Simon, the protagonist, is the most completely realized character in Paradise. A well-to-do and noted fiftythree-year-old architect, he is cultivated, somewhat eccentric (he listens compulsively to a collection of three old radios), and disturbed. He is troubled by dreams that reveal his fears of being ineffective and impotent. He repeatedly dreams of having trouble putting on his pants and confesses to an anxiety about being stabbed with scissors by a woman who cuts his hair.

He is troubled by guilt and self-conscious about his aging body, and he drinks and smokes too much. Simon's marriage has failed to provide hoped for satisfactions and his relationship with the three women he meets by chance and invites to share his apartment also proves to be a dead end, even though it offers the fulfillment of a male fantasy, a sexual paradise beyond the conventional restrictions of marriage.

The three women...