Paradise, Barthelme's third novel, comically but urgently expresses a concern for the elusive satisfactions of marriage, sex, career, money, and, to a certain degree, spirituality in the confusing context of a modern urban existence. The quest for such satisfactions is, however, a failure. The paradise of the novel's title remains unrealized even though the protagonist, Simon, is allowed to sample all the presumed ingredients of such a perfect state of happiness. Simon, a successful, fiftythree-year-old Philadelphia architect, finds a bomb under his car, perhaps placed there by a frustrated contractor.

The situation provides an excuse for him to get away not only from his job but also from an increasingly unsatisfying marriage and have a year on his own without work in New York City.

Meditating on his failing marriage and questioning the substance of his career, Simon begins his midlife crisis in solitude but is...