Toni Morrison - Paradise: ***SPOILER ALERT ***

[policywonk]

Hello Flossie

My question is to do with 'the white woman' - do you think we are supposed to know which character she is, or is it Morrison's point that we don't/can't know?

I remember her saying something about this in an interview with Time - something along the lines of, race being the least important piece of information you can have about someone and so deliberately wanting to keep that out of the narrative. Will see if I can find the link.

Found it:

Paradise Found

The actual quote is "Race is the least reliable information you can have about someone. It's real information, but it tells you next to nothing."

I don't think I've actually gone back to Paradise since I handed in my dissertation! Though I might well do now and come back with some new thoughts.

The more I think about it, the more I have a (possibly phantom) memory of her also saying somewhere that she knew who the white girl was, and that it was actually possible to figure it out if you read very closely. But I may have imagined that... my notes are all in the loft!

Ah! That's a very interesting article - thanks. I thought that was what she had intended but have never been quite sure.

I see Song of Solomon gets mentioned near the end - that's another good one. There's a bit near the end that completely terrified me the first time I read it.

Ah didn't see your last post. I have re-read it a couple of times and been on the look-out for clues, but couldn't come to any definite conclusion. Then I started to feel a bit ashamed of myself for treating it like an Agatha Christie

Song of Solomon took me ages to get into the first time I read it, but it grew on me. I remember the final pages as being pretty hair-raising - but exhilarating too.