A hilarious, surreal, and devastating journey into the mind of Reality Kahn, a young woman on a quest to be the greatest girlfriend of all time.
It was decreed from the moment she was born. Twenty-three-year-old Reality Kahn would embark on a quest so great, so bold. She would become the greatest girlfriend of all time. She would be a zine maker, an aspiring notary, the greatest waterslide commercial actress on the Eastern Seaboard. She would receive messages from the beyond in the form of advice from the esteemed and ancient ladies magazine, Girlfriend Weekly.
When she attends a party in Gowanus at a punk venue known as “Paradise,” Reality meets Ariel, who will become her boyfriend. She bravely works for his everlasting affection and joins a clinical trial created by Dr. Zweig Altmann to help her become a more perfect girlfriend. She stars in a new commercial. She learns how to become an indelible host. But Reality will also learn that sheer will and determination, and a very open heart, are not always enough to make true love manifest.
At turns laugh-out-loud funny, tragic, and jarring, Reality’s quest grows ever complicated as the men in her life: Ariel, her waterpark commercial agent Jethro, and Dr. Altmann himself prove treacherous. Paradise Logic is a thrilling, psychosexual breakdown of our obsession with authentic true love, asking whether that is even possible in a patriarchal world, and announces Sophie Kemp as a wholly original, transformative, and brilliant new voice in fiction.
About the Author
Sophie Frances Kemp was born in 1996 in Schenectady, New York. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Granta, The Paris Review, Vogue, GQ, Pitchfork, and The Baffler,among others. She received her MFA in fiction at Columbia University, where she now teaches in the writing program. She lives in Brooklyn.
Industry Reviews
‘I had so much fun reading Kemp’s debut... absolutely nuts, in the best way'
‘What a weird book, I loved it... incredibly readable and worryingly relatable'
'I loved this wild, roaming marvel of a debut, acutely aware that I was reading a book completely unlike any other, admiring this voice which metabolises perennial concerns about love, identity and gender into some of the weirdest and funniest prose imaginable. It’s a privilege to spend time with Sophie Kemp’s singular mind'
– Megan Nolan, author of Ordinary Human Failings and Acts of Desperation
'Sophie Kemp’s absurd, horny, and epic debut had me asking questions like: Is existence meaningless and random? And most importantly, how can I make my eyes resemble those of an introspective family pet?'
– Ruth Madievsky, author of All-Night Pharmacy
'The funniest book of the year and one of the smartest'
– Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story
'Paradise Logic is an astonishment, and the odyssey of Reality Kahn reads like the strangest, funniest, most profound, vibrant, and trippy dream you ever had, except it’s not just a dream, it’s a work of art, deeply real and dangerously alive. A great writer is bornth'
– Sam Lipsyte, author of No One Left to Come Looking for You
'The 21st C heir apparent to Kathy Acker. Reality sets about her quest with a Quixotean determination. A wildly propulsive novel and delight to behold'
– Jen George, author of The Babysitter at Rest
