Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA by Kris Radish
Publisher/Year: Bantam Dell, 2008
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 343
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Goodreads
Summary
From the bestselling author of The Sunday List of Dreams and Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral comes a poignant, funny, and uplifting novel of a woman at midlife whose search for happiness within her marriage–and within herself–turns a whole town upside down.
After twenty-eight years of marriage to her husband Lucky, Addy Lipton feels anything but happily married. In fact, just thinking of their garage, crammed with Lucky’s useless junk collection, drives Addy dangerously close to plowing her car through it. But when Lucky wins a trip to paradise–aka Costa Rica–Addy has a faint hope they may turn things around. Or maybe they won’t. Either way, Addy never gets the chance to find out.
On the morning of their departure, Lucky fractures his back tossing their luggage into his truck. Now, with the man she feels she barely knows anymore parked indefinitely on her couch, Addy can’t see their already shaky relationship surviving much longer. It’s time to make some big changes–and some drastic choices.
With the love and support of her devoutly single sister Hell and her workout friends, the Sweat-hers, Addy begins a crusade to revive her dreams–and she takes the women of Parker along for the ride. Soon the men will realize they’ll have to step up to the plate to keep their wives and lovers happy. And Addy will have to decide if the paradise she’s creating in Parker is big enough for two…
Filled with small-town characters and big-time soul-searching, this sparkling and inspirational tale will hit you where you live–and show you that just as happiness can get buried beneath the jumble of years, it can be rediscovered…if you look hard enough for it within your heart.
What I thought
This was my second Kris Radish book, and I am so glad–I loved it! Kris Radish has a very unique writing style, and it’s not for everyone. I’m not even sure how to describe it. All I know is that it works for me, and I definitely consider myself a fan of hers now! Her writing is just witty and hilarious and biting and totally honest. It’s great.
Here I am, nearing the end of my 20s, and I was able to laugh, cry, and get angry with a group of women who are a generation ahead of me. If that doesn’t speak well for Radish as a writer, then I don’t know what will. And as frustrated as I got with Addy at times, I also know that it’s hard to stand back and objectively make decisions about our own lives. And we all tend to be a little self-focused at times, like it or not. If anything, Addy’s flaws just made her that much more relatable.
Again, Kris Radish’s writing takes some getting used to (it’s just her style, it’s different–in a good way), but if you are looking for a hilarious, heartfelt female-centric look at the relationships and differences between men and women, then I highly recommend Searching for Paradise in Parker, PA.
Jessika Reads 