Passing Through Paradise

The novel takes its title from an entry in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s notebook: “If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake - Aye, what then?” This theme, vague yearning for a better place, better time, better circumstance, reverberates in many of the sources from which elements in this literary collage are drawn, including: Damien Andreas writes memories of his mother, who died when he was eight, into his diary and searches to reconnect with her spirit; the Paradise Theater, a grand remnant of the Jazz age, decays and becomes subject of an intense political debate; and the neo-satyr, Silenus, head of an unlikely cult known as the Dogs, walks a thousand miles to bring his entourage to the first and only performance of an ancient satyr play, the Ichneutae of Sophocles.
Snippets from these narratives coalesce with literary found objects (clips from dictionaries, encyclopedias, and so on) to form a larger narrative fabric unified by tone, purpose, and theme. The result is a thought provoking reading experience you’ll enjoy.