Paradise Logic

January 6, 2025
In Kemp’s energetic debut, a young woman embarks on a quest to become the “best girlfriend of all time.” Reality Kahn, a 23-year-old from Upstate New York with a “come-hither attitude,” lives in Brooklyn with two roommates. To reach her goal, she must first extricate herself from a situationship with a weed dealer. She then becomes an enthusiastic reader of Girlfriend Weekly, a magazine that advises her to seek attention from men with “boyish charm and searing intellects.” She soon meets “sad-eyed” graduate student Ariel, who grudgingly agrees to become her boyfriend in exchange for the right to demand sexual favors from her, often in the cramped apartment he shares with several college friends that doubles as a music venue. Kemp blends a realistic punk rock battle of the sexes with bizarro interludes, as Reality joins a trial for a drug called ZZZZvx ULTRA, which causes her to speak and act submissively to maintain Ariel’s approval. The plot is a bit thin, but the inventive conceit yields plenty of humor and incisive commentary. This funhouse portrait of the Brooklyn dating scene feels all too real. Agent: Jim Rutman, Sterling Lord Literistic.

February 1, 2025
Simon Rich meets Sarah Silverman in this raunchy and farcical debut novel about one young woman's epic quest for a boyfriend. Narrator Reality Kahn, a 23-year-old Brooklynite, earns a living by starring in water park commercials ("I had that Hollywood thing"). After Reality's casual-sex buddy suggests that she get a boyfriend, she becomes consumed by the idea and sets out to find a guy so she can be "the greatest girlfriend of all time." At a party in Gowanus, she sees boyfriend material in Ariel Koffman, a crack-smoking New York University doctoral candidate who rescues her after she accidentally locks herself in the bathroom. Three months into their relationship, Ariel dodges Reality's question about whether he considers himself her boyfriend, but she's undeterred: "He would see in due time that this love was true and that our boyfriend-girlfriend destiny was a factual thing." Throughout the novel, which contains graphic sex scenes and is periodically interrupted by experimental interludes, Reality has the man-crazed thoughts of a woman for whom the feminist movement and/or steady oxygen flow to the brain never happened. (As someone asks Ariel about Reality, "Is she of, ah, how do you say in English? Very idiotic? She has been kicked in the head by a horse?") Reality's lack of self-awareness seems to be a comment on the havoc wreaked on an online generation endlessly fed content designed to erode confidence and critical-thinking skills, especially in women (Reality reliably consults her favorite magazine, Girlfriend Weekly). The novel has some genuinely funny moments, but even fans of social satire may find Reality's shtick tiresome, and for some readers, being expected to care about the fate of a charmless and irredeemably self-absorbed character may be a Brooklyn Bridge too far. Bawdy, occasionally hilarious, and an acquired taste for sure.

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March 1, 2025
Kemp's wildly inventive debut novel follows 23-year-old Reality Kahn as she undertakes a quest to find a boyfriend and become the greatest girlfriend of all time. Written in darkly humorous prose with occasional drawings, Paradise Logic interrogates gender dynamics, love, and sexuality in the modern world. Reality's friends tell her she needs to get a hobby and leave her apartment more. When they suggest she find a boyfriend, she commits to the project fully. She searches for places where boyfriends might hang out, including the mall and rock concerts, and reads relevant texts, such as Girlfriend Weekly. As a narrator, Reality veers between an almost alien-like approach to modern mores and crystal clear understanding; her perceptions are at once surreal and instantly recognizable. Kemp's writing is ambitious and fresh while engaging with the recurring theme of women's role as a vessel for men's desires in a patriarchal society. Reality's heightened approach to her world makes its violence even more apparent. With an impressive ear for rhythm, Kemp's writing shines throughout this imaginative novel.

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