Items related to Deep in the Shade of Paradise: A Novel
A favorite novel by “a generous and lyric storyteller” (San Francisco Chronicle) known for his tragicomic voice and unforgettable characters.
Welcome to Shiver-de-Freeze, a boot-shaped precinct deep in the Louisiana swamp, famous for its healing waters and curious fauna. Grisham Loudermilk is marrying Ariane Thevenot at Paradise, the family’s ancestral home, and we're here for the wedding. But reason and love, it would seem, keep little company in Paradise these days: Grisham’s cousin Adlai Birdsong has fallen desperately in love with the bride-to-be. Adlai’s ill-advised courtship proceeds even as his daddy, Royce, struggles to recall his past in the face of Alzheimer’s; as Father Pat McDermott realizes his passion for the mother of the bride; as the conjoined twins, Tous-les-Deux, train their eyes on Boudou Fontana, the last of the star-crossed Fontana clan. And just when it seems that Adlai must resign himself to a prolonged season of bachelorhood, Miranda Ferry, Grisham’s recent lover, wanders into town unawares. With his signature tragic-comic voice and cast of unforgettable and lively characters, Dufresne explores love, death, imagination, and memory. Reading group guide available."synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
In his fever-dream novel Deep in the Shade of Paradise, John Dufresne is a goofily, deliriously intrusive authorial presence. He's constantly popping in and declaiming upon his plot and its various themes (which are, incidentally, love and memory and family and Southern cooking.) Toward the end of the book he pronounces, "No characters are minor." This might well be the motto of the book, which is a ridiculously circuitous retelling of A Midsummer's Night Dream, set in deepest Louisiana and cast with literally dozens of cousins. The central story is a love triangle: there's our hero Adlai Birdsong, his cousin Grisham Loudermilk, and Loudermilk's fiancée, Ariane Thevenot. Adlai pursues the beautiful Ariane through plot twists and philosophical digressions, into bars and bedrooms, and finally to the family's old estate where the wedding is to take place. Being a Southern novel, no wedding is complete without a death, and being a Shakespearean exercise, no wedding is complete without a play-within-a-play. Dufresne happily provides all this and more in a novel so completely imagined that in the back, there's an appendix like a capacious satchel, made to hold "items of passing interest." --Claire Dederer
About the Author:
John Dufresne is the author of elevenprevious books, including three fiction writing guides. A professor in the MFA program at Florida International University, he lives in Dania Beach.
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- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication date2008
- ISBN 10 0393331148
- ISBN 13 9780393331141
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages376
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Deep in the Shade of Paradise: A Novel
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. In Shiver-de-Freeze, Louisiana (population 375), friends and family have gathered for the impending nuptials of Grisham Loudermilk and Ariane Thevenot. This will be no ordinary weddingnot when Boudou Fontana, the last of the star-crossed Fontana clan, the conjoined twins Tous-les-Doux, and a host of others are involved. From a writer of rare grace and comic genius comes a warm, sad, and hilarious ride through the carnival of life (Dallas Morning News). Rich in character and insight into the vagaries and varieties of love and memory, Deep in the Shade of Paradise is John Dufresne at his funny and thoughtful best. "A comic operatuneful, playful." New York Times Book Review This item is printed on demand. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9780393331141
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