What do you think?
Rate this book
Paradise
"No other word for a charming book."â Peter S. Prescott, Newsweek
Simon, a middle-aged architect separated from his wife, is given the chance to live out a stereotypical male freed from the travails of married life, he ends up living with three nubile lingerie models who use him as a sexual object.
Set in the 1980s, there's a further tension between Simon's desire to exploit this stereotypical fantasy and his (as well as the author's) desire to treat the women as human beings, despite the women's claims that Simon can't distinguish between their personalities.
Employing a variety of forms, Barthelme gracefully plays with this setup, creating a story that's not just funnyâ although it's definitely thatâ but actually quite melancholy, as Simon knows that the women's departure is inevitable, that this "paradise" will come to an end, and that he'll be left with only an empty house, booze, and regrets about chances not taken.
Simon, a middle-aged architect separated from his wife, is given the chance to live out a stereotypical male freed from the travails of married life, he ends up living with three nubile lingerie models who use him as a sexual object.
Set in the 1980s, there's a further tension between Simon's desire to exploit this stereotypical fantasy and his (as well as the author's) desire to treat the women as human beings, despite the women's claims that Simon can't distinguish between their personalities.
Employing a variety of forms, Barthelme gracefully plays with this setup, creating a story that's not just funnyâ although it's definitely thatâ but actually quite melancholy, as Simon knows that the women's departure is inevitable, that this "paradise" will come to an end, and that he'll be left with only an empty house, booze, and regrets about chances not taken.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
6 people are currently reading
834 people want to read
About the author
Donald Barthelme
158 books766 followers
Unspeakable Practices, Unnatural Acts
(1968) apparently collects sometimes surrealistic stories of modern life of American writer Donald Barthelme.
A student at the University of Pennsylvania bore Donald Barthelme. Two years later, in 1933, the family moved to Texas, where father of Barthelme served as a professor of architecture at the University of Houston, where Barthelme later majored in journalism.
In 1951, this still student composed his first articles for the Houston Post. The Army drafted Barthelme, who arrived in Korea on 27 July 1953, the very day, when parties signed the ceasefire, ending the war. He served briefly as the editor of a newspaper of Army before returning to the United States and his job at the Houston Post. Once back, he continued his studies of philosophy at the University of Houston. He continued to take classes until 1957 but never received a degree. He spent much of his free time in “black” jazz clubs of Houston and listened to musical innovators, such as Lionel Hampton and Peck Kelly; this experience influenced him later.
Barthelme, a rebellious son, struggled in his relationship with his demanding father. In later years, they tremendously argued about the kinds of literature that interested Barthelme. His avant-garde father in art and aesthetics in many ways approved not the postmodern and deconstruction schools. The Dead Father and The King , the novels, delineate attitude of Barthelme toward his father as King Arthur and Lancelot, the characters, picture him. From the Roman Catholicism of his especially devout mother, Barthelme independently moved away, but this separation as the distance with his father troubled Barthelme. He ably agreed to strictures of his seemingly much closer mother.
Barthelme went to teach for brief periods at Boston University and at University at Buffalo, and he at the college of the City of New York served as distinguished visiting professor from 1974-1975. He married four times. Helen Barthelme, his second wife, later entitled a biography Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound , published in 2001. With Birgit Barthelme, his third wife and a Dane, he fathered Anne Barthelme, his first child, a daughter. He married Marion Barthelme near the end and fathered Kate Barthelme, his second daughter. Marion and Donald wed until his death from throat cancer. People respect fiction of Frederick Barthelme and Steven Barthelme, brothers of Donald Barthelme and also teachers at The University of Southern Mississippi.
A student at the University of Pennsylvania bore Donald Barthelme. Two years later, in 1933, the family moved to Texas, where father of Barthelme served as a professor of architecture at the University of Houston, where Barthelme later majored in journalism.
In 1951, this still student composed his first articles for the Houston Post. The Army drafted Barthelme, who arrived in Korea on 27 July 1953, the very day, when parties signed the ceasefire, ending the war. He served briefly as the editor of a newspaper of Army before returning to the United States and his job at the Houston Post. Once back, he continued his studies of philosophy at the University of Houston. He continued to take classes until 1957 but never received a degree. He spent much of his free time in “black” jazz clubs of Houston and listened to musical innovators, such as Lionel Hampton and Peck Kelly; this experience influenced him later.
