The story is at first terrifying. Unlike its title, Paradise begins by describing how a group of men conduct a mass slaughtering of a group of women. The women had been living in an abandoned mansion/convent near the all black town, Ruby, in rural Oklahoma. Then the story backtracks to show why the tragedy happened.

　　　Ruby was founded by ex-slaves who traveled from Louisiana after the Civil War. They originally founded the town, Haven, however, the next generation moved away from it and founded a new town, Ruby. Since these people were oppressed by whites and even turned away by the light colored of their own people, their community had become solid and didn't like outside people and the outside world. To protect their community, they despised change. It seemed like they segregated themselves to create their own paradise.

　　　But the change came from the outside world in the wake of the citizens' movement for black people. Inwardly, they also changed themselves. The younger generation was changing, as is often the case in any community. Another change occurred when some unhealthy babies were born, because some marriages were against the "blood rule" of such a small community. Being threatened by changes that they were unable to cope with, they needed something to blame.

　　　In the convent (which use to be a school for Indian girls), several women with traumatic pasts caused mainly by men, came to stay one by one from the outside world. They were very different from Ruby's people, for they were from the modern world of the 1970s. The men in Ruby decided that those women were the cause of their misfortune, so they decided to evict them from the convent. So, they found scapegoats. Even though those women were oppressed by society, the same as the original founders of Haven and Ruby, the men became their new oppressors.

　　　With this terrible tragedy, Morrison starts to talk about the lives of the women of the convent, one at a time. Alongside of it, she introduces the complicated history of Haven and Ruby and the conflict of the people in the community. "They shoot the white girl first," is the first line of the novel. But in the convent, women didn't care about the color of their skin. They were battered women, that was enough for them. Morrison describes when one girl reached the convent, "The whole house felt permeated with a blessed malelessness, like a protected domain, free of hunters but exciting too."

　　　While reading I often felt I was lost and later found what the author was talking about. Her writing style is an unusual one, more like verse than ordinary sentences. So I had to concentrate on reading, or I'd be lost.　But reading this novel is rewarding, though it is a little hard. I like the author's intellectual and warm attitude toward people, and I felt her deep understanding for humanity.

Toni Morrisonらしく、詩的な文体の表現が多く、激しくも美しく物語は流れていきます。詩的ゆえに理解に苦しむことも度々ありましたが、それは彼女の作品を読む楽しみでもあり、それを理解できたときの「なるほど！！」感は次へ次へと読む意欲を促してくれます。

登場人物にはそのひとがどういう人種なのか、一切書かれておらず、文体から想像していくのみです。ということも作者には何か意味することなのでしょう。
また、最初の出だしにあえて「the white girl」とした作者の意図はなんだったのか？と考えてしましました。

ノーベル賞を受賞した後の作品なので、どんなすばらしい作品かと期待していましたが、その期待を裏切られることはなく、すばらしい1冊だと思います。