What Kind of Paradise

Saul/Adam is Jane/Esme’s father and a complex, multi-faceted character. He is highly intelligent, with “a mind as sharp and bright and piercing as a nail” (1). A young prodigy, he graduated high school early and obtained multiple degrees from Harvard without family support. His keen intellect propelled him toward a career in the burgeoning field of computer science and a job at a top computer science research non-profit. He is equally adept in STEM fields and in the kind of abstract reasoning necessary in philosophy; he teaches his daughter to excel in both. He is also an avid outdoorsman and has the kind of survival skills that make his off-the-grid lifestyle possible.

Saul/Adam is also a devoted but flawed parent. He fakes his and his daughter’s deaths in part to “save” Esme/Jane from becoming her mother’s science experiment. He sincerely believes that his choice to move to a tiny, remote cabin with Jane/Esme is in her best interest. He dedicates his life in part to her education and truly believes that he has been able to give her the child-centered home life that her mother would not have been able to provide. However, he fails in his efforts to be a good father. Looking back, Jane/Esme reflects, “My father was a brilliant philosopher king, the benevolent ruler of our tranquil domain, or he was a tyrant, a maniac, and a menace. My life was bucolic and happy, or it was bizarre and lonely” (21). He isolates Jane/Esme from the world, doesn’t allow her to have a “normal” childhood, and robs her of the kinds of friends and connections she would have found had she been allowed to attend a traditional school.

Saul/Adam’s flaws are also evident in his anti-society ideology. He believes that humanity is headed in the wrong direction and that unchecked technological growth robs people of something essential in their nature. Instead of technology, he argues that individuals should learn hands-on skills, big-picture ideas, and how to function together effectively. He disagrees with both the rise of technology and the concentration of technological power in the hands of traditional institutions like government and the military. He advocates for the internet to become an egalitarian, socialist platform for information transfer and quit his job when he realized that the government wanted to harness the power of computer science to achieve its own aims.

Ultimately, Saul/Adam succumbs to extremism and falls victim to his own hubris. He comes to believe that the only option available to him is to halt the march of progress himself. He views himself as a savior figure, and his rampage of domestic terrorism and murder becomes, to him, a morally justifiable response to the dangers that technology poses. Even after his capture, he remains unrepentant and is dedicated to the ideals that led him down his troubled path.

Jane/Esme’s mother is a complex character summed up best by the observation that she is “not very motherly” (278). Tess, as she ultimately calls herself, is a brilliant computer scientist who met her husband, Adam, at their job at the Peninsula Research Institute, an early tech and computing non-profit. She was one of the best minds at the Institute, although she did experience gender-based discrimination as a woman in tech during the 1960s and 1970s. Tess had a difficult childhood and was raised by parents who wanted a docile, marriageable daughter rather than a scientist. She was drawn to Adam in part because he was a kindred spirit, and in part because he represented her first real opportunity for meaningful connection.

However, their paths quickly began to diverge. They had different reactions to her accidental pregnancy. She feared that the impact it would have on her career, but Adam longed to raise a child with more love than he was given as a young person. She agreed to have the baby only because Adam vowed to be their baby’s primary caregiver, and Adam was struck by how little natural feelings she had toward Esme when she was born. Tess was initially uninterested in Esme, and it is only when Adam threatened to move the family to a more rural location that she found the time for their daughter. Even so, Adam observed that she viewed Esme as a science experiment rather than a child. Tess continued to reveal her lack of meaningful maternal skills in her desire to shape a perfect, budding scientist instead of give unconditional love to a small girl.

Tess’s and Adam’s views also diverged in their approach to technological advancement. Adam worried about the march of progress, but Tess was thrilled by the promise that technology offers. She argued that humans are inherently flawed and hoped that computers and artificial intelligence can compensate for those flaws, helping society to achieve more of its goals. When Adam faked his and Esme’s deaths, Tess was free to devote the entirety of her time to her career, and she emerged as one of computer science’s early tech titans.

