Paradise

"Critical reception to Paradise often centered around comparing it to Beloved, and compared to Beloved, Paradise was deemed formulaic, mechanical, and lacking in “novelistic magic,” according to The New York Times. It was said to have no heroine, with only victimized female characters that bordered on cliches. Paradise was said to lack “the historical and the mythic” that Morrison’s previous works were known for. The plot was described as “clunky,” with too much over-explanation.<br/><br/>Looking ahead to now, examining other GoodReads reviews from 2021, readers have similar complaints about the flow of the plot, while applauding the lyricism and poetic nature of Morrison’s writing. Many reviewers suggested rereading would be necessary. A 2020 blog post is kinder in praising the quality of Morrison’s characters but critiquing the quantity.<br/><br/>I did many passage reflections during my reading that I thought I'd share. <br/><br/>"A sleepless woman could always rise from her bed, wrap a shawl around her shoulders and sit on the steps in the moonlight. And if she felt like it she could walk out the yard and on down the road. No lamp and no fear. A hiss-crackle from the side of the road would never scare her because whatever it was that made the sound, it wasn’t something creeping up on her. Nothing for ninety miles around thought she was prey" (Morrison 8). <br/><br/>This description of Ruby felt so idealistic compared to what it’s like being a woman almost anywhere in society today. I know the descriptions of idealistic societies and the idea of utopia versus dystopia are a large part of what Morrison examines in this novel, but this is an example where I bought into it. The freedom, lack of suspicion, and lack of need for cynicism are so appealing. <br/><br/>“'Let me tell you about love, that silly word you believe is about whether you like somebody or whether somebody likes you or whether you can put up with somebody in order to get something or someplace you want or you believe it has to do with how your body responds to another body like robins or bison or maybe you believe love is how forces or nature or luck is benign to you in particular not maiming of killing you but if so doing it for your own good.<br/><br/>“'Love is none of that. There is nothing in nature like it. Not in robins or bison or in the banging tails of your hunting dogs and not in blossoms or suckling foal. Love is divine only and difficult always. If you think it is easy you are a fool. If you think it is natural you are blind . . .’” (141).<br/><br/>These passages open Divine’s section. As I was reading, I was intrigued — interested even — by this view of what love is made by defining what it is not. However, only a few pages beyond these paragraphs, we learn that this is being said by Reverend Pulliam at Arnette and K.D.’s wedding. This negative, philosophizing speech about how wrong we are about love is spoken before the marriage vows of the couple. This is one of the many examples we’re beginning to see of the hardness, the stubbornness, and the grim resolve of the older generation of Ruby. Soon after this, Reverend Misner stands silent for fear of lashing out, hoping the quiet says all he cannot. I give him a lot of credit, for I certainly could not have remained silent. <br/><br/>Reverend Pulliam is both isolating and divisive in his rhetoric. He says “that silly word you believe” instead of “that silly word we believe.” He is not speaking as a member of his congregation but emphasizing the divide between his generation and the youth — between the Oven and the painted fist. Anyone not emotionally invested could clarify that this method is rarely if ever successful in changing someone’s mind. The youth of Ruby are having their voices silenced because they aren’t parroting their parents and their grandparents. The reverend’s preaching is not to guide them back in (what he believes is) the right direction but instead to intimidate them to the point they are afraid to move one way or another. <br/><br/>Ruby isn’t utopian just because it’s guarded. It isn’t utopian just because its citizens were “hand-picked.” No one seems happy. Deek and Steward may be in control, but they are constantly on edge. The women of Ruby seem to be, in small ways, seeing what little they have in their power to do. In Patricia’s section, the theme of colorism is anything but subtle. This week’s sections began to more explicitly reveal the hostility at the root of Ruby.<br/><br/>The older women of Ruby seem to have trouble having children, but the younger women who can seem to be ashamed and hide themselves and/or their babies at the Convent. <br/><br/>"Billie Delia was perhaps the only one in town who was not puzzled by where the women were or concerned about how they disappeared. She had another question: When will they return? When will they reappear, with blazing eyes, war paint and huge hands to rip up and stomp down this prison calling itself a town" (Morrison 308). <br/><br/>I feel that this passage is particularly important, though the final third of Paradise is filled with important scenes of action and contemplation. Here, Billie Delia demonstrates the respect she still has for the women; she was the only one who was open about it, setting her apart from Soane. When the entire town was wondering where the women were, it was rooted in still desiring control over them — the one thing they had not had and failed to take. Where did they go? How did they go? Would they come back and cause more trouble? What if they did decide to go to the police? When the men of Ruby set foot in the Convent, the only way they considered leaving was with that control; they planned to achieve it by killing the women. Leaving the women alive, even far from Ruby, would not be good enough. It wouldn’t be the utopia it claimed to be. <br/><br/>It is Billie Delia who has kept her faith in the women of the Convent since she first turned to them. She knows they have always been stronger than Ruby, not allowing themselves to be crushed under its heel. The way Billie Delia described the nature of their return reveals even more. She sees no possible way their return would be peaceful or quiet. There’s no possibility they would keep their distance from the town and its people the next time. The women not might but “will” march back to conquer Ruby. No hesitation, only “war paint” and the energy to “rip up and stomp down this prison calling itself a town” accompany the women. <br/><br/>As I contemplate the ambiguous fate of the women, whether in spirit or in flesh they escaped, I wonder if it matters. Does the importance of Billie Delia refusing to believe they wouldn’t return, in one way or another, not ring true regardless? Whether with their “huge hands” or only the memory of their “blazing eyes,” the town will never be in control of the Convent women or what they do. If they’re dead, their influence certainly is not. If they’re still out there, the threat of their return is neverending."

"But my favorite Toni Morrison is Song of Solomon... one of the most beautifully- written books of all time in my opinion...Pilate is one of my favorite protagonists as well!"

"Excellent book. Morrison’s command of words is truly something to behold. Explorations of belonging, relationships, race, sexuality, faith, spirituality, and physical bodies delivered with poetic prowess. The title suggests and the text proves there are many ways in which we define “paradise”. Set in a small all-black town in Oklahoma, which is itself a type of haven, a sanctuary, the story weaves interconnected characters through time. As the book progresses, the ways in which finite humans so often define “paradise” begins to crumble. I heard Toni say we all come up with limited solutions to what paradise is and, maybe most importantly, there is a notion that there are those who can’t come in."

"Its very slow. Not a page turner. "

"Beloved is a classic!"

"Just çok güzel haberlerini bekliyoruz bir peğs sasla bir de bana snsls slü Aidan nağ L"

"Miss my Toni Morrison binge "

"Quite the rich tapestry of a story. It was a little bit hard to keep track of everyone especially as she jumps around in time but this is a real master class in storytelling."