- Paradise (novel)
infobox Book |
name = Paradise
title_orig =
translator =
image_caption =
author =Toni Morrison
cover_artist =
country =United States
language = English
series =
genre =Novel
publisher =Alfred A. Knopf
release_date = 24 December 1997
media_type = Print (Hardback &Paperback )
pages = 318 pp (hardback edition) &
isbn = ISBN 0-679-43374-0 (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-452-28039-7
preceded_by =
followed_by ="Paradise" is a 1997 novel by
Toni Morrison , and her first novel since winning theNobel Prize in Literature in 1993. According to the author, it completes a "trilogy" that begins with "Beloved" and includes "Jazz".It was chosen as an
Oprah's Book Club selection January 1998. Interestingly, Morrison wanted to call the novel "War" but was overridden by her editor. [ [http://www.swarthmore.edu/Humanities/pschmid1/engl52a/engl52a.1999/morrison.html "This side of 'Paradise': Toni Morrison defends herself from criticism of her new novel "Paradise"] , Anna Mulrine, "U.S. News & World Report" 19 January 1998, posted at Swarthmore U website (accessed 29 February 2008).] ]The novel tells the story of the tension between the men of Ruby, Oklahoma (an all-black town [see also [http://www.tulsalibrary.org/aarc/towns/map.htm "Oklahoma's All-Black Town Map] ] founded in 1950) and a group of women who lived in a former convent seventeen miles away. After an opening chapter named after the town, the other chapters are named after the female characters, but are not simply about the women. Each chapter includes flashbacks to crucial events from the town's history in addition to the backstory of the titular character. The women in the Convent are Connie (Consolata), Mavis, Gigi (Grace), Seneca, and Pallas (Divine). The townswomen who receive chapters are Pat (Patricia), Lone and Save-Marie. The focus on the women characters highlights the ways the novel portrays the gender differences between the patriarchal rigidity of the townsmen and the clandestine connections between the townswomen and the women at the Convent.
References
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