There’s family dysfunction and then there’s Saul Effin’ Williams.
Had someone told me earlier that Janelle Brown’s latest, “What Kind of Paradise” is crazy family dynamics on top of the tech boom of the 90s, I likely would have picked it up sooner. Because this is a page-turning humdinger of a story.
Jane Williams is the home-schooled, living off-the-grid-with-her-father-in-rural-Montana protagonist I’ve been waiting a while for. Her sheltered existence is the result of a paranoid delusionist father, Saul, convinced that technology is the devil. The two live in what is best described as a shack in the woods, booby trapped to blow if the Feds show up.
And Jane is just at the age where she is actively considering the “Why would the Feds show up?” question just about any normal person would ask. With almost no contact with the outside world, save a few peeks at a television screen (We all loved “X-Files,” Esme …) and a single acquaintance in town, Jane begins to piece together the strange circumstances of her father’s disappearances and is able to finally tag along on one of his trips. And that’s where everything comes together and goes wrong all at once.
Having been unwittingly aiding and abetting her father’s crimes, Jane/Esme has to figure out who she can trust as quickly as possible as she searches for her parents’ past and tries to reconcile her hopes and fears and disappointments in everything she ever knew and loved. And all while trying to navigate a world she truly knows nothing about. She can quote “Great Expectations,” sure. But figure out a phone book? Not a chance.
Brown’s ability to craft a compelling narrative involving a girl just trying to find herself in the midst of her father’s dystopian nightmares is other-worldy. There were more than a handful of times I had to set the book down because I was just as destroyed by some of the events that were unfolding as Jane/Esme was. (I’m looking at you, Desi.) That girl is fighting for her life, and we readers feel it.
At just about 350 pages, “What Kind of Paradise” is the perfect fall read — engrossing, thought-provoking and straight up excellent book club fodder. And the bonus? We can all sit back and debate who’s vision of the future is more accurate. That alone could take up an entire book club meeting.
Likely one of my best books for the year. Don’t pass it up.
LitzyDitz 