The Blood of Paradise (Paperback, Univ PR of Virginia ed.)

This richly written novel is striking in a dozen ways: there are sentences that fly in startling, vivid directions; there's a willingness to go deeply into a character's feelings; and there's a palpable atmosphere that the reader quickly and completely trusts. Goodwin (Kin, 1975) lacks only one thing here: a center - and he almost gets away without needing one. Steadman, a law-school dropout and aspiring writer, moves with wife Anna and daughter Maggie out of the city, on monies from a trust, to a rustic house in the Virginia Blue Ridge country. A college friend of Steadman's farms nearby; otherwise life is strange and cut-off for the new arrivals in Zion County. Steadman means to start writing seriously, and Anna would like to take up her drawing again. But both of them are so self-conscious and so subject to the "whimwhams" of anxiety - sensual doubters non pareil - that a year rolls over them before they know it. Anna is a twin, and when her minutes - older sister Kay comes for a visit, matters take a tremendous jolt; neurotic, self-destructive, and druggy, Kay intrudes into a setup that's already fragile enough. An appearance of a band of rabid foxes (shades of Lawrence) makes the symbolic point, and Goodwin falls prey to stock scenes: the obligatory trout-fishing, a party at the local hippie commune. (Even these, however, are lifted into relief by sometimes tremendous prose akin to that of John Casey's An American Romance.) Finally, Steadman and Anna bestow more a sense of their fuzziness than their outlines: we see their numbness, then their edginess, but we never have a sense of them that transcends symptoms. Breathtaking textures, lacking in definition; the half-satisfaction may, however, suffice. (Kirkus Reviews)

Stephen Goodwin's second novel is an emblematic tale of the sixties, of a sophisticated couple going back to the land. The restlessness that compels Anna and Steadman to move from the city to a small mountain farm in Virginia is brought into high relief by the cycles of the natural world, and by the arrival of Anna's demonic twin sister. Goodwin's prose, by turns stark and pastoral, outlines these struggles while leavening them with self-effacing humor and beauty. Peopled with hippies and mountain folk, artists and farmers both organic and traditional, not to mention an unforgettable child, The Blood of Paradise evokes an era through a sensitive and unstinting portrait of marriage.

General

Imprint:	University of Virginia Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Virginia Bookshelf
Release date:	May 2000
First published:	May 2000
Authors:	Stephen Goodwin
Preface by:	Richard Bausch
Dimensions:	229 x 152 x 15mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	242
Edition:	Univ PR of Virginia ed.
ISBN-13:	978-0-8139-1877-8
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction
LSN:	0-8139-1877-4
Barcode:	9780813918778

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