Paradise by Toni Morrison (review ) Raj, Toni Morisson (ogled )

In this post, I shall review Paradise, a novel by Toni Morrison. First of all, let me say that I have an immense respect for Toni Morrison. Besides being a brilliant novelist, she is a very important activist for African American community and a powerful feminist figure. I do believe that her work as an advocate for a interpretation of history that is more fair and truthful in the context of African American situation in USA is very important.  Furthermore, I consider Toni Morrison to be an exceptional woman, a remarkable person and a wise soul. She is one of those writers I would love to meet in person. 

U ovoj objavi, podijelit ću ogled za roman Raj, američke spisateljice Toni Morrison. Prvo, moram naglasiti da imam ogromno poštovanje prema Toni Morrison. Osim što je vrsni romanopisac, ona je i jako važna aktivistica za Afričko-američku zajednicu i snažna feministička figura. Vjerujem da je njen rad kao borca za razumijevanje povijesti koje je poštenije i bliže istini u kontekstu položaja američkih crnaca u SAD-u vrlo važan. Nadalje, smatram da je ona izvanredna žena, nevjerojatna osoba i jako mudra duša. Ona je jedna od onih pisaca koje bi htjela upoznati uživo. 

“How exquisitely human was the wish for permanent happiness, and how thin human imagination became trying to achieve it.” Paradise, Toni Morisson

Paradise is my second novel by Toni Morrison. Prior to it, I have read only Beloved. I read Beloved as a student and reading it was such a breath-taking and heart-breaking experience for me. When I started reading Paradise, I was expecting another Beloved but I couldn't have been more wrong. Having read three of her novels so far ( Beloved, Paradise and Jazz) , I can state that every one of them is remarkably unique. I did a mini review of Jazz on my insta account, you can read it here. All of Morrison's novels that I have read so far explore similar subjects, but there is absolutely no repetition in them. Most of all, Morrison’s novels are all superb masterpieces with an amazing set of characters and masterful narrative. All of her novels have great psychological and emotional depth.

Raj je drugi roman ove autorice koji sam pročitala, a prije  njega pročitala sam samo Voljenu još dok sam bila student i čitanje toga romana je bilo iskustvo koje je oduzimalo dah i lomilo srce. Kada sam počela čitati Raj, očekivala sam roman sličan prvom, ali nisam se mogla više prevariti. Sada kada sam pročitala tri njena romana ( Voljena, Raj i Jazz), mogu reći da je svaki od njih zadivljujuće jedinstven. Napisala sam par redaka (svojevrsni minijaturni ogled) o Jazz-u na svom instagramu ,možete pročitati tu. Prije svega, romani Morrison su vrhunska remekdjela s divnim likovima, vrsnom pričom i velikom psihološkom i emotivnom dubinom. 

“Let me tell you about love, that silly word you believe is about whether you like somebody or whether somebody likes you or whether you can put up with somebody in order to get something or someplace you want or you believe it has to do with how your body responds to another body like robins or bison or maybe you believe love is how forces or nature or luck is benign to you in particular not maiming or killing you but if so doing it for your own good. Love is none of that. There is nothing in nature like it. Not in robins or bison or in the banging tails of your hunting dogs and not in blossoms or suckling foal. Love is divine only and difficult always. If you think it is easy you are a fool. If you think it is natural you are blind. It is a learned application without reason or motive except that it is God. You do not deserve love regardless of the suffering you have endured. You do not deserve love because somebody did you wrong. You do not deserve love just because you want it. You can only earn - by practice and careful contemplations - the right to express it and you have to learn how to accept it. Which is to say you have to earn God. You have to practice God. You have to think God-carefully. And if you are a good and diligent student you may secure the right to show love. Love is not a gift. It is a diploma. A diploma conferring certain privileges: the privilege of expressing love and the privilege of receiving it. How do you know you have graduated? You don't. What you do know is that you are human and therefore educable, and therefore capable of learning how to learn, and therefore interesting to God, who is interested only in Himself which is to say He is interested only in love. Do you understand me? God is not interested in you. He is interested in love and the bliss it brings to those who understand and share the interest. Couples that enter the sacrament of marriage and are not prepared to go the distance or are not willing to get right with the real love of God cannot thrive. They may cleave together like robins or gulls or anything else that mates for life. But if they eschew this mighty course, at the moment when all are judged for the disposition of their eternal lives, their cleaving won't mean a thing. God bless the pure and holy. Amen.” Toni Morrison, Paradise

I know I'm writing in superlatives and singing praises, but I can't help it if this woman is an intellectual giant as well as an incredibly talented writer. In addition, I really feel that she puts her heart and soul in every book she writes. Her language is pure magic. Her language is powerful and enchanting. Her characters are more than credible; they have the tendency of getting deep under our skin. Reading her novels can be quite an intense experience, but I'm not a type to shy away from difficult books, nor have I ever been. I do light reading from time to time, but mainly I see reading as nourishment for my heart and soul.