Barthelme, a rebellious son, struggled in his relationship with his demanding father. In later years, they tremendously argued about the kinds of literature that interested Barthelme. His avant-garde father in art and aesthetics in many ways approved not the postmodern and deconstruction schools. The Dead Father and The King , the novels, delineate attitude of Barthelme toward his father as King Arthur and Lancelot, the characters, picture him. From the Roman Catholicism of his especially devout mother, Barthelme independently moved away, but this separation as the distance with his father troubled Barthelme. He ably agreed to strictures of his seemingly much closer mother.
Barthelme went to teach for brief periods at Boston University and at University at Buffalo, and he at the college of the City of New York served as distinguished visiting professor from 1974-1975. He married four times. Helen Barthelme, his second wife, later entitled a biography Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound , published in 2001. With Birgit Barthelme, his third wife and a Dane, he fathered Anne Barthelme, his first child, a daughter. He married Marion Barthelme near the end and fathered Kate Barthelme, his second daughter. Marion and Donald wed until his death from throat cancer. People respect fiction of Frederick Barthelme and Steven Barthelme, brothers of Donald Barthelme and also teachers at The University of Southern Mississippi.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
March 20, 2025
HOUSEKEEPING 2025
Hands-down my favorite Don Bart (like The Godfather) anything. In my perfect world, the number of his novels and his short story collections are swapped. Paradise is his biggest achievement, but, damnably, the primary piece of evidence showing just how thin his short works are. Donny could have been a truly great novelist. That the Barthelme (and James) chose to almost exclusively write Poptastic shorts, Pop-Bart relics of the Dead Hippie Dream, of a sub-Brautiganian variety is respectable, admittedly. I mean, shit, I hate hard work too.
Keep the Costumer Satisfied, as a few folkies once harmonized. "It's the same old story..."
Hands-down my favorite Don Bart (like The Godfather) anything. In my perfect world, the number of his novels and his short story collections are swapped. Paradise is his biggest achievement, but, damnably, the primary piece of evidence showing just how thin his short works are. Donny could have been a truly great novelist. That the Barthelme (and James) chose to almost exclusively write Poptastic shorts, Pop-Bart relics of the Dead Hippie Dream, of a sub-Brautiganian variety is respectable, admittedly. I mean, shit, I hate hard work too.
Keep the Costumer Satisfied, as a few folkies once harmonized. "It's the same old story..."
April 5, 2025
Presumably minor work and probably best left in the eighties / occasionally funny
October 31, 2025
Paradise by Donald Barthelme
Strange and interesting book. Rather short, otherwise I might have not finished it, for it is entertaining enough for a short format, not sufficient for an epic novel.
- Is this about Paradise?
- You bet it is, for:
- A fifty three years old man lands three stunning young models in his apartment to…live with him
- What else can beat that?
- And yet, this is a strange heaven, described in a modernistic, if fortunately not altogether absurd manner
The characters are- Simon, the architect hero who happens to Stumble Upon Happiness, you might say, when he meets three exhilarating women in need of a place to stay, which…Bismillah –in the words of the Koran and the Bohemian Rhapsody- he has available and they all come together to talk, have hot sex and then argue over nothing in particular.
The three women are – Veronica, Anne and Dore, but I never knew who is who and did not care frankly.
They have reminded me of my own heaven, in terms of gorgeous creatures that I was blessed to hook with.
Apart from a Miss Romania, who could be considered a nec plus ultra, there have been two other fabulous creatures, who were even better than the Miss and by a weird stroke of luck, I happened to know them and enter a relationship with at about the same time.
To add to the weirdness of the situation, they had the same name, albeit one was called by friends Nicky, while the other was Nicole.
It sort of worked, because one was a virgin having sex, but wanting to preserve the “technical innocence” at all costs, including me seeing other women, while the other had a boyfriend with West German citizenship, who was going to marry her and so the affair was meant to be just that- a short term sexual camaraderie, albeit we kind of fell for each other.
In this other Paradise, the one from the book does not fit together either, because it is too postmodern and outré for my taste
Very often I had a feeling of alienation, perhaps increased by the questions and answers that appear to be evocative of an analyst who talks to our architect.
The architects Pei, Gehry and others make sense, but thrown in are sentences that lack meaning, or more likely I just miss it.
There is hot sex and that obviously I could not miss, with felatios, sex in the kitchen- which is supposed to be a female fantasy…
There is the bizarre, with references to the clitoris, which apparently was unknown to the hero up to the age of twenty.
