31 Paradiso a Novel
Rhoda Huffey
(Author)
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
Francine Ephesians Didwell struggles to free herself from a controlling and flawed family, whose faith assures them that their wealth is proof of God's approval. It is only with the help of her quirky Venice Beach community that Francine is able to hang onto her freedom. When Francine Ephesians Didwell loses the love of her life, she is forced to reconnect with her estranged family. She's led two lives up until now, one with her evangelical charismatic family, and another of emancipated rebellion with her lover. Bereaved, Francine relocates to 1990s Venice Beach to start life over. She struggles to make a living doing massages and managing her new real estate of bread-and-butter units in hell. The novel moves between Francine's new home and her family estate just fifty miles inland where, hoping to reconnect, Francine discovers she must confront the truth about dark family secrets or lose herself in the suicidal world of drugs. To her great good luck, throughout her journey, she is assisted and supported by her other family: the yodeler, the sex worker, the local burglar who has taken up residence outside her window, and all the imperfect characters from the mean streets of Venice Beach. Hilarious and painful, Francine's life force and her thirst for freedom illuminate every page.
Product Details
Price
$35.50
$33.02
Publisher
Delphinium Books
Publish Date
May 22, 2022
Pages
304
Dimensions
5.4 X 8.3 X 1.3 inches | 0.85 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9781953002099
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
The daughter of two Pentecostal preachers, Rhoda Huffey lives in Venice Beach, California. She is a magazine writer and a tap dancer who teaches and performs extensively. She also holds an MFA from the University of California at Irvine, and has been published in Ploughshares. The Hallelujah Side is her first novel.
Reviews
". . . moving . . . resonant. . . .Huffey's novel ventures into surprisingly imposing emotional territory."
"31 Paradiso is so filled with energy, the pages fairly crackle. A story of revelations, told with enormous vim and vigor, pain and wisdom, wit and wildness, (and also, shuffles and heel rolls.) The first great American tap-dancing novel!"
"I think Rhoda Huffey has invented a whole new kind of narrative prose. Each sentence is an unforeseeable surprise. She's got a new way of tracking how it feels to be a living person, minute-to-minute--in particular how it feels to be this person Francine Didwell, fresh-arrived in Venice Beach, California. To live in Venice is, itself, wonderfully distracting. But it's super-distracting just being Francine Didwell, a tap dancer and a philosopher and a perpetual pilgrim, who, in her gypsy life in a beach town, will survive on her own inner stores of compassion and irony."
"A funny, heartwarming novel about a strictly devout evangelical family may sound like an oxymoron, but in Huffey's beguiling debut, it proves the case."--Publisher's Weekly
"31 Paradiso is so filled with energy, the pages fairly crackle. A story of revelations, told with enormous vim and vigor, pain and wisdom, wit and wildness, (and also, shuffles and heel rolls.) The first great American tap-dancing novel!"
"I think Rhoda Huffey has invented a whole new kind of narrative prose. Each sentence is an unforeseeable surprise. She's got a new way of tracking how it feels to be a living person, minute-to-minute--in particular how it feels to be this person Francine Didwell, fresh-arrived in Venice Beach, California. To live in Venice is, itself, wonderfully distracting. But it's super-distracting just being Francine Didwell, a tap dancer and a philosopher and a perpetual pilgrim, who, in her gypsy life in a beach town, will survive on her own inner stores of compassion and irony."
"A funny, heartwarming novel about a strictly devout evangelical family may sound like an oxymoron, but in Huffey's beguiling debut, it proves the case."--Publisher's Weekly
