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A review by livsinbooks
Paradise by Toni Morrison
5.0
Bottom line: if you’re trying to choose between this and another, choose this one.
They shoot the white girl first.
That opening line will stay with me for the rest of my life. It’s the only opening line I can recall. If anyone ever asks, it’s the only one that comes to mind. I didn’t know who Toni Morrison was when I read this book. I’m glad I didn’t. It would have intimidated the hell out of me and I wouldn’t have read it. I do not have the brainpower or the psychological understanding of people to understand the depths of this book but I don’t have to. I was gripped by every sentence of this book. I read a good chunk of this book in one go and it wasn’t until the shooting actually happened that I remembered there was a shooting. I was enthralled with the lives in the community. The way she shapes the lives together, the way she pushes them apart. Like I said. I’m not a critical reader type but even I could feel something profound when I was reading this. I remember finding it in my garage in my grandmother’s stack of mystery novels. It had an Oprah’s Book Club sticker on it and I love me some Oprah. There are unreliable narrators, unlikable characters, lovable characters, and a setting that feels like home and like a trap at the same time.
They shoot the white girl first.
That opening line will stay with me for the rest of my life. It’s the only opening line I can recall. If anyone ever asks, it’s the only one that comes to mind. I didn’t know who Toni Morrison was when I read this book. I’m glad I didn’t. It would have intimidated the hell out of me and I wouldn’t have read it. I do not have the brainpower or the psychological understanding of people to understand the depths of this book but I don’t have to. I was gripped by every sentence of this book. I read a good chunk of this book in one go and it wasn’t until the shooting actually happened that I remembered there was a shooting. I was enthralled with the lives in the community. The way she shapes the lives together, the way she pushes them apart. Like I said. I’m not a critical reader type but even I could feel something profound when I was reading this. I remember finding it in my garage in my grandmother’s stack of mystery novels. It had an Oprah’s Book Club sticker on it and I love me some Oprah. There are unreliable narrators, unlikable characters, lovable characters, and a setting that feels like home and like a trap at the same time.