Premio Nobel de literatura 1993

The story opens in 1976. A group of men is converging upon the Convent, a repurposed mansion at the edge of the town of Ruby, Oklahoma. They intend harm to the women living there. The narrative then shifts to follow various unrelated characters. These individual stories, when combined, provide a unified whole. We learn of the founding of the all-black town, and the building of the Oven, a central place to prepare food (which serves as an important symbol). We learn the backstories of the women in the Convent, how they arrived, and why they stayed. The patriarchy blames these “wayward” women for misleading town’s younger generation.

Though it is technically part of a trilogy, including Beloved and Jazz, it can be read as a standalone. A short summary can hardly do it justice. As in many of Morrison’s novels, it explores themes related to women’s issues, racial conflict, social structure, and psychology. It comments on the gender discrimination that occurred within black communities during the Civil Rights Movement. There are many interwoven threads, critiques of American history, and spiritual references. It is well-crafted, complex, and thought-provoking.
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"Born out of an old hatred, one that began when one kind of black man scorned another kind and that kind took the hatred to another level, their selfishness had trashed two hundred years of suffering and triumph in a moment of such pomposity and error and callousness it froze the mind."
After the civil war, many blacks built communities where whites need not apply. But many required that you show up with your own resources--in other words, "don't ask for any help." Ruby, Oklahoma, a community of"dark-skinned" black folks, population 360, in the time frame of this book's setting, was begun as town where folks helped each other with what They needed. But now Ruby is set to implode from its problems. Adding to the town's ills, the nearby Convent, a house originally occupied by nuns "educating" Indian girls (read: taken from their communities to be "whitened") but now home to the Portuguese woman who herself was stolen as a child and brought up to serve the nuns. Several young women have found their way there, and ended up staying. When they show up at a wedding in Ruby, it's the spark that ignites the smoldering undercurrents.
I love this author's lovely way with words. ( )

Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "Another Toni Morrison masterpiece. Four unconventional women living on the onskirts of the all-black town of Ruby (thanks, amazon.com, for help remembering the name). We people just don't feel comfortable having some too different from us, do we?" ( )

Vi vandrer frem og tilbake over 300 år med amerikansk historie gjennom de som lenge lette etter det gode samfunnet. Tidene skifter og ikke alle med dem. Starten på boken er brå, voldsom og dødelig. På slutten vender vi tilbake dit. Dette fungere som em slags rammefortelling omkring alt det andre som blir en indrefortelling selv om det aller meste av det siste skjer før nettopp denne hendelsen. På sett og vis bygger fortellingen opp en gang til mot dette som et peripeti, et dramatisk toppunkt. Alt som skrives forklarer og belyser og gir mening til det meningsløse. I sentrum er den fargede kvinnens liv, hele tiden preget av den fargede mannens liv og ikke minst av de hvites liv og av andre fargedes liv. De som sist lever i Klosteret, er alle ofre som kan reise seg der de blir møtt. Der ligger noen urgamle sannheter og opplevelser av mening og det å bli sett. Og det ligger fortellerens vurdering av hvordan afroamerikanere river hverandre i filler i stedet for å stå sammen mot en felles fiende, hvordan frykten driver dem hinsides deres egne liv og nye sjanser og deri i det forspilte - nettopp paradis.