Dreams of Leaving [Paperback]

Rupert Thomson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 25, 1988

A novel about Moses Highness, brought up in an English village that nobody had ever left. Moses moves to London and begins to unearth the bizarre and chilling secrets of his past, of his mother who ate raw yeast to rise out of her misery and his father who stayed in bed for 15 years.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There is a deus ex machina in this humdinger of a first novel, masquerading as the piranha-like English village of New Egypt. Once born there, nobody escapesnobody except Moses Highness, whose spiritually imprisoned father George collects rushes from the river, fashions them into a basket and sets his 13-month-old son afloat. We meet Moses next in London, age 24, 66 with knockout looks. He has spent the intervening years first in an orphanage and then with warm and caring foster parents. Jobless, but never short of resources, Moses and a handful of punk friends seem determined to drink or drug themselves into oblivion. But Moses can never get drunk enough to dislodge the painful question of his identity, with which the bulk of the action and the remainder of the book are concerned. Jam-packed with events and filled with suspense, the narrative is completely absorbing. Because the prose is elegant and magic with metaphor, because even secondary characters brighten the pagesEddie, for instance, whose smile is "almost as loud as a laugh"the reader cheerfully suspends disbelief. When the long but never burdensome tale comes to a close, Moses has uncovered his past but not yet the kernel of self. The future of Moses and New Egypt will be happily pondered by those whose good fortune it is to have met them.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Moses Highness lives in London, on the dole, in a careless existence of parties, booze, and drugs. Raised in a pleasant foster home, he has only a vague wish to know about his real parents. Like his namesake, Moses was placed in a basket and floated from New Egypt; his was the only successful escape from a cloistered village whose inhabitants are hopeless and deadened. New Egypt police chief Peach eventually tracks Moses down in London; meanwhile Moses makes his way to New Egypt. Aside from an overabundance of self-conscious similes, the humorous, surreal dialogue and narrative in this first novel ring true, conveying the aimless quality of Moses's life and his unconscious search for family and meaning. Recommended. A.M.B. Amantia, Population Crisis Committee Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Black Swan (August 25, 1988)
• ISBN-10: 0552993239
• ISBN-13: 978-0552993234
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent novel from a descriptive master., December 13, 1999

By 

Nigel Funge (Redwood City, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreams of Leaving (Hardcover)

Rupert Thomson starts off his brilliant literary career with `Dreams of Leaving'. A young father with dreams of leaving a small English village puts his son (appropriately named Moses) into a basket and floats him down a river. Moses grows up never knowing his real past (being the only one to ever "escape" from the village). Sounds interesting? Don't worry, the story doesn't matter. The author's narrative brilliance will dazzle you. I found myself stopping continuously to admire Thomson's ability to describe even the most commonplace event. Thomson definitely defined his superb style with this novel.

Check out `The Insult' another tribute to his craft. David Bowie has Thomson (and `The Insult') on his list of recommended reading.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the second most beautful text of the 1990s, December 6, 1999

By 

A. R. Gray (The South) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreams of Leaving (Hardcover)

Read entirely whilst incapacitated following an operation, Dreams of Leaving was a beautiful and profund account of attempting to belong, and the desperation for security. Moses Highness represents the secure element; he has been allowed to grow and evolve within the city. In contrast, Chief Inspector Peach (whom I believe to be the true central character), is a man who believes in his apparent security, nursing a secret fear and distrust for the outside world. The crucial point is when Moses visits New Egypt. He is able to look upon it as another village, and is not frightened, although he remains an outsider. Conversely, Peach's childlike innocence (as a result of ignorance) is his burden as he travels to the big city. Dreams of leaving is about change; gradual and sudden, and how individuals evolve accordingly. However, it deals with fear - the fear of difference, and especially the fear of ultimately having to accept change, and live within it. There is a piece of Peach in all of us.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Creates a strange and uncomfortable world, April 28, 2001

By 

A. Butterfield (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dreams of Leaving (Hardcover)

Like all Rupert Thomson's settings, the (almost) inescapable village in this novel is strange not because it is alien but precisely because it is so familiar. And yet, things aren't quite right. This village is run by the tyrannical Inspector Peach with his macabre little police museum and his cardboard policemen to scare would-be leavers.

As so often in Thomson's novels, this is a story in two parts. Moses, the child, does escape, to an equally familiar and unfamiliar city where he finds his place at a triangular pink night club...

All very weird, but compelling, and only a bit first-novel-ish. Recommended if you like to be made uncomfortable by a slight twisting of normality.