Paradise News by David Lodge: book review

Paradise News (1991) is set in contemporary times in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Forty-four year old bachelor, Bernard Walsh, from England, receives a phone call from his dying, long-forgotten aunt Ursula in Hawaii. A few days later, Bernard and his father John are on a plane to see her. Bernard has not spoken to his sister Tess since their mother died two years ago, but now they are in contact, by telephone, about news of their aunt.

Ursula had migrated to America after the war, and had barely kept in touch with her brother John, but she is thankful that they will soon be at her bedside.

On their first day in Hawaii, on their way to Ursula, John is run-over by driver Yolande Miller and is rushed to hospital. In the hotel, Russell and Cecily Harvey, Sidney and Lilian Brooks, Brian and Beryl Everthorpe, and Roger Sheldrake all hear the ambulance. Sue Butterworth and Dee Ripley are still asleep.

This is a comical view of Bernard’s trip to Hawaii. He is, quite suddenly, in a completely new world, far from Rummidge, England, which is a ‘big, industrial city in the middle of the country. Very grey, very dirty, mostly very ugly. It’s about as different from Hawaii as anywhere on the face of the earth.’

As his aunt Ursula lies dying, and his father John is in hospital, life opens up for Bernard in this steamy, tropical paradise. In fact, life begins to flower for this ‘late flowering man.’

There is too much preamble in Part 1 about getting to Hawaii (the bookings, the flight etc.), but the novel gains pace on their arrival. Part 2 is mostly about events in Hawaii, written in the form of postcards by the people Bernard meets in his hotel. Part 3 is the culmination of his time in Hawaii and his journey home. While it’s a bit slow in parts, overall its an easy read.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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