The definitive new edition of Weinstein's
PARADISE GARDENS
is an Orwellian speculative fiction set in a near future world where the Federal government has dissolved amid ecological breakdown. In the 2250s, Nate Greenfield, real estate visionary, with the help of P.R. maven Madge Chilton, sells corporate business on his "eden underground." PARADISE GARDENS becomes the home of the United Business Estates (U.B.E). Left behind are the Unconnected, people outside corporate protection. Capitalism has devolved into the corporate feudalism of the U.B.E., where employees are conceived as Superior or Average to fit the needs of business.
Suspended between the settings of 2250s on the Earth's surface in NYC and 3011s underground, chapters alternate with a revolving cast of characters. Fates are determined by the Psychologicians, who manage the civilization's data base. Yet, when model employee Janet McCarthy finds herself caught in a web of alternate identities, only her lover Michael can attempt to cut her loose. At stake, is the reset of the planet. In this cautionary near-future, Sinclair Lewis' classic
It Can't Happen Here
, has already happened. It is a vision at once strange and familiar. The recognition it brings is a dark pleasure.