The Sayer and the Namer

Paradise is...paradise :)

I was beginning to think that I was in a book funk. The last few books I've read have failed to inspire. They haven't been "bad," any of them, but they haven't been amazing. I know it's not good when I begin making schedules of pages I have to read in order to finish it by Saturday. I've just read my amazing book of the month. Toni Morrison's Paradise is A-mazing. I loved it. The characters were rich and complex, the setting (Oklahoma!) lended itself to a mysterious isolation that became a theme of the book, and the writing was beautiful. I don't think I can think of one negative to the book. When I read its reviews on Amazon, it got really mixed reviews. A lot of people said it was too confusing (it wasn't), too long (I wish it was longer!), and not engaging. What?! A few commented that it was Toni Morrision's weakest work. If that's her weakest work, I'm convinced to read her best work. (She won the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved, so that's on my "books I want to read" list now.)

Without going into detail that you wouldn't understand if you hadn't read the book, I found it very interesting that the cultural struggles that occurred in the town of Ruby, Oklahoma are similar to the cultural struggles of modern day America. The founding fathers of Ruby wanted to create a town where they were free from tyranny (slavery and racism). They wanted to work for themselves, to have a little piece of earth to call their own. Nobody could tell them what to do, and nobody could tell them they were worthless or less valuable than anyone else. (Sound familiar?) The first few generations of Ruby worked hard at keeping the forefather's ideals and morals, but in doing so, created a lot of rules. Rules that didn't make a lot of sense, but rules that were put in place for the greater good of Ruby. As a result, the leaders of Ruby saw an increase in power. (Sound familiar?) The younger generation in Ruby sees a lot of faults in the system. They want to leave Ruby to go to other towns where the needless rules and empty threats don't apply. They want freedom from the system, and they are looking for change. (Sound familiar?)

Now, I don't mean my comparison to be Anti-American or anything of the sort. I'm beyond thankful that I live in a country such as America. I'm not hinting at the "Obama for change" theory that everyone else on the Internet is. For the record, I think that BOTH candidates are for radical change, and that McCain is a more proven proponent for change than Obama. But all of this is beside the point. All presidential politics aside, I just found it incredible that Morrison could write a book about a small, inclusive town and in doing so, she painted large, uncritical, non-partisan brushstrokes of an America that has let politics get in the way of freedom.

Read Paradise.

posted by Erin @ 1:15 PM