A Better View of Paradise: A Novel
by Randy Sue Coburn
Hardcover, 368 Pages
List Price: $25.00
Published in 2009
ISBN-10: 0-345-49036-3
Publisher: Ballantine Books
About the book:
Dramatic, moving, and exquisitely written, A Better View of Paradise explores the tender bond between fathers and daughters, ponders the delicate nature of healing, and celebrates the redemptive power of forgiveness and love.
Thirty-six-year-old Stevie Pollack has come into her own as a celebrated landscape architect. Her designs, famed for their evocative natural beauty, reflect her upbringing amid the splendor of Hawai‘i. But when critics blast her latest efforts and her boyfriend abruptly ends their relationship, Stevie seeks solace in her roots among the dazzling flowers, and comforting traditions of the islands and their calming waters. Still, in the back of her mind, Hawai‘i holds troubling memories of a childhood with Hank, her emotionally distant father, and a reserved British mother.
Despite her irascible father’s presence, the trip home promises Stevie a welcome departure from her trials on the mainland. But the shocking news that Hank is dying forces the pair’s reunion into high gear. As father and daughter attempt to rekindle their bond, Stevie discovers sides of Hank she never knew, including family secrets that have shaped their lives. And what started as a holiday escape for the beleaguered architect becomes a chance for transformation, one as exciting as it is uncertain. Inspired by her father’s insight, and energized by the attentions of an attractive local veterinarian, Stevie learns to surrender her inhibitions and seize the day.
*****Guest Post:*****
When I began writing A Better View of Paradise several years ago, I worried about how the novel’s two major settings, were going to play off each other: Kaua`i, a spectacularly beautiful dot in the middle of the Pacific ocean where protagonist Stephanie Pollack spent the happiest part of her childhood, and Chicago, the tough-guy hometown of Hank, the difficult, demanding father who calibrated Stevie to achieve in the mainland world.
The two places are an odd mix—though the emergence of a President shaped by both Hawai`i and Chicago makes the combination seem less strange than it did at first. And the more I wrote, the more Chicago and Hawai`i seemed—in pop quiz parlance—to contrast and compare.
Take curses, for instance. Hank’s beloved Cubs have the Billy Goat Curse, which has allegedly kept them from winning a World Series for over a hundred years. There’s a curse associated with the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele, too. An avalanche of lava rocks gets mailed back to Hawai`i every year by tourists who claim Pele has cursed them for stealing her creations as souvenirs.
In the course of my research, I discovered that not only did Frank Sinatra almost drown to death once in Kaua`i while filming a movie there, but this occurred soon after he had a big hit with “Chicago is My Kind of Town.” Plus baseball is very big in Hawai`i, where it can be played year round, and since tourism has replaced sugar and pineapples as the major island industries, it made sense for a Chicago-bred hotel man like Stevie’s father to be drawn there.
Stevie’s fractional Hawaiian blood comes from her mother’s side of the family. She had a Hawaiian great-great grandmother, though it was her lily-white, spiritually inclined British grandfather who gave Stevie her secret Hawaiian name—Makalani, which means “eyes of heaven.” Stevie is a complicated creatures, harboring more than the standard share of internal contradictions, but then the genius of Hawai`i is how it mixes things up from so many different cultures to invent its own variations. So really, she fits right in.
*****Guest Post:*****
Randy Sue Coburn is a former newspaper reporter whose articles and essays have been published in numerous national magazines. She is the author of Owl Island and Remembering Jody, and her screenplays include Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, the critically acclaimed Cannes Film Festival selection that received five Independent Spirit Award nominations, including Best Screenplay. She lives in Seattle. You can visit Randy Sue Coburn’s website at www.randysuecoburn.com.
*****Giveaway*****
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