Winter Book Club: Paradise (Part 1 of 3)

Published in 1998 and set in rural Oklahoma, Paradise is the last of a trio of novels Toni Morrison wrote to explore themes of love and history in the Black experience. It's partly contemporary, partly historical in setting, encompassing experiences stretching from 1997 back to Reconstruction. It deals with a recurrent need across generations to find and form refuge--first from slavery, then from patriarchy, racist trauma, and oppressive social hierarchy.

The drama of the story encircles people caught up in utopian desires of community, mutual acceptance, and self-determination, which either degrade into dystopias or must combat external forces of ironic intolerance.

Discussion leader: Dr. Kristin Distel of University College, Ohio University.