Paradise Logic

In Kemp’s energetic debut, a young woman embarks on a quest to become the “best girlfriend of all time.” Reality Kahn, a 23-year-old from Upstate New York with a “come-hither attitude,” lives in Brooklyn with two roommates. To reach her goal, she must first extricate herself from a situationship with a weed dealer. She then becomes an enthusiastic reader of Girlfriend Weekly, a magazine that advises her to seek attention from men with “boyish charm and searing intellects.” She soon meets “sad-eyed” graduate student Ariel, who grudgingly agrees to become her boyfriend in exchange for the right to demand sexual favors from her, often in the cramped apartment he shares with several college friends that doubles as a music venue. Kemp blends a realistic punk rock battle of the sexes with bizarro interludes, as Reality joins a trial for a drug called ZZZZvx ULTRA, which causes her to speak and act submissively to maintain Ariel’s approval. The plot is a bit thin, but the inventive conceit yields plenty of humor and incisive commentary. This funhouse portrait of the Brooklyn dating scene feels all too real. Agent: Jim Rutman, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Mar.)