Today I welcome Victoria Patterson, author of This Vacant Paradise to Peeking Between the Pages. I hope to read This Vacant Paradise soon as it sounds fantastic! Victoria joins us today to talk about her inspiration for her novel This Vacant Paradise…
If you’ve ever read Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth, you know that Lily Bart is one of the most amazing female protagonists. Beautiful, smart, honest, doomed, Lily’s principles stand in the way of her advancing in society. She can’t have a happy ending because she has so few viable options.
My writing is concerned with women’s desire for independence, self-expression, and agency—and with the cultural conditions that restrict them. I also write about Newport Beach, California. My family moved to Newport when I was in the 7th grade, and for me it was a cultural and emotional reckoning, a perfect roiling combination for a burgeoning writer.
When I was in graduate school at UC Riverside, a professor jokingly called me “The Edith Wharton of the O.C.” and suggested I write a House of Mirth for Newport Beach. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was already a huge Edith Wharton fan, and I resumed my obsession, reading everything I could by her and about her.
I also read all I could by Henry James, knowing that he and Wharton had a complex relationship, and that they influenced each other’s work.
Edith Wharton’s Lily Bart is incredibly sharp and self-aware, capable of succeeding, but her inner character sabotages her follow-through. She simply can’t stomach an environment that makes her an object and allows her little agency. She’s destroyed by the contradiction of needing to be independent in a world that neither equips nor permits her to be.
For This Vacant Paradise, set in 1990s Newport Beach, I envisioned Esther Eileen Wilson, my protagonist, as a modern day Lily Bart. After her shifts at a high end woman’s retail store called True Romance, Esther frequents a popular restaurant/bar called Shark Island, where she allots herself two apple martinis.
Esther has been raised to believe that her worth is her beauty and marriage her ultimate gain. And she is beautiful, though she’s nearing her mid-thirties and is very aware of the temporal nature of her looks. All around her, women are getting plastic surgery, desperately clutching on to their youth and beauty.
Esther has little education or practical skills, and she’s not very adept at the mundane realities of daily life, such as laundry. She finds herself unsuited to a more modest lifestyle, but without the means to provide a lifestyle that would suit her. She lives on the margins of wealth, and she’s ready for that to change. Her best hope is boyfriend Paul Rice, ranked number three in Orange Coaster’s most eligible bachelors.
Enter ex-boyfriend Charlie Murphy, a handsome liberal community college professor. He encourages Esther to think differently from her friends and relatives. Charlie talks a good game, but whether he’s up to the task of living the talk is questionable—and ultimately, like most of us, he likes his comfort.
This Vacant Paradise is both a love story and a critique of a materialistic and limiting environment. Esther has the ambition to marry a rich and powerful man, but she’s held back by her scruples. She’s awake and aware, and she has a heightened sensibility. Her awareness deepens her misfortunes, but it also allows her to retain dignity.
Henry James wrote, “All things in relationships.” However much we try not to, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us. For Esther, that central conflict of being true to her best self, while, at the same time, shaping herself for others, proves to have all sorts of consequences.
For Lily Bart, those consequences were tragic. Women in the 1990s have more freedom than the 1890s. Does Esther’s fate have to be as tragic? I had to keep writing and rewriting until I found my answer.
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Thank you so much for sharing this guest post with us today Victoria. I really am looking forward to reading your novel!
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About the Book (from publicist)
Set in the 1990s, Newport Beach, CA, This Vacant Paradise explores a world where money is god. A man’s worth is judged by the size of his boat, the make of his car. A woman’s value is assessed by the blank perfection of her quantifiable desirability: dress size, cup size, the whiteness of her teeth. Dependent on her family’s wealth, Esther, the novel’s 33-year-old heroine, decides to marry into the Newport elite when an unlikely candidate thwarts her plans.
In the tradition of Edith Wharton and Henry James, Victoria Patterson shines a keen and often wickedly humorous light on our very American obsessions with class, race, age, and the roles of men and women in the strive toward upward mobility. The novel traces Esther’s journey from a beautiful, yet deeply insecure woman, trapped by the ticking clock of her own desirability, to an awakened, independent individual, embarking on an alternate, unglamorous, and indefinable course. This Vacant Paradise is an honest examination of the difficulties of breaking out of the rigid value system laid upon us by society and family.
About the Author (from publicist)
Victoria Patterson is also the author of the story collection Drift, a Story Prize and California Book Award finalist and Best Books of 2009 selection by The San Francisco Chronicle. Her work has appeared in various publications and journals, including the Los Angeles Times, Alaska Quarterly Review, and the Southern Review. She lives with her family in Southern California and teaches through the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program and as a Visiting Assistant Professor at UC Riverside. For more info, please visit: www.victoriapatterson.net.
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GIVEAWAY DETAILS
I have one copy of This Vacant Paradise by Victoria Patterson to share with my readers. To enter…
- For 1 entry leave me a comment with a way to contact you.
- For 2 entries follow my blog. If you already do, thank you and please let me know in your comment so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
- For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway to spread the word.