Then there is the furniture which is supposed to be in heaven and it would be by Kroll- not that I know who that might be
The architecture as thought by Corbusier, Gropius no longer exists, with its meaning of improving human beings or something like that.
In descriptions that I do not know if I should believe: Wright had his cape and Mies his pinstripes.
Another good thing that happened during the reading of this book- I have read that one of the super-hot women keeps in shape with a trampoline and I remembered that we have one and so I have started using it again today, after – I do not know, eight years?
There is a question though:
- How, or better said -why did I start reading this book?
- Looking up on the net- where else? – I found a day later why- it was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, even if the same internet says in another place that this is the least appreciated of the author’s books
Strange and interesting book. Rather short, otherwise I might have not finished it, for it is entertaining enough for a short format, not sufficient for an epic novel.
- Is this about Paradise?
- You bet it is, for:
- A fifty three years old man lands three stunning young models in his apartment to…live with him
- What else can beat that?
- And yet, this is a strange heaven, described in a modernistic, if fortunately not altogether absurd manner
The characters are- Simon, the architect hero who happens to Stumble Upon Happiness, you might say, when he meets three exhilarating women in need of a place to stay, which…Bismillah –in the words of the Koran and the Bohemian Rhapsody- he has available and they all come together to talk, have hot sex and then argue over nothing in particular.
The three women are – Veronica, Anne and Dore, but I never knew who is who and did not care frankly.
They have reminded me of my own heaven, in terms of gorgeous creatures that I was blessed to hook with.
Apart from a Miss Romania, who could be considered a nec plus ultra, there have been two other fabulous creatures, who were even better than the Miss and by a weird stroke of luck, I happened to know them and enter a relationship with at about the same time.
To add to the weirdness of the situation, they had the same name, albeit one was called by friends Nicky, while the other was Nicole.
It sort of worked, because one was a virgin having sex, but wanting to preserve the “technical innocence” at all costs, including me seeing other women, while the other had a boyfriend with West German citizenship, who was going to marry her and so the affair was meant to be just that- a short term sexual camaraderie, albeit we kind of fell for each other.
In this other Paradise, the one from the book does not fit together either, because it is too postmodern and outré for my taste
Very often I had a feeling of alienation, perhaps increased by the questions and answers that appear to be evocative of an analyst who talks to our architect.
The architects Pei, Gehry and others make sense, but thrown in are sentences that lack meaning, or more likely I just miss it.
There is hot sex and that obviously I could not miss, with felatios, sex in the kitchen- which is supposed to be a female fantasy…
There is the bizarre, with references to the clitoris, which apparently was unknown to the hero up to the age of twenty.
Then there is the furniture which is supposed to be in heaven and it would be by Kroll- not that I know who that might be
The architecture as thought by Corbusier, Gropius no longer exists, with its meaning of improving human beings or something like that.
In descriptions that I do not know if I should believe: Wright had his cape and Mies his pinstripes.
Another good thing that happened during the reading of this book- I have read that one of the super-hot women keeps in shape with a trampoline and I remembered that we have one and so I have started using it again today, after – I do not know, eight years?
There is a question though:
- How, or better said -why did I start reading this book?
- Looking up on the net- where else? – I found a day later why- it was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize, even if the same internet says in another place that this is the least appreciated of the author’s books
November 16, 2008
This was Barthelme's thirteenth book. I get the impression that maybe I should have started with something a little more essential, but this was a quick, fun read.
An aging architect named Simon is recently divorced from his wife. One night at a bar he catches the tail end of a lingerie show, and makes friendly with three models from Colorado. Without much explanation as to the why or how of it, Barthelme throws them all in Simon's large apartment in New York City, where they all share a rather quirky lifestyle together.
Despite how gratuitous the plot may seem, Barthelme casually avoids indulging in it as a typical male fantasy. Simon's character is far too nihilistic or apathetic to function as the archetypal male reaction. What's endearing about him is his rather pragmatic perspective, possibly a bi-product of having more money than he knows what to do with. He is a man who is genuinely confused when accused of malice, one content with drinking cheap wine, cooking, having sex, and smoking cigarettes. However far his potential can extend is something that he is unconcerned with. It almost seems accidental that he is even an architect.
