Paradise [Unabridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Toni Morrison (Author), Lynne Thigpen (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1999

12 compact discs. Relentlessly breathtaking and powerful, Paradise is Toni Morrison's first novel since being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993. An Oprah's Book Club selection, this long-awaited novel is eloquent and psychologically stunning. In the mid-1970s, America is reeling from the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, and the hippie counterculture. Ruby, an all-black Oklahoma community, is proud of its heritage and wary of the five women who inhabit the "Convent" at the edge of town. Of questionable morals, these racially diverse women seem to be at the center of everything that's going wrong in Ruby. Motives and secrets are dramatically revealed as nine of the town's upstanding citizens plan the brutal murder of the Convent's unusual residents. Vastly popular and with numerous literary awards to her credit, Toni Morrison is both passionate and cerebral. Paradise challenges listeners not only with such issues as civil rights, morality, and racism, but also with the drama and complexity of the human psyche. Tony Award-winning actress Lynne Thigpen skillfully captures every colorful nuance of this haunting work of suspense.

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0788737287
• ISBN-13: 978-0788737282
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (325 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,207,215 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A complex and fulfilling book, October 8, 2005

By 

Brian Hawkinson (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paradise (Oprah's Book Club) (Mass Market Paperback)

Toni Morrison is one of the best authors living today, and has firmly placed herself as an author that will be read years down the road. Paradise is perhaps one of her best novels, and is one of my all time favorites (I have read it three times).

It does pose a difficult read for those looking for a casual book, because it is a deep and complexly interwoven book meant to stir emotions and one's mind. I am amazed at the spotlight reviews who seem confused by her style of writing and could not become involved with the characters. Morrison uses a recursive approach, one that breathes new life into each chapter (as a new character is introduced Morrison takes the time to back track to explain that person's past before joining the character with the present time of the book; Morrison's Master's Thesis was on Faulkner, who used the recursive style heavily). Although this could create confusion if you aren't aware of it, I think it makes for an altogether complete and compelling story.

The Convent itself and the women that reside within are compelling, and sad, stories ready to be told, and as they unfold with their interactions with Ruby it creates a book that is absolutely amazing.

This book is not for those looking for a quick easy read, or something that goes from point A to point B with no stops in between. This book will test your mind and emotions as the tale unfolds through complex chapters, leaving you with a much more fulfilling book than one that does not make you think about what you are reading. If I could give this a six star rating, I wouldn't hesitate.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A (blissfully) difficult read, May 9, 2005

By 

Jonathon (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paradise (Hardcover)

Should fiction be easy? Depending on how you answer this rather basic question, you will either love or hate this book (and the rest of Morrison's catalogue, for that matter). In other words, is reading merely another hobby for you, or is it an obsession? Morrison caters to those of us who are obsessed. We may not have all read James Joyce's Ulysses, but we plan to one day. Paradise takes a rather complex story and tells it in a complex way. If you expect to have your hand held as you saunter through this novel, go read something else. Morrison challenges her reader at every turn, forcing us to exercise our intelligence. Do you draw character maps while you read books? Perhaps you should. I diagrammed the town of Ruby to the best of my ability.

The reason why so many people struggle to get through a book as difficult as Paradise (which Morrison originally planned to title "War," by the way) is because they are afraid of being confused. Morrison, however, uses confusion as a means of bringing us deeper into her world. The act of reading is not so much a discovery of answers, but of more questions. Paradise is first and foremost a mystery novel: who are the nine men with guns in the first chapter? Who is the white girl? What has provoked this violence? etc etc. Every answer that Morrison gives us comes at a price: more questions. Personally, I wouldn't want to have it any other way.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An extremely difficult read but a good one nonetheless, May 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Paradise (Oprah's Book Club) (Mass Market Paperback)

Toni Morrison made a grave error while writing Paradise-she left too much of the translation (and trust me, there's A LOT) to the reader. To the causal reader, the novel is almost completely indiscernible due to the very complex and very confusing plot structure and lack of an active narrative voice.

So did I understand Paradise? Yes, but only after carefully picking it apart chapter by chapter in one of my English seminars. Even now, I'm not so sure that I truly comprehend all of the book's themes. And do I understand the ending? Yes, but only after wading through hours of various interviews with Morrison in which she discussed her book to great length. Most importantly, was the book worth the read? I believe so, but I devoted a lot of work to Paradise before arriving at this conclusion. Morrison's writing style is not to be taken lightly; words and themes often contain several, and sometimes seemingly infinitesimal, levels of meaning. The bottom line is that what you take away from Paradise, if anything, is up to you. If you want to walk away from this novel with any sort of satisfaction, be prepared to commit a lot though and research to the undertaking.

Now, I'm not going to discuss the novel's meanings here for those who don't have the time or the will to put in the sort of work I'm talking about because doing so would far exceed the 1,000 word limit that amazon.com allows for these reviews. (I wrote 10 pages alone for my seminar on the theme of sexuality as a form of female submission and still had plenty of material left over to work with.) Whether Morrison has overextended her literary license with Paradise is debatable, but I would encourage you, the reader, to devote some effort to the reading. Who knows, you might find something worth keeping. I sure did.