Paradise Point tells the whimsical and thought-provoking tale of the Painter, who is mysteriously transported from Renaissance Italy to the modern world of the 21st century. Tasked with painting the portrait of the enigmatic Bookmaker, the Painter is shocked to find a society consumed by digital devices, leading its people to disconnect from nature, creativity, and their own senses. With the help of the Poet and the Bookmaker, the Painter embarks on a mission to rekindle wonder, imagination, and human connection.
Set in the vibrant, quirky community of Paradise Point on the California coast, the novel unfolds through a series of interconnected stories and memorable characters, reminiscent of John Steinbeckâs Cannery Row. Along the way, readers meet colorful figures like Myra Dukes, Saul Crinkle, Krishna Singh, and Balso Thomas Francis Snell, whose personal dilemmas add layers of humor, mystery, and heart to the narrative.
As these charactersâ lives intersect, the story explores the fine line between progress and disconnection, creativity and destructionâleading to unexpected chaos and a journey that unravels with each rhythmic, poetic turn of the page.
Paradise Point tells the whimsical and thought-provoking tale of the Painter, who is mysteriously transported from Renaissance Italy to the modern world of the 21st century. Tasked with painting the portrait of the enigmatic Bookmaker, the Painter is shocked to find a society consumed by digital devices, leading its people to disconnect from nature, creativity, and their own senses. With the help of the Poet and the Bookmaker, the Painter embarks on a mission to rekindle wonder, imagination, and human connection.
Set in the vibrant, quirky community of Paradise Point on the California coast, the novel unfolds through a series of interconnected stories and memorable characters, reminiscent of John Steinbeckâs Cannery Row. Along the way, readers meet colorful figures like Myra Dukes, Saul Crinkle, Krishna Singh, and Balso Thomas Francis Snell, whose personal dilemmas add layers of humor, mystery, and heart to the narrative.
As these charactersâ lives intersect, the story explores the fine line between progress and disconnection, creativity and destructionâleading to unexpected chaos and a journey that unravels with each rhythmic, poetic turn of the page.
In the beginning was the Wordâwhat word it was weâre not too sure. Maybe it was more of a belch than Word from a mouth smelling like a dead rat and missing a few important teeth. But Word nonetheless! A pivotal and transcendent sound that breathed our existence into being. The holiest of holy vibrations! It gave us Bach and Bukowski. Mario Brothers and Marvin K. Mooney. Charlie freakinâ Chaplin! When the music of the spheres spiraled out of Nothing, you bet your pocket lint there was silence to fill the cracks, and a few âyour momâ jokes thrown in for good measure.
Word solidified our abstractionsâon papyrus and Panasonic. It gave us substance. Made a this out of a that. Fantasy from hair follicle. Waves of information poured in and out every mouth, eye, ear and rearhole from Mesopotamia to Manhattan. Imagination ran wild like horses over a hill! Symposiums and symphonies and sitcoms, oh my! All in their own time, of course. But since our awakening from this primordial song, the walk from cave to video game on the road of history hasnât come very far at all. Itâs been a stroll, really, where along this boulevard there are still hints of Plato written on the wallâor screen for that matter.
So who was it that first organized this information? What kind of wiseguy thought up such an idea? What sorcery ultimately pressed these menacing pools of atoms to a page and bound the Infinite like a book?
This wasnât some flaccid daydreamcatcher. Nuh-uh. It takes the likes of an early bookmaker to capture tone and pitch and symbols and compose and compile them into rows and stack them volume on top of volume, lifetime after lifetime. It takes a certain creature of mastery to sew streams of consciousness between the sheets, a true mystic of mediums to bring it all together with a cosmological Coptic stitch! (Thatâs cymatics with needle and thread.) The kind of magic that can move the stones of Giza and Stonehenge and give order to your underwear drawer.
This brings us to the story at hand.
People will say it never happened, that the events in this book are too fantastical to occur in reality, that nothing like it could have ever occurred in this life, in this world. And theyâd probably be right! Although there are someâit might not be manyâwho will know it to be true, that it is at once as real as the tartar in their teeth. For them, the pages of history turn, and between the folds all the magic of the human mind comes to life. Language. Art. Beauty. A dream manifest! It is a parable woven between the fibers of existence by a steady hand, thee hand with thread and twine and paper and glue to ensure a sturdy spine. A bit of backbone to prop up chaos for a spell. This tale is a truth for those who can understand it, and a fable for those who cannot.
When the Poet, the Painter, and the Bookmaker came to stir the pot of Paradise Point, who knew theyâd be cookinâ up a recipe for Disaster stew. To turn the page is to watch it all come to a boil.
As the blurb indicates, Paradise Point was written as a poetically chaotic representation of the dissonance between progress and disconnection, creativity and destruction. And the book more than delivers in both good and bad ways.
A painter from the Renaissance era is summoned (with his mule) to the 21st century and tasked with creating a portrait for the eccentric Bookmaker. Appalled by the state of the world and specifically Paradise Point, a Californian town, they team up with the Poet and try to shake sense and happiness back into people, which are represented by a cast of seemingly random characters.
Paradise Point's winning feature is its writing style. It's high-quality, rich in meaning and personality, as it weaves from one character or theme to the next, creating a stimulating web of life stories and messages. Various literary devices add to the overall fun factor.
Another intriguing aspect of the book is its in-depth critique of modern society. How capitalism, the digital age, and conformity actively destroy any semblance of happiness, imagination, and individuality. Paradise Point combines surrealism and scathing comedy to make the reader think.
Finally, the narrative is defined and driven by its characters. They're quite colourful while illustrating ridiculous, sad, or infuriating elements of modern civilisation. The paths of some converge with those of the Painter, Bookmaker, or Poet in great or small ways, forming some sense within the storytelling chaos.
The main problem for me were the tangents of Paradise Point. I do enjoy narratives that deviate from prescribed literary norms in creative ways and force you to really explore important issues, but the chaos went a bit overboard in this case.
It felt like there were too many things trying to be said at once, too many perspectives and intelligent messages vying for attention, some of which turned out to be irrelevant to the core plot. Additionally, the otherwise skillful narration often turned into rambling that made the story difficult to follow. All-in-all, I found my immersion breaking too often to fully enjoy what Paradise Point was striving for.
Despite its hiccups, this was an intriguing read. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys experimental literature with a poetic and satirical magical realism edge.