Customer Reviews

Behold, This Dreamer

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While growing up as a child in the South you never realize what a rich heritage you have. You always hear stories told by grandparents, aunts and uncles. It's not until you are grown that you realize that all of the world is not the same as it is in the South. Life is truly different. "Behold This Dreamer" feels like coming home. I enjoyed the descriptive language which makes you feel the red clay dust on your skin. I recommend this book because it records a part of southern history not often explored.

Through meticulous attention to historical detail, Charlotte Miller has given us a picture of 1920's rural Alabama that is precise, from clothing to cars to speech patterns. Her research is exacting and faithfully transcribed to the pages of this beautiful novel. There is a need for stories that explore the class distinctions of the past. The generational stigmas and privileges that were passed from father to son are detailed in her intriguing plot. For the southern reader, it will be a reminder of the tales told by grandparents. For readers in other parts of the country, this book is a journey to a brutal, hauntingly beautiful southern landscape of place and time.

From the moment I picked this book up, I could not put it down. Written in a flowing and highly readable style, this novel presents characters that grab your heart and your interest and will not let you go from the first page through the last. Don't miss this book.

You will be up late into the night turning the pages of this wonderful and historically rich first novel. Miller captures the reader's interest in the first paragraph, sweeping all who enter these pages into a 1920's South so vivid that each reader will come away feeling they have walked these streets and lived in her world. I highly recommend this book, and myself eagerly await the next installment in this epic trilogy of the South.

As a librarian, I am faced with recommending reading material to a broad range of patrons of different ages, interests and backgrounds. Behold, This Dreamer is one of those rare books that will satisfy readers of several genres. Library patrons will enjoy Behold, This Dreamer by Charlotte Miller on several levels. Written in an easy to read, flowing style, it is a rich historical novel set in 1920's Alabama during the Prohibition era, a social commentary of the extremes between rich landowners and poor sharecropers in the state and a timeless romance of lovers fighting to be together against seemingly impossible odds of rigid social order. Joan Sung, Librarian and Writer/Member of the Southern Stories Foundation, dedicated to developing Alabama stories for film and video.

I found this book very boring. I almost did not finish it. I hate these kind of storys, they depress me. There are enough things in life to depress one without reading this type of book to my way of thinking. Sorry, this is just my opinion, others may enjoy it immensly.

An interesting look at the rural south in the 1920s. I could picture the red clay dirt, the houses and people, but felt little about the characters, their struggles, fears, and pain. The author's frequent repetitiveness of words and phrases was distracting and detracting. It needed better editing.