon May 05 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 23 00:04:56 -0700 2008 Wed May 21 21:11:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sun Dec 30 12:06:41 -0800 2007 Sat Jan 05 12:14:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=5198