The article presents his impressions of the geography, climate, architecture, cuisine and character of the most first and second-generation residents of the greater Los Angeles area.
"—Roy Hoopes in Cain (1982)[3] "You can drive for miles, and the one thing you can be sure of is that you are not going to be rewarded for so much as one little scrap, one little unexpected bit, one hint of charm, that you can sit down with for a moment, and as I have said, take to bed with you at night, [merely] an endless succession of Rabbit Fryers, 50¢; Eggs, Guaranteed Fresh, 23 Doz.
[4] Journalist and satirist H. L Mencken, to whom Cain submitted the essay for consideration in January 1933, declared it "the first really good article on depression era California that has ever been done."
[7] Los Angeles Times literary critic David L. Ulin notes that "Paradise" had “slipped between the cracks” and remains a largely unknown work among Cain's ouvere.
[8] Ulin writes: It's tempting to read the essay's title as ironic since Cain's fictional world—The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity, and Mildred Pierce—is generally more of a paradise lost.