The chapters are nice and short, each one reading like a comic punchline. They alternate between Simon's life with the three women, and his absurdist dialogues with someone who appears to be his psychiatrist. If I had to think of a subtext for the novel, I might say that Simon is supposed to be the anti-hero of eighties excess. This could possibly be why Barhtelme is choosing such a ridiculously idyllic premise. I think that the plot would be far more laughable if Barthelme were seriously exploring the dynamic there because it's sort of funny how it causes as much a reaction from some readers as Simon's apathy seems to provoke from the three models. Still, Paradise is an inconsequential book. Which to some extant is probably intentional. I just wonder what the intention is?
An aging architect named Simon is recently divorced from his wife. One night at a bar he catches the tail end of a lingerie show, and makes friendly with three models from Colorado. Without much explanation as to the why or how of it, Barthelme throws them all in Simon's large apartment in New York City, where they all share a rather quirky lifestyle together.
Despite how gratuitous the plot may seem, Barthelme casually avoids indulging in it as a typical male fantasy. Simon's character is far too nihilistic or apathetic to function as the archetypal male reaction. What's endearing about him is his rather pragmatic perspective, possibly a bi-product of having more money than he knows what to do with. He is a man who is genuinely confused when accused of malice, one content with drinking cheap wine, cooking, having sex, and smoking cigarettes. However far his potential can extend is something that he is unconcerned with. It almost seems accidental that he is even an architect.
The chapters are nice and short, each one reading like a comic punchline. They alternate between Simon's life with the three women, and his absurdist dialogues with someone who appears to be his psychiatrist. If I had to think of a subtext for the novel, I might say that Simon is supposed to be the anti-hero of eighties excess. This could possibly be why Barhtelme is choosing such a ridiculously idyllic premise. I think that the plot would be far more laughable if Barthelme were seriously exploring the dynamic there because it's sort of funny how it causes as much a reaction from some readers as Simon's apathy seems to provoke from the three models. Still, Paradise is an inconsequential book. Which to some extant is probably intentional. I just wonder what the intention is?
June 28, 2016
You'd think a book about a middle-aged architect cohabiting with a harem of three models would be Paradise itself, but in the end I was disappointed in the garden. I didn't much care for the dialogue, in fact, didn't really even care for the premise. I wasn't all that impressed with the writing either. It is a quick read, and it has some funnier moments, and it kind of represented some of the lifestyles engaged in during that era. Almost like he was having a midlife fantasy, and decided to write it down. I was also dismayed by the, what I felt was, unrealistic conversation between the counselor and the protagonist. Really, I didn't feel there was much here that enlightened or made me feel anything.
August 3, 2008
Ah, The Barthelme...
Only a master such as this can take a book full of over-the-top sexuality and make it ring with sadness and also such great humor. D. Barthelme also has an ear for sentences like no one else--not my favorite book of his, but still floating well above a sea full of others striving for what he seems to easily accomplish.
Only a master such as this can take a book full of over-the-top sexuality and make it ring with sadness and also such great humor. D. Barthelme also has an ear for sentences like no one else--not my favorite book of his, but still floating well above a sea full of others striving for what he seems to easily accomplish.
August 27, 2019
Amiable, playful, and down to earth (for Barthelme).
There are typically darker, harder-hitting aspects to Barthelme’s stories, which hint at/point to flaw lines in personal/social constructs by using and calling attention to language drawn from clichés, tropes, and banalities of popular culture (where advertising is both cause and symptom). While this book does mock (imitate and gibe) popular sentiments of the mid-80s, it largely plays things straight when it tells the story of a 53-year-old architect on sabbatical (from work and marriage) who invites three young, beautiful, down-and-out models to share his apartment till they can get a foothold elsewhere. This is sitcom territory, but the laughter Barthelme provokes is more about incongruous emotions, odd disturbances, and affable equanimity than anything salacious or slapstick.
“What *is* hog heaven?” the narrator wonders, trying to figure out the literal and metaphoric contours of that expression and his own experience. Barthelme is indulging (as middle-aged author/man) in a voyeuristic mid-life crisis scenario, but rendering it largely realistically, with deadpan statement and then wholly incongruous asides to his shrink. It’s an easy-going novel, full of small pleasures, satisfying recognitions, and uh-huh affirmations.
There are typically darker, harder-hitting aspects to Barthelme’s stories, which hint at/point to flaw lines in personal/social constructs by using and calling attention to language drawn from clichés, tropes, and banalities of popular culture (where advertising is both cause and symptom). While this book does mock (imitate and gibe) popular sentiments of the mid-80s, it largely plays things straight when it tells the story of a 53-year-old architect on sabbatical (from work and marriage) who invites three young, beautiful, down-and-out models to share his apartment till they can get a foothold elsewhere. This is sitcom territory, but the laughter Barthelme provokes is more about incongruous emotions, odd disturbances, and affable equanimity than anything salacious or slapstick.