Svjesna sam da pišem u superlativima i hvalim ju, ali što mogu kada je ova žena intelektualni div kao i nevjerojatno talentirana spisateljica. Uz to, stvarno imam dojam da  ulaže srce i dušu u svaki roman koji napiše. Njen jezik je čista magija. Njen jezik je snažan i očaravajući. Njeni likovi su više nego uvjerljivi, oni imaju tu sklonost da vam se uvuku duboko u dušu. Čitanje njenih romana zna biti jako intenzivno iskustvo, ali ja nisam tip koji bježi od teških knjiga, niti sam to ikad bila. Čitam ja i lagano štivo povremeno, ali većinom na čitanje gledam kao na hranu za dušu i srce.

Paradise was published in 1997 and it is often mentioned how it is the first novel Morrison published after winning the Nobel Prize for literature. According to the author itself, Paradise completes a trilogy that includes two of her other novels I was fortunate enough to read, Beloved and Jazz. As for the time period, Paradise is set in modern times (fifties and sixties of the last century) but when it explores different characters, it flashes back and forth in the past that is earlier than that. The story is set in imaginary city Ruby set by black people in an effort to protect themselves against racism and limitations existing for African American people in USA. 

Raj je izdan 1997. godine i često se spominje kako je to prvi roman koji je Morrison izdala nakon osvajanja Nobelove nagrade za književnost. Sama autorica kaže da je Raj kraj trilogije koja uključuje i druga dva njena romana koje sam imala sreće pročitati, a to su Voljena i Jazz.  Ovaj je roman smješten u moderno vrijeme (pedesete i šezdesete godine prošlog stoljeća, ali ima puno digresija i u raniju prošlost). Priča je smještena u izmišljeni grad Ruby koji je osnovala grupa crnaca u pokušaju da se zaštite od rasizma i ograničenja koje postoje za Afroamerikance u SAD-u. 

“I've traveled. All over. I've never seen anything like you. How could anything be put together like you? Do you know how beautiful you are? Have you looked at yourself?'

'I'm looking now.”

Ruby can be seen as an attempt of creating Eden, a new and untouched place that will be free from horrors of the past. A lot of interesting questions are being raised as a consequence of the mere act of establishing this town. Can we ever really escape the past? Should we at least try? What the past truly is? All the families and the individuals that make those families, all the people living in this isolated town are very fascinating, as is their community as a whole. Nevertheless, the novel is not only about them. Near the city there is an abandoned catholic convent where a ground of outcast women has found a place for themselves.  The tension between the outside world represented by the convent and the enclosed city is the driving force between most of the conflicts taking place in this novel. However, author shows us that it is only the surface. As always in life, the inner conflicts are the true driving force between outside conflicts. Furthermore, the women in the convent are also refugees from the outside world and they have also sought isolation and established a community of their own. Their reasons for escaping the outside world are just as important as those of town’s people. Morrison does a great job of giving us a very personal view into a soul of every woman in that convent. Moreover, she is such a masterful story teller. The way she connects all the stories is simply perfect.

Ruby se može vidjeti kao pokušaj stvaranja Edena, novog i nedirnutog mjesta koje će biti slobodno od strahota prošlosti. Puno je zanimljivih pitanja tu postavljeno kao posljedica samoga čina osnivanja toga grada. Možemo li ikada zaista pobjeći prošlosti? Trebamo li barem pokušati? Što  je doista prošlost? Sve obitelji i pojedinci od koji ih sačinjavaju, svi koji žive u ovoj izoliranom gradu su jako zanimljivi,  kao što je i njihova cijela zajednice. Međutim, ne radi se tu samo o njima. Blizu grada postoji napušteni katolički samostan gdje je grupa žena odbjeglih od društva pronašla mjesto za sebe. Napetost između vanjskoga svijeta koji predstavlja samostan i zatvorenoga grada je sila pokretnica iza većine sukoba u ovom romanu. Ipak, spisateljica nam pokazuje da je to samo površina. Kao uvijek u životu, unutrašnji sukobi su prava sila pokretnica iza vanjskih sukoba. Nadalje, želje u samostanu su također izbjeglice iz vanjskog svijeta i one su isto tražile izolaciju i osnovalae svoju zajednicu. Njihovi razlozi za bijeg iz vanjskog svijeta su jednako važni kao i oni ljudi iz grada. Morrison je izvrsno uspjela dati nam vrlo osobni pogled u dušu svake od tih žena u samostanu. Nadalje, ona je tako sposobna ispričani priču na pravi način. Način na koji povezuje sve priče je jednostavno savršen. 