By the time Esme meets her again, Tess is polished, aloof, and wildly successful. Her all-white, polished Nob Hill condo represents Tess’s cold, distant nature, and Esme’s uncomfortable evening there speaks to Tess’s enduring difficulty with emotional connection. She and Esme are never able to reconcile because Tess struggles to relate to anyone in a meaningful way, even her daughter.

Lionel is Jane/Esme’s closest friend and love interest. A “kind of a kid prodigy” (78), Lionel graduated from high school and college early, landing a job at one of San Francisco’s first tech companies. Like many of this novel’s key characters, he is highly intelligent. He is adept at coding, knows the burgeoning internet’s ins-and-outs, and is a skilled online researcher. His job is demanding, its hours are long, and the office is often chaotic. Lionel thrives in this environment. He is part of the nation’s first tech boom, and his character speaks to the novel’s interest in the “Wild West” atmosphere that was the world of tech in San Francisco and Silicon Valley during the 1990s.

A self-described “weird kid,” Lionel is a social misfit and argues that the emergent tech world represents an opportunity for “nerds” with computer skills to re-shape society and become leaders in a cutting-edge field. Lionel is not alone in this identification. Jane/Esme, her mother, her father, and even Jane’s friend Heidi are all misfits of sorts, and the way that they form connections based on shared outsider status is an important part of this novel’s interest in relationships and connection.

Lionel’s outsider status has also been a source of difficulty for him. He has long battled depression, and although he points out to Jane/Esme that depression is the result of chemical imbalances, he does cite his social anxiety as a factor in his complex mental health condition. Lionel’s character is not stigmatized for his depression. Rather, he normalizes the condition through the description he provides to Jane, through his ready use of anti-depressant medication to manage his symptoms, and through the professional success he finds at Signal. Depression, although a key facet of his characterization, is just one small piece of his identity. If anything, it helps him better understand like-minded individuals and people who struggle with life and relationships.

Lionel is a kind, empathetic figure. He quickly seizes upon Jane/Esme’s unusual upbringing and identity and is sincere in his offer to help her should the need arise. When she shows up unannounced at his work, he does everything he can to assist her, including helping her get a job. Although he and Jane/Esme do develop romantic feelings for each other and engage in a brief relationship, he cares for her because he values her as a person, not just because he is looking for a physical relationship.

He demonstrates his caring nature time and time again throughout the course of the novel: He does not judge Jane when he finds out her father’s identity, he tries to take the blame for deleting the “Luddite Manifesto,” he continues to help her search for her mother, and he supports her through her decision to turn in her father. The two ultimately develop a life-long friendship, and in the novel’s final chapters, they remain in touch even as adults.

Heidi is Jane’s only real friend. Her mother, Lina, owns the bookstore in Bozeman, and the girls get to know each other during Jane and Saul’s trips there to drop off his zine. Heidi is also isolated, as when she and Jane meet, she is homeschooled because of health issues. The two initially bond over their shared position as outcasts with few friends and no place within any particular social group.

Heidi is a good friend to Jane, understanding how difficult it is for Jane to spend time outside of her cabin and allowing their friendship to progress along the terms set by Jane’s strict father. She is, however, open about her feelings about Saul and the isolationist lifestyle he imposes on Jane. Jane observes, “Her pugnaciousness was one of the things I loved about her” (31). She does not agree with Saul’s parenting methods and is willing to say so. Their friendship shifts, however, when Heidi begins attending the local high school. Heidi’s life normalizes: She makes new friends, starts wearing makeup, and makes plans to attend college.

Even after they drift apart, however, Heidi remains connected to Jane. When Jane returns to Bozeman after the bombing, Heidi helps Jane without asking her to reveal too much about what kind of trouble she is in. Heidi, like Jane, is more emotionally intelligent and mature than typical teenagers, in part because they both grew up outside of a typical social world. They have both functioned more like adults than their peers, and this is particularly evident in Heidi’s efforts to help Jane navigate a crisis.