“What *is* hog heaven?” the narrator wonders, trying to figure out the literal and metaphoric contours of that expression and his own experience. Barthelme is indulging (as middle-aged author/man) in a voyeuristic mid-life crisis scenario, but rendering it largely realistically, with deadpan statement and then wholly incongruous asides to his shrink. It’s an easy-going novel, full of small pleasures, satisfying recognitions, and uh-huh affirmations.
May 26, 2018
найслабший із його чотирьох романів. Саймон потрапив у рай, коли вже втратив Єву з дитиною і натомість має трьох дівчат. Саймон - архітектор, але себе називає жирафом або деревом. мовно дівчата геть невиразні, завершення теж передбачається відпочатку. ностальгія за молодістю, кому потрібна любов, коли є секс, кому потрібен постмодернізм, коли вже був Бартелмі.
April 21, 2024
I have enjoyed some of his short stories as well as "The Dead Father" but this is one of the worst novels I've ever read.
October 4, 2008
During my stint as book reviewer here at decomP, I've tried to limit my reviews to contemporary writings such as books published within the last 10 years. However, sometimes I find it necessary to visit a few older entries, and Donald Barthelme's Paradise (Dalkey Archive Press, 1986) is one novel that definitely warrants attention. Ever the prolific writer, Barthelme published several novels and collections during his lifespan, with this specific release arriving about three years before his death in 1989. As an experimental author, he was way ahead of his time, breaching avant-garde territory continuously, while his brothers Frederick and Steven also entered the writing/teaching field. But enough background information, let's get to the piece at hand....
Read the rest in the March 2006 issue of decomP .
Read the rest in the March 2006 issue of decomP .
September 17, 2007
Wow, this book is nutty. Don B must go into a white-wine-with-ice-cubes trance before he starts writing his novels on packages of cocktail napkins. How is it he puts his finger so deftly on the pressure point that we, the people, find so hard to find? The point that contains our national melancholy and creeping fear. The point of getting old, but not getting any wiser... just more nutty, and alittle dirty.
October 18, 2014
In its way, this book is perfect. Funny and enjoyable.
December 28, 2017
imo, one of the funniest books ever written. it's Basic Instinct but even better
July 22, 2024
This book really did scratch the eternal itch in my brain that's always looking for books just like this one. Concise and satirical, with just enough philosophical ponderings and a melancholy atmosphere to feel like maybe how life feels in my own head. This is my first Barthelme novel, and an odd one to start with. I wish I had a bit more context to his style to understand where this places in his writing register, but off the rip, I really enjoyed this. I love the dichotomy of Dore, Anne, and Veronica against Simon. Three young women being an embodiment of the modern-day 80s that Simon has no reason to connect with, but finds this odd roundabout way of doing so. They're filling the role of daughter and wife for Simon, making these interjected memories of raising a family that ultimately failed because of him feel that much more bittersweet when they come across the page. They're also struggling with something similar to Simon, whether he wants to admit it or not, and that's the idea of what they want to do with their lives. The four of them fight this concept throughout the entire book in their own ways, and with the women at the beginning of their journey and Simon coming closer to the end, it's a fascinating setup. Almost as if he's indulging in their youth for a final taste of what once was before resigning to his own reality.
I find the doctor Q & A interesting as well, the doctor serves as a vehicle for answers we're not getting in the main storyline. I don't think I fully came to this conclusion until the very end when the doctor monologues about how he dreams of being an exterminator. For me, that brought forth one of the most prevalent themes in the book which is the desire for something else. Even when you have an occupation that most of the world sees as being "the answer" to financial and occupational success. It's fulfilling morally and economically, but still there is always that idea of "what if I had done something else?"
