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Paradise
Paradise
Author: Toni Morrison
The theme of this novel is the anatomy of an internecine war, cultural, religious and racial. It is waged between a community of nuns and the strays and misfits who arrive at their convent for safe haven, and those who dwell in the surrounding black township in Oklahoma.
ISBN-13: 9780965058377
ISBN-10: 0965058379
Edition: 2nd Printing
Rating:
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0 stars, based on 0 rating
Publisher: Random House
Book Type: Unknown Binding
Other Versions: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
Members Wishing: 0
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Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Paradise on + 67 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Paradise was such an oddly written book. It did jump around a little between characters and events. It's sad how distorted the townspeople's view of the Convent was because they were not aware of its history and how the focus changed many times. I liked the supernatural aspect of the healers. Also, I liked how segregation was touched on by the way the townspeople were identified by their family lineage.
reviewed Paradise on + 11 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 3
Like all of Morrison\'s novels, thought provoking, disturbing and beautiful...
HarleyMumof2 avatar reviewed Paradise on + 19 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I still have trouble reading some of Toni Morrison's books after all these years. This was one of those and I hate to admit that I couldn't finish this one. I think it's more about writing style that I can't get along with rather than this particular book. So, I've enjoyed a few of her books, just not this one.
beccalaa avatar reviewed Paradise on + 11 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
It took me a little while to start enjoying this book, but when it happened, it happened well! Not Morrison's usual novel that immediately engages you with the ability to idientify with her characters, this book starts out with a dark image of murder and transitions to disturbing history of a town that really isn't. It brings up many interesting subjects about seclusion, moral compass and to whose or by what should you set yours, political freedoms that are tied to morality and so much more. Very good, in the end, if you can get over the expectations of Morrison's other works. I liked it and it is an important work, so therefore I recommend it.
reviewed Paradise on + 67 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Could not get into this story from the first couple of pages.
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reviewed Paradise on + 22 more book reviews
Interesting read..
reviewed Paradise on + 59 more book reviews
Like this. Oprah picks good books.
reviewed Paradise on + 39 more book reviews
I love this book!
reviewed Paradise on + 7 more book reviews
In Oklahoma back in the late 70's 9 men from a small town assault a nearby convent and the women in it and the story of a people mindful of the relationship between the ancestral origins to that fateful day.
reviewed Paradise on + 23 more book reviews
The story is one big puzzle, full of flashbacks that are intertwined and developed, leading to even more puzzlement. I never got all the characters straight, even the major ones. I found it almost impossible to follow the story line. And I found myself falling asleep after just a few pages. However, I plodded on. After all, wasn't this book recommended by Oprah? Didn't this book get rave reviews? Isn't Toni Morrison a Pulitzer Prize winner and a professor at Princeton?
It's 318 long long pages and I had to push myself to read it. Halfway through the book I almost put it down. Why was I still getting the characters mixed up. Why wasn't I moved by some of their stories? I hoped it would get better after I passed the half-way mark. It didn't.

The tone is heavy and depressing. The characters each have deep dark ugly secrets. There is rarely any relief from the long artistic, somewhat poetic sentences. I didn't understand the ending, but at least it was over.


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