Tonight at 8 PM my guest is Victoria Patterson, whose recent collection of interconnected short stories featured sharp social commentary, wit and style matched by empathetic characterization and elegant prose. The stories in Drift won critical acclaim and popular reception for their withering look at the difficult, compromised and stricken lives of those people of Orange County who aren’t featured in luxury real estate lifestyle magazines. Now Victoria Patterson is back with a novel further exploring questions of class, race, sex and perception in upscale Newport Beach through the life of a singular heroine, a woman facing both the limits and demands of her considerable beauty and never-realized power, and struggling with compromise and deception. In the tradition of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, Victoria Patterson’s This Vacant Paradise is a devastating portrait of people trapped by money, betrayed by their own families and class, trying hard to be more but who lack the emotional, not to mention material tools to succeed. Victoria Patterson’s short stories and essays have been published widely, including in the Santa Monica Review, Orange Coast, Los Angeles Times and Literary Mama. For more on Victoria Patterson and This Vacant Paradise, http://www.victoriapatterson.net/http%3A__www.victoriapatterson.net_/Victoria_Pattersons_Website.html. For more Bibliocracy, visit the KPFK station archives, where you can download programs free for 90 days. Please remember Bibliocracy during upcoming KPFK fund drive. And by "remember" I mean please send money! You can telephone your pledge in or go online and contribute. http://www.kpfk.org.
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