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THE DREAMING

Name: THE DREAMING
Author: Barbara Wood
ISBN: 0-394-56592-4

by Barbara Wood ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1991

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Wood (Vital Signs, 1985; Soul Flame, 1987, etc.) has tracked doctor/healer women bucketing on to survival against mighty odds; here, a young Englishwoman, arrived in 1871 to pioneer Australia, embarks on a search for the nightmare core of a generational curse- -both thwarted and aided by the rapidly disappearing secret ancient culture of the Aborigines. Joanne Drury meets sheep-rancher Hugh Westbrook on the dock upon her arrival from England; Hugh is to take charge of five-year- old orphaned Adam, a frenzied, silent, terrified child. Joanna's dead mother, like Adam, had been transported alone back to England, a traumatized child, but it was not until Joanna was six that her mother became the prey of dreams—dogs, a terrible serpent, a curse—that eventually killed her. Joanna, who agreed to be ``nanny'' for Adam, has brought with her a satchel of odd artifacts, including a deed to a land unknown, pages of cryptic symbols, and (later found) a priceless opal. Throughout the years of love, marriage, children, pairings of friends, and struggles to save the ranch from storms and a sworn enemy, Joanna, coached by a half-Aborigine friend, learns something of the old ways, as well as the ``soul links'' of the ``dreamings'' and ``songlines.'' When six-year-old Beth is almost killed by a wild dog, her mother, Joanna, knows she must go beyond what she already understands from the satchel's contents. But it is not until some years later that Joanna, in a cave at the center of the Great Victoria Desert, will meet her mother's nightmare. Like Phyllis Whitney in her psychic period—with a teasing mystery, great scenery, and specialty info (here, the customs of the Aborigines)—but Wood's quest tale is plumper, looser, and busy with a swag of delaying incident before the close.

Pub Date: May 1, 1991

ISBN: 0-394-56592-4

Page Count: 464

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1991

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BLESSING STONE
by Barbara Wood

- BOOK REVIEW
SACRED GROUND
by Barbara Wood

- BOOK REVIEW
PERFECT HARMONY
by Barbara Wood

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INVISIBLE MAN

by Ralph Ellison ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 7, 1952

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An extremely powerful story of a young Southern Negro, from his late high school days through three years of college to his life in Harlem.

His early training prepared him for a life of humility before white men, but through injustices- large and small, he came to realize that he was an "invisible man". People saw in him only a reflection of their preconceived ideas of what he was, denied his individuality, and ultimately did not see him at all. This theme, which has implications far beyond the obvious racial parallel, is skillfully handled. The incidents of the story are wholly absorbing. The boy's dismissal from college because of an innocent mistake, his shocked reaction to the anonymity of the North and to Harlem, his nightmare experiences on a one-day job in a paint factory and in the hospital, his lightning success as the Harlem leader of a communistic organization known as the Brotherhood, his involvement in black versus white and black versus black clashes and his disillusion and understanding of his invisibility- all climax naturally in scenes of violence and riot, followed by a retreat which is both literal and figurative. Parts of this experience may have been told before, but never with such freshness, intensity and power.

This is Ellison's first novel, but he has complete control of his story and his style. Watch it.

Pub Date: April 7, 1952

ISBN: 0679732764

Page Count: 616

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: Sept. 22, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1952

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE SELECTED LETTERS OF RALPH ELLISON
by Ralph Ellison edited by John F. Callahan Marc C. Conner

- BOOK REVIEW
THREE DAYS BEFORE THE SHOOTING
by Ralph Ellison and edited by John Callahan and Adam Bradley

- BOOK REVIEW
TRADING TWELVES
by Ralph Ellison & Albert Murray & edited by Albert Murray & John F. Callahan

- IN THE NEWS
Alaska School Board Reverses Book Ban, for Now

- APPRECIATIONS
Ralph Ellison’s ‘Invisible Man’ Is Turning 70

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A CLOCKWORK ORANGE

by Anthony Burgess & edited by Mark Rawlinson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 8, 1962

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The previous books of this author (Devil of a State, 1962; The Right to an Answer, 1961) had valid points of satire, some humor, and a contemporary view, but here the picture is all out—from a time in the future to an argot that makes such demands on the reader that no one could care less after the first two pages.

If anyone geta beyond that—this is the first person story of Alex, a teen-age hoodlum, who, in step with his times, viddies himself and the world around him without a care for law, decency, honesty; whose autobiographical language has droogies to follow his orders, wallow in his hate and murder moods, accents the vonof human hole products. Betrayed by his dictatorial demands by a policing of his violence, he is committed when an old lady dies after an attack; he kills again in prison; he submits to a new method that will destroy his criminal impulses; blameless, he is returned to a world that visits immediate retribution on him; he is, when an accidental propulsion to death does not destroy him, foisted upon society once more in his original state of sin.

What happens to Alex is terrible but it is worse for the reader.