I also loved in the first half or so of this novel how the three women act almost as a chorus from a Greek play. You're not always quite sure who is talking when, but it doesn't necessarily matter because they're the voice of the emotion in the room telling the reader what both they and Simon are thinking or feeling, they place us in the time period, and they are the only device in the novel that show some kind of movement forward. Their blossoming into new thought and a hope for a future stand out starkly against Simon's stagnant nature, making his place in his life much more evident. I don't want to call it bleak, but there is a tone of subtle sorrow to how it all ends up for him, knowing he will not escape this fact of where he's led his own life, even in "paradise." The girls' characters also felt very much like Faye in The Day of the Locust, aspiring young women who just can't fit themselves into the mold of elevated success. Instead of an aspiring actress in LA who can't act, we have three beautiful women in NYC who can't find their niche. Simon also reminds me of Tod from the same novel with his look on life and his tone towards everyone around him. There are even elements of that modernist fiction here and there in this novel with some scenes leaking into a warped reality. This is only seen in glimpses here and there throughout the book.
I really would love to go back and read this through a bit slower, because I felt that I was missing what the take on paradise was supposed to be. Of course, Simon has this male fantasy unfolding before him that still doesn't satisfy, but I felt like there were a lot more Garden of Eden sort of connections that I was perhaps missing. As someone who loves some good biblical themes and metaphors, I wish I would have taken time to think about this as I was reading it.
I personally loved Barthelme's concise and atmospheric writing. Everything that needed to be said was done so in a matter of 200 or so large text pages, while still having texture and insight into a wide range of characters for the length of the novel. I loved his dialogue, a bit reminiscent of J.D. Salinger in tone, wit, and philosophical delivery or even Cormac McCarthy's in the way in which sometimes the reader isn't sure who is speaking, but when this is the case it doesn't really matter who is saying what. What matters is the context in which it's being said.
I'm looking forward to visiting some of his more notable works, but what a wonderful start to the journey!
I find the doctor Q & A interesting as well, the doctor serves as a vehicle for answers we're not getting in the main storyline. I don't think I fully came to this conclusion until the very end when the doctor monologues about how he dreams of being an exterminator. For me, that brought forth one of the most prevalent themes in the book which is the desire for something else. Even when you have an occupation that most of the world sees as being "the answer" to financial and occupational success. It's fulfilling morally and economically, but still there is always that idea of "what if I had done something else?"
I also loved in the first half or so of this novel how the three women act almost as a chorus from a Greek play. You're not always quite sure who is talking when, but it doesn't necessarily matter because they're the voice of the emotion in the room telling the reader what both they and Simon are thinking or feeling, they place us in the time period, and they are the only device in the novel that show some kind of movement forward. Their blossoming into new thought and a hope for a future stand out starkly against Simon's stagnant nature, making his place in his life much more evident. I don't want to call it bleak, but there is a tone of subtle sorrow to how it all ends up for him, knowing he will not escape this fact of where he's led his own life, even in "paradise." The girls' characters also felt very much like Faye in The Day of the Locust, aspiring young women who just can't fit themselves into the mold of elevated success. Instead of an aspiring actress in LA who can't act, we have three beautiful women in NYC who can't find their niche. Simon also reminds me of Tod from the same novel with his look on life and his tone towards everyone around him. There are even elements of that modernist fiction here and there in this novel with some scenes leaking into a warped reality. This is only seen in glimpses here and there throughout the book.
I really would love to go back and read this through a bit slower, because I felt that I was missing what the take on paradise was supposed to be. Of course, Simon has this male fantasy unfolding before him that still doesn't satisfy, but I felt like there were a lot more Garden of Eden sort of connections that I was perhaps missing. As someone who loves some good biblical themes and metaphors, I wish I would have taken time to think about this as I was reading it.
I personally loved Barthelme's concise and atmospheric writing. Everything that needed to be said was done so in a matter of 200 or so large text pages, while still having texture and insight into a wide range of characters for the length of the novel. I loved his dialogue, a bit reminiscent of J.D. Salinger in tone, wit, and philosophical delivery or even Cormac McCarthy's in the way in which sometimes the reader isn't sure who is speaking, but when this is the case it doesn't really matter who is saying what. What matters is the context in which it's being said.
I'm looking forward to visiting some of his more notable works, but what a wonderful start to the journey!
February 2, 2019
The premise could convincingly be a malicious parody of Updike-- a well-off, middle-aged architect, tired of his failing marriage, takes a sabbatical to live alone in New York. There he encounters not one, but _three_ beautiful lingerie models in need of a place to live, so he offers to share his apartment with them. So begins this story, which could so easily be a myopic pity-study of a man's fall from the greatness of youth, but is saved by Barthelme's compassion and wit to become something much better. The women are intelligent and angry at a society that seems to offer no options for stability and fulfillment that don't involve the use of their bodies. The man's dissatisfaction is lived-in and familiar, almost accepted-- there's no grandiose tragedy in his recognition of his aging.
