Although somewhat more approachable in terms of stylistic innovations than other Barthelme works, Paradise contains many of the boundary-breaking traits recognized as hallmarks of his fiction: abrupt time shifts, fragmented dialogue, a comic tone often mixed with a melancholy seriousness, and perhaps most notably a collagelike assembly of incidents, allusions to popular culture, advertising, facts from mass media, and fragments of opinions and actions without any larger unifying context. Paradise shifts its time frame back and forth from chapters of questioning and answering between Simon and his doctor to chapters recording the events of Simon's life with the three young women whom he invites to live at his apartment. The chapters of dialogue between Simon and his doctor take place a week after the three women have moved out.

Other chapters mainly present Simon's life with the three women, largely through straightforward and often uninterrupted dialogue. All these...