Mermaids in Paradise

by Lydia Millet

Overview

Mermaids, kidnappers, and mercenaries hijack a tropical vacation in this genre-bending sendup of the American honeymoon.

On the grounds of a Caribbean island resort, newlyweds Deb and Chip—our opinionated, skeptical narrator and her cheerful jock husband who's friendly to a fault—meet a marine biologist who says she's sighted mermaids in a coral reef.

As the resort's "parent company" swoops in to corner the market on mythological creatures, the couple joins forces with other adventurous souls, including an ex–Navy SEAL with a love of explosives and a hipster Tokyo VJ, to save said mermaids from the "Venture of Marvels," which wants to turn their reef into a theme park.

Mermaids in Paradise is Lydia Millet's funniest book yet, tempering the sharp satire of her early career with the empathy and subtlety of her more recent novels and short stories. This is an unforgettable, mesmerizing tale, darkly comic on the surface and illuminating in its depths.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393245622
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/03/2014
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Lydia Millet is the author of A Children’s Bible, a finalist for the National Book Award and a New York Times Top Ten book of the Year. Her first work of short fiction, Love in Infant Monkeys, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She lives outside Tucson, Arizona.

Editorial Reviews

It's a bold move to make mermaids the center of a grown-up story, even in a novel as hilariously funny as this one. But Lydia Millet's novels raise the bar for boldness. Through the window of the unlikeliest events or plot twists, she poses the questions many contemporary writers shy away from, or simply skirt…Millet's writing—witty, colorful, sometimes poetic—is, line by line, a joy to read, and her storytelling is immensely compelling. But there's always an equally compelling philosophical discussion humming beneath everything. In Mermaids in Paradise that discussion is about the different ways people see the world, and how perceptions form belief…In her most original way, Millet dares us to examine how we ever know when to be "hard core," or when it's safe to let down our guard. It's a testament to her novel's power that these mermaids retain their mystery, and that the ending of Mermaids in Paradise is one of the most luminous and unsettling in recent fiction.

The New York Times Book Review - René Steinke

"Millet, with her keen sense of the absurd, brings the book to a surprising conclusion, and makes a point about corporate greed and the destruction of the environment without being heavy-handed."— Moira Hodgson Wall Street Journal

"I laughed so hard all over town…leave it to Lydia Millet to capsize her human characters in aquamarine waters and upstage their honeymoon with mermaids. I am awed to know there's a mind like Millet's out there—she's a writer without limits, always surprising, always hilarious."— Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove

"Mermaids in Paradise makes brilliant comedy out of a honeymoon trip that veers from the absurd to the sublime and back again. Lydia Millet is a stone-cold genius."— Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation

"[A] laser-focused satire… The novel has the shape and pace of a thriller… An admirable example of a funny novel with a serious message that works swimmingly. Dive in."— Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"With equal parts calculated wryness and pleading earnestness, [Millet] delivers a thrilling piece of fabulist fiction."— Publishers Weekly, Starred review

"A hilarious genre-bender that strikes some serious chords."— Jane Ciabattari BBC.com

"Suspenseful, philosophical, and tropical—the funniest you’ll ever read on ecotourism and the wisest you’ll ever read on mermaids."— Natalie Beach O Magazine

"[A] deft satire… Millet ramps up the suspense."— Melissa Maerz Entertainment Weekly

"A romp with sharp teeth… a slapstick variation on Millet’s abiding theme: the relationship between human beings and the natural world."— Laura Miller Salon

"Now that David Foster Wallace is gone, I think Lydia Millet is the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves… she has as good a chance as anyone to write the novel that defines our time."— Charles Finch Chicago Tribune

From the Publisher

★ 2014-07-21
A Caribbean honeymoon turns into a media circus over a mermaid sighting in this laser-focused satire from Millet (Magnificence, 2012, etc.). Deborah, the narrator of Millet's smart and funny novel, her ninth, is an LA woman who's snarky to the core: She's skeptical of her fiance's hard-core workout regimen, of the rituals of bachelorette parties, even of her best friend's own snark. So when her new husband, Chip, proposes a honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands, she's suspicious of tourism's virtues. Deb's early interactions seem to justify her defensiveness: One man gets the wrong idea when she accidentally brushes her foot against his leg over drinks: "He made me feel like my toes were prostitutes," she tells her husband. "Like my toes, Chip, were dolled up in Frederick's of Hollywood." The comic, unbelieving tone Millet gives Deb helps sell what happens next: Roped into a scuba dive by an aquatic researcher, she and a small group spot a bunch of mermaids at a nearby reef. Despite the group's efforts to keep the discovery hidden, the resort gets the news and rushes to capitalize on it, while Deb and her cohorts are eager to preserve the sole example of unadulterated wonder the 21st century has offered them. The novel has the shape and pace of a thriller—Deb is held by corporate goons, the researcher goes mysteriously missing, paramilitary men are called in—and it thrives on Deb's witty, wise narration. Millet means to criticize a rapacious culture that wants to simplify and categorize everything, from the resort profiteers to churchy types who see the mermaids as symbols of godlessness. The ending underscores the consequences of such blinkered mindsets without losing its essential comedy. An admirable example of a funny novel with a serious message that works swimmingly. Dive in.

Kirkus Reviews