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Paradise (Beloved Trilogy, #3)

Questions About Paradise (Beloved Trilogy, #3)

by Toni Morrison

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Answered Questions (6)

Did anyone else really hate this book ?- I feel guilty because it is by such a reknown author. I'm 1/2 way thru and can't get up any curiosity or interest in what happens next.
Melissa Aubuchon I actually couldn't get through it the first time I read it. I put it down and then came back to it a couple years later. If you can't finish it, set …m´Ç°ù±ðI actually couldn't get through it the first time I read it. I put it down and then came back to it a couple years later. If you can't finish it, set it aside and move on. Maybe put it back on the bookshelf for another time.
I find Morrison generally difficult but extremely rewarding to read. The second attempt clicked for me and I made it to the end and then LOVED it.
I agree with Nyla, though. If you don't like it; you don't like it. There are plenty of popular authors and books out there that I just don't feel the same way about. Morrison is amazingly talented and smart. Her messages resonate with different people at different times in our lives. I certainly haven't liked all her books, but I am probably not her target audience in those cases.(less)
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I read beloved but i have not read jazz would it totally ruin it for me if i have not read them in order?
Dennis They are separate stories but follow a theme. If I were being particular, I'd add "Sula" to the mix but that book was much earlier in her career.…m´Ç°ù±ðThey are separate stories but follow a theme. If I were being particular, I'd add "Sula" to the mix but that book was much earlier in her career.(less)
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This question contains spoilers... (view spoiler)
Becky Courington Pallas/Divine is the white one. Connie was from South America, not Europe.
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I finished this book but only because I used Wikipedia notes and character listing to help me understand what was happening. It is listed as book #3 in the the Beloved Trilogy. Would reading the first two books have made it easier to understand what was happening?
Chris Dattilio No. The first two books have completely unrelated stories, in different time periods, with different characters. There is no back-story in Beloved or …m´Ç°ù±ðNo. The first two books have completely unrelated stories, in different time periods, with different characters. There is no back-story in Beloved or Jazz that will help explain Paradise.
That said, there is a certain ambiguity in Paradise, that is intentional on the part of the author.
Chronology is contradictory; events happen out of order; which characters participate in certain events change with each retelling; prejudicial 'indicators' of race are used specifically to confuse or confound the reader (or make the reader question their implicit biases).
Morrison seems to use a kind of loose mythology with the story, which changes depending on whose POV we're experiencing at a given moment.(less)
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Do you think all five women at the convent were killed in the attack? (I don't think the question is a spoiler, but the answers probably are.)
IvanOpinion Here's my answer to my own question.

I don't think it is a spoiler, because it is a question that is based on the first line of the book.

Connie and "th…m´Ç°ù±ðHere's my answer to my own question.

I don't think it is a spoiler, because it is a question that is based on the first line of the book.

Connie and "the white woman" receive wounds that must have killed them and several people touch/see their corpses (before they disappear). Some of the attackers are said to have made comments that imply the other three were gunned down whilst fleeing, but their corpses are not seen and there seems to be more room for uncertainty.

The disappearance of all five suggests that at least one of them survived, in order to remove the corpses (of which there were at least two). I suppose it is possible that there were five corpses and someone else removed them. One of the attackers or a family member, hiding the evidence? But I don't think there is any hint of this in the book.

The bit after the attack seems to describe several of them apparently alive, meeting family members. I've seen suggestions that these are ghosts, but to me they sounded alive. Mavis, for instance, orders and eats grits and juice, which would be strange for a ghost.

There is a car full of figures which we are told cannot be made out, but I assume is meant to be them. Although if it is more than 3 of them, they must be ghosts, because at least two of them were certainly killed (unless you think the entire account of the attack is unreliable).

Or, were they mystically resurrected somehow, like Christ? The book is full of biblical echoes, such as exodus.(less)
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