This giveaway is open to US & Canadian residents (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, March 19, 2011. Good luck everyone!
© 2010, Darlene of Peeking Between the Pages. All Rights Reserved. If you’re reading this on a site other than Peeking Between the Pages or Darlene’s Feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
I find the thought of this book very interesting. I loved The House of Mirth, and would be really interested in reading how Patterson translates this story into her own novel. Wonderful interview, Dar and Victoria! Please include me in your giveaway!!
zibilee(at)figearo(dot)net
I would love to read it, it sounds really good.
I am a gfc follower.
debbie
twoofakind12@yahoo.com
Would love to win this book, thanks for the opportunity.
littleone AT shaw DOt ca
I follow on GFC
littleone AT shaw DOT ca
Thank you for the great give away, please enter me to win.
karen.hofmaier@gmail.com
I am a GFC and RSS feed follower
karen.hofmaier@gmail.com
This unique book sounds fascinating. thanks. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
Set in the 1990's but it sounds very much like 2011!
kpbarnett1941[at]aol[dot]com
Email subscriber and GFC follower.
kpbarnett1941[at]aol[dot]com
Loved this review and would enjoy this book. rojosho(at)hotmail(dot)com
Thanks for the giveaway.
I follow on GFC
lizzi0915 at aol dot com
thanks for hosting,t his book sounds great
strandedhero(at)gmail(dot)com
I'm a gfc follower 🙂
strandedhero(at)gmail(dot)com
Please enter me in the giveaway. I am a GFC follower.
I remember visiting Newport Beach, it is a different world than mine. Those poor women need to get out and see other worlds. Pease enter me for this contest.
CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com
I follow your blog with Google Friends Connect, Twitter, Facebook, Networked Blogs and an e-mail subscription.
CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com
Carolee888 is my Twitter name.
I tweeted:
https://peekingbetweenthepages.com/2011/03/guest-post-with-victoria-patterson.html? Giveaway of 'This Vacant World'
CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com
I'm a follower- thanks for the giveaway!
Rachelhwallen@gmail.com
I'd love to win this. Thanks for the giveaway.
I follow your blog.
I tweeted this at http://twitter.com/#!/ForWhlz/status/42706264781889536
forwhlz at gmail dot com
Darlene, you are the winner of our meet-n-greet giveaway! I sent you an email.
This book sounds wonderful — and I loved reading the guest post, too 🙂
Please enter me. Thanks!
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net
I am a follower.
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net
This one sounds good!!
stacijoreads@gmail.com
Please enter me! I am a follower (gfc) and a subcriber.
I posted it to my blog: http://dancealertreads.blogspot.com/2011/03/peeking-between-pages-giveaway-from.html
DanceAlertReads.blogspot.com
dancealert at aol dot com
Thanks for the giveaway!!
areallibrarian[at]gmail[dot]com
I also follow! =)
areallibrarian[at]gmail[dot]com
Sounds like a good read! The TBR grows again. Please enter me 2x. I am an addicted follower!
ladybook21 at yahoo dot com
Sounds like an interesting read. I'd like to win it but even if I don't, thanks for the tip!
juliabethjenkins at gmail dot com.
New follower 🙂
juliabethjenkins at gmail dot com
I'd love a chance into this giveaway thanks!
♥ unforgetable_dreamer_always (at) hotmail.com
GFC Follower thanks.
♥ unforgetable_dreamer_always (at) hotmail.com
This sounds like a great read and somewhat reminds me of a great movie I've seen recently, THE JONSES.
+1 comment
+2 GFC(Mona Garg) and email subscriber
monagarg@yahoo.com
My sister lived in Newport Beach in the 70s. I remember the interesting people who lived there.
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
I am a GFC follower
1
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
I am a GFC follower
2
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
laxmikarumbu at gmail dot com
Loved reading about this book, it sounds really good. I know I would enjoy it. Please enter me. Thanks!
ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net
Already follow on GFC #1.
ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net
Already follow on GFC #2.
ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net
Yay!! Great give!! Thanks so much!
I also follow!!
areallibrarian[at]gmail[dot]com
Awesome giveaway! Would love to read this 🙂
jaidahsmommy(at)comcast(dot)net
I am a GFC follower 🙂
jaidahsmommy(at)comcast(dot)net
Tweeted:
http://twitter.com/#!/enterthedrew/status/45488431282929664
jaidahsmommy(at)comcast(dot)net
I would love to win this!
candc320@gmail.com
I am a GFC follower (Colleen Turner).
candc320@gmail.com
Sounds like an interesting read.
wedgeheadlove@yahoo.com
Looks interesting. Thanks for the giveaway.
roarseto@yahoo.ca
Thanks so much for the giveaway!
+1 mk261274 at gmail dot com
+1 I follow your blog
+1 I posted to my giveaway links page
http://melissasmeanderings.wordpress.com/book-contestsgiveaways/
elizabeth_717@live.com
I am also a follower!
Thank you so much for the giveaway!!
GFC follower
vidishamun@gmail.com
This sounds like a really interesting book!
shortcut_2_mushrooms(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)nz
+1 GFC follower: Christy