Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Paradise

Paradise
Paradise
Author: Toni Morrison
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Substores
Book Type: Hardcover
Kmarie avatar reviewed on + 529 more book reviews


The 1993 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Toni Morrison has forged a hard-edged and lyrical portrait of the American story, exploring the experience of black Americans in her fiction, tracing slavery's roots and the reach of it into life today. Her previous novels include THE BLUEST EYE (1970); SULA (1973); SONG OF SOLOMON (1977), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award; TAR BABY (1981); the successful BELOVED (1987), which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; and the beautiful and brilliant JAZZ (1992). Admirers of this previous work will recognize in "Paradise" an affecting undertow of redemption beneath the vivid pull of violence. As with her other novels, it is in Morrison's attention to language that she is able to show her obvious love and respect for the characters in "Paradise". The lyrical intensity and poetry of her language will be familiar, as will her unflinching portrayal of the town's life. With all of their passions, lusts, grudges, dreams, fears, and loves laid bare, the men and women of Ruby and of the Convent seem as fragile and as morally ambiguous as any of us.