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# ‘Naked In Paradise’ By Len Richmond • Sybaritic Press
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/naked-in-paradise-by-len-richmond-sybaritic-press/
- Published: 2007-09-22T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T01:02:24.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By By Dane Roberts Wans On Bookreview*

What can you do when your lover has left you? How do you pick up the pieces and go on? That is the question answered in this short novella.

“Long term commitments of the old-fashion kind, comfortable as they may be, kill brain cells. You shut down. You go to sleep.” This is an observation our main character makes early in this inventive work.

This book is basically a search for someone who will commit to a relationship. Our narrator sees a mirror image of his relationship with Mikey in his neighbors, Bob and Laura. “Laura wants marriage, but wants her freedom too. She wants to be loved, but not be in love, like Mikey.”

Our narrator has to know, “Why did Mikey leave me? It was driving me crazy. I had to know.”

Our narrator seeks people to replace Mikey. He turns to the L.A. Weekly where he posts an ad. He seeks to fulfill his fantasies. He is a top. He seeks a bottom. But mostly he is searching for a replacement with commitment in a relationship.

The story is told in the first person. It works well. You can identify with the lead better as a result. The narrator is never named, he’s just the narrator.

Author Len Richmond has been successful in television and in stage productions and magazines. He has even edited a few books on gay liberation.

Now he turns his talents to the area of novella writing. How successful was Richmond in this new venture?

Let me put it this way, when the reader picks up a novel he looks for a story with conflict and a purpose. He wants to see the protagonist struggle at something and come out the other side a victor or a wiser person. The struggle should be a matter of life or death. The goal must be a worthy one. The obstacles to reaching that goal should be worthy of the effort of the protagonist.

The reader looks for a beginning, a middle and an end to the story. Scenes need to be built upon scene. The impact should be cumulative leading to a crisis.

In conclusion, when the reader buys a book he wants someone he can care about if he is going to spend his money for the entertainment value contained in the book. Once he has bought a book, he wants to be able to be entertained from the beginning to the end of the story. This holds true of any genre of writing.

In reading “Naked in Paradise” I feel a loss looking for the heightened tension and the opposition to the goal the narrator has. There is an entertainment value but for a small group of readers.

The characters in this book do move the story along. The short segments where the narrator is dreaming of what he would say to certain people, if given the chance, provide some humorous relief to the search.

I find this novella to be an episodic tale that could have also been told in a short story. For the length of a novella this doesn’t work.

He needs to sustain the interest of the reader over the long haul. He was unable to do so with this tale, which is sad, for he shows promise in this form.

DANE ROBERT SWANSON desires to hear from you, his fan club. Drop him a line at

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 22, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092207.pdf?ref=smdp.com)