“But can't you even imagine what it must feel like to have a true home? I don't mean heaven. I mean a real earthly home. Not some fortress you bought and built up and have to keep everybody locked in or out. A real home. Not some place you went to and invaded and slaughtered people to get. Not some place you claimed, snatched because you got the guns. Not some place you stole from the people living there, but your own home, where if you go back past your great-great-grandparents, past theirs, and theirs, past the whole of Western history, past the beginning of organized knowledge, past pyramids and poison bows, on back to when rain was new, before plants forgot they could sing and birds thought they were fish, back when God said Good! Good!-- there, right there where you know your own people were born and lived and died. Imagine that, Pat. That place. Who was God talking to if not to my people living in my home?"
"You preaching, Reverend."
"No, I'm talking to you, Pat. I'm talking to you.”

“Don't mistake the fathers' thanks," Fairy had warned her. "Men scared of us, always will be. To them we're death's handmaiden standing as between them and the children their wives carry." During those times, Fairy said, the midwife is the interference, the one giving orders, on whose secret skill so much depended, and the dependency irritated them. Especially here in this place where they had come to multiply in peace.”

 Paradise, this novel whose opening and last chapter are about a massacre is not about violence. It acknowledges the violence and the conflicts that exist in most of us, but it does so without taking away from us (or the characters in the novel) our humanity. Yes, there is a great deal of violence in this novel, both emotional and physical, both inflicted by one character to another and by many characters to themselves. Nevertheless, it is not about violence.  Like all masterpieces it is about many things. For me personally, this novel is about the power of love and survival. This novel opens and closes with bloodshed, but in between lies the explanation and the story that is as profound as life itself.  "They shot the white girl first...", says the infamous first paragraph. Morrison herself said she wanted to start off the novel with race but eradicated it by never making it known who the white girl is.  What I like most about the novel is how it focuses on women characters. I even felt that just reading this novel empowered me as women. I was especially fascinated by the women living in the convent, by their weaknesses and strengths. This group of dysfunctional women is not idealized in any way, they are full of flaws and some of them are struggling with a mental illness but their connection to one another and their inner strength makes them almost mystical figures. 

Raj, taj roman čije prvo i zadnje poglavlje opisuje masakr, pa tako roman počinje i završava masakrom nije roman o nasilju. On priznaje nasilje i sukobe koji postoje u svakom od nas, ali to čini bez da nam ( ili likovima u romanu)  oduzme ljudskost. Da, ima dosta nasilja u ovom romanu, emotivnoga i fizičkoga,  nasilja koje čine likovi jedni drugima ili mnogi od njih i sami sebi. Ipak, ovaj roman nije o nasilju. Kao i sva remek djela, on je puno toga. Za mene osobno, ovaj roman je o  snazi ljubavi i preživljavanju. Ovaj roman počinje i završava krvoprolićem, ali između leži objašnjenje i priča koja je duboka kao sam život. "Prvo su upucali bjelkinju.....", kaže paragraf koji otvara ovaj roman. Morrison je sama rekla da je htjela započeti roman rasom, ali onda to izbrisati tako da se ne zna koji  je lik zapravo bjelkinja. Ono što mi se najviše sviđa kod ovog romana je usmjerenje na ženske likove. Osjećam da me samo čitanje ovoga romana osnažilo kao ženu.  Posebno su me opčinili likovi žena u samostanu, njihove slabosti i snage. Ova grupa disfukcionalnih žena prikazana je bez uljepšavanja, pune su mana, a neke pate i od psihičkih bolesti, ali njihova međusobna povezanost i njihova unutrašnja snaga ih čini skoro mističnim figurama.

long puffer/ duga jakna: no name/nije markiran
bag/torba: posuđena/ borrowed
tights/tajice: DM
shoes/ cipele: Šimecki

“Exclusivity, however is still an attractive, even compelling feature of paradise because so many people—the unworthy—are not there. Boundaries are secure, watchdogs, security systems, and gates are there to verify the legitimacy of the inhabitants. Such enclaves separate from crowded urban areas proliferate. Thus it does not seem possible or desirable for a city to be envisioned let alone built in which poor people can be accommodated. Exclusivity is not just a realized dream for the wealthy; it is a popular yearning of the middle class.”

****These photographs were actually taken in March, but I only managed to find them now. This review wasn't difficult to write  and by that I mean it was easy to be inspired to write a review about such a fantastic book (although the process of writing did take me quite some times) because this book is still so vivid in my imagination, I feel like I have read Paradise only yesterday, while in fact I read it months ago.

****Ove fotografije su zapravo uslikane u ožujku, ali sam im tek sada pronašla. Bilo je lako napisati ovaj ogled, pri tome mislim da je lako biti nadahnut za pisanje ogleda kada je tako fantastičan roman u pitanju (iako je samo pisanje ogleda duge trajalo) jer je ova knjiga još veoma živa u mojoj mašti. Imam osjećaj da sam  jučer pročitala Raj dok sam ga zapravo pročitala prije nekoliko mjeseci.