We are getting a head start on the Book Club Spotlight’s 3rd biennial Toni Morrison summer read in honor of America’s Second Independence Day this Friday (June 19th). Like in Nebraska, freedmen made their way out to Oklahoma to homestead often in all Black settlements and farming communities where residents were free from racial violence and segregation laws. In her 1997 novel, Paradise, Morrison presents a fictionalized community of Black Homesteaders in its decline after generations of prosperity. She approaches their self-made isolation and segregation and asks the reader if true “paradise necessitates exclusion.” (x)
“They shot the white girl first. With the rest they can take their time.” This first execution was justified in the early morning raiders’ minds. After all, they were here to save their town from the evil influences that lay inside the old Convent. Ruby, the remnants of a once thriving town of Black Homesteaders split into factions, should have been a haven for its residents. Free from racial violence and a governmental system built against them, they were proud of the safe community they built. When the cracks of the peaceful town begin to show, the men of Ruby turn their eyes to an old convent outside of town, rumored to harbor witches. Who were these women of the Convent? Those that were murdered in the name of safety by their neighbors?
“How exquisitely human was the wish for permanent happiness, and how thin human imagination became trying to achieve it.”
– Toni Morrison
Aside from the residents of Ruby, races of the characters rarely noted, especially of the women who live in the Convent. This may come as a surprise to readers as they search for meaning behind the townspeople’s actions who believe their hard-fought racial segregation is what will keep them and their families safe. The Covenant’s ambiguous racial makeup allows the novel to take an approach on intersectionality that focuses on how despite one’s race, class, religion, or ability, women are joined together in the never ending struggle for gender equality and safety even from those who have sworn to protect them. As the follow-up novel to her Nobel Prize win, Paradise is Morrison’s final say in the iconic “Beloved Trilogy”, finishing her three-book contemplation on the search for love and belonging in the shadow of human tenderness and generational trauma. Set in 9 parts, Paradise is ripe for discussion, and Adult Book Club Groups who are fans of Morrison will continue to be stunned by her beautiful prose and heart wrenching characters.
If you’re interested in requesting Paradise for your book club, you can find the Request Form here. There are 12 copies. (A librarian must request items)
Morrison, Toni. Paradise. Alfred A Knopf, 1997