All of this is carried out by a fast-paced prose, with chapters only lasting a couple pages and sometimes consisting exclusively of dialogue. It almost always works, and sometimes it's hilarious, although when it doesn't land it's palpably unfortunate. But at the heart of it all, this is a story where everyone is looking for fulfillment, and here we get to see a strange, wacky slice of this looking where some people get to find some unexpected comfort in each other.
All of this is carried out by a fast-paced prose, with chapters only lasting a couple pages and sometimes consisting exclusively of dialogue. It almost always works, and sometimes it's hilarious, although when it doesn't land it's palpably unfortunate. But at the heart of it all, this is a story where everyone is looking for fulfillment, and here we get to see a strange, wacky slice of this looking where some people get to find some unexpected comfort in each other.
December 20, 2025
A 53 year-old architect invites three lingerie models (seemingly the peak of female sexuality and male desire in the 80s, almost quaint with today's rocks-offing offerings) to live with him in his modish apartment while he's in the middle of divorcing his estranged wife, and he finds himself caught between trying to enjoy the sexual paradise and trying to satiate his desire for true human connection in an enviable yet horribly isolating situation. An intoxicatingly strange novel with nonsensical dialogue, surreal apparitions, a witty sense of humor, in-your-face satire of consumerism and middle-aged crisis, thorough and vulgar eroticism, and above all else, a permeating melancholy as both the reader and Simon the architect realize that nothing lasts forever. A bit more emotional than you might expect from Barthelme, and from the synopsis, but his detached prose and his innovative structure, where stories manifest not through careful plotting but through the accumulation of fragmented details, continue to ingratiate.
February 8, 2019
Simon, 53-letni architekt, odbywa sesje terapeutyczne z lekarzem. Opowiada mu o tym, jak zostawił w Filadelfii żonę i prawie już dorosłą córkę Sarę, żeby zamieszkać w prowizorycznym mieszkaniu w Nowym Jorku. Przygarnia z ulicy trzy dwudziestoparolatki, Dorę, Anne i Veronicę, dziewczyny, które balansują na granicy nierządu i zwykłej młodzieńczej nieroztropności. Wszystkie bardzo ładne , ale niezbyt wykształcone. Mieszkają razem przez jakiś czas i próbują stworzyć coś, co można by było nazwać Rajem, z wpisaną w swoją strukturę skończoność. Lekka powieść z 1986 roku, wpisująca się w ostatni oddech hippisowskiej komuny.
June 24, 2018
"Barthelme's version of "paradise" is both a gentle satire of the cult of the midlife crisis and a meditation on the melancholy of fulfilled desire."
Read in curiosity to see how Paradise might relate to Roth. A bit witty and not nearly as illicit as the description leads one to believe, but nothing much doing here.
Read in curiosity to see how Paradise might relate to Roth. A bit witty and not nearly as illicit as the description leads one to believe, but nothing much doing here.
December 17, 2021
Completely implausible and highly unlikely premise - or at least plausible only for an incredibly small subset of likely wealthy and white men over 50 - and certainly weird —. but also interesting and, best aspect - positively exudes NYC from the mid-1980’s vibe.
December 24, 2017
Took me to page 193 to find
a Donald Barthelme -worthy line:
"Wheat germ bubble gum was served
At the Maniacs' Ball." Too long to wait.
a Donald Barthelme -worthy line:
"Wheat germ bubble gum was served
At the Maniacs' Ball." Too long to wait.
September 30, 2018
Less brazen, more realistic, yet very episodic and dream like, Bathelme takes a swing at relationships between men and women and comes up with something surprisingly dull with occasional funny bits.
December 9, 2018
A Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1987. A humorous middle age crisis novel with wit and pathos. A quick read for a change of pace from more epic masterpieces.
January 4, 2019
This is the first time I've been disappointed by Barthelme. :(
October 26, 2019
In Paradise everyday is a Saturday
February 29, 2020
A gem of a satirical novel. Darkly funny but Barthelme portrays a keen sense of the human frailty, fragility, and temporality of desire and satisfaction. A novelization of anhedonia.
December 26, 2021
Really sketchy, really fragmented, really whack, really....Barthelme. It's fun, but it's also something you really have to be in the mood for. Like pinning monobrows on subway station advertising.
June 11, 2022
A much more charming book than I expected.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews