When Hanya Yanagihara started researching To Paradise, in 2017, her notion of a catastrophic contemporary pandemic was fiction inspired by scientific possibility. With its publication two years after the emergence of COVID-19, elements of this 700-page epic seem prescient.
To Paradise explores three versions of America, linked by recurring themes and motifs – a townhouse in Washington Square Park; characters named David, Charles and Edward; definitions of family, guardianship and nationhood; impacts of illness and treatment; issues of race and sexuality; choices relating to love and marriage; and the enduring contrast between the privileged and the disadvantaged.
The first section is set in 1893, in an alternative New York that is part of the Free States, where David Bingham’s fragility has kept him under the care of his wealthy grandfather, who is brokering a marriage to a ‘worthy’ suitor. But David’s betrothed cannot compare with charismatic and destitute music teacher Edward, whose motivations are ambiguous.
Section two is set in 1993 during the AIDS epidemic, and follows another David Bingham – heir to Hawaiian royalty – and his older lover Charles, whose friends are slowly succumbing to the disease. After a farewell party, David reads a letter from his institutionalised father, which attempts to mitigate his limitations as a parent and explain his friendship to Edward, an insurgent seeking to reaffirm Hawaiian sovereignty.
Section three shifts to 2093 New York, now renamed Zone Eight and under State control due to decades of devastating pandemics. Charlie’s potential is marred by the effects of childhood illness, and her grandfather exerts his diminishing authority to arrange marriage to a man who will protect her.
This intelligently crafted, thought-provoking novel should be slowly savoured, to fully appreciate the intricacy and brilliance of Yanagihara’s visionary storytelling.
Reviewed by Maureen Eppen
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hanya Yanagihara was born in 1974. She is an American novelist, editor, and travel writer. She grew up in Hawaii. She is best known for her bestselling novel A Little Life, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Booker Prize, and for being the editor-in-chief of T Magazine.
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