The History of Last Night's Dream: Discovering the Hidden Path to the Soul (Hardcover)

by Rodger Kamenetz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Kamenetz's newest work continues his exploration of the Jewish tradition down yet another path: that of dreams. Like Jacob, who wrestles with God in the famous biblical dream, a leitmotif in the book, the author of the bestselling The Jew in the Lotus wrestles with personal, religious and cultural history in an ambitious quest to revivify the language of dreams. Kamenetz offers a psychological-cum-mystical version of Susan Sontag's watershed Against Interpretation. Don't interpret dreams, he cautions, as he lays out another way to meet and greet the nightly messages of human brains. Kamenetz offers a post-Jungian, semiarchetypal, image-centered view of dream meaning. He does so in the context of a historical overview of dream interpretation that also locates dreams in the realm of Jewish mysticism. Narratives of encounters with spiritual teachers are also part of this amalgam of a book that seems to have changed shape over time and through personal discovery. This is a disarming, hard-to-summarize, well-written and idiosyncratic book that will find a distinct audience that appreciates its reflective quirkiness. Readers who have enjoyed Kamenetz's other journeys through Judaism will follow with surprise and pleasure his next steps along a winding spiritual path. (Oct.)
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Review
"A profound, affecting and deeply rewarding book from a charismatic teacher." -- Jonathan Kirsch, author of A History of the End of the World

"An enchanting and provocative book exploring a subject with profound implications about our very humanity." -- Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize Winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

"Kamenetz has written a manual for living the dream of life through the real dreams of an individual." -- Andrei Codrescu, NPR Commentator

"Kamenetz’s fierce honesty and unflinching self-revelation inspire both admiration and awe [...] [A] smart, funny, and revolutionary book..." -- Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune

"Rodger Kamenetz writes in this fascinating book that words, too many words, stand between us and our dreams." -- Los Angeles Times

"The History of Last Night’s Dream is at once affable and audacious; Kamenetz is a reliable narrator in unreliable territory.... Kamenetz’s poetic eye is alive and well." -- The Forward

"[A] powerful and beautifully written book." -- Stephen J. Dubner, bestelling co-author of Freakanomics

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne; First Edition edition (October 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060575832
• ISBN-13: 978-0060575830
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #289,192 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #6 in	Books > Religion & Spirituality > Authors, A-Z > ( K ) > Kamenetz, Rodger
  #27 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > By Topic > Dreams
  #90 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Mental Health > Dreams

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, October 20, 2007

By	Amanda C. Bosky (South Florida, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I love to dream. I have always believed dreams are important but never knew quite what to do with them besides record them in journals. I feel like the author handed me a toolbox when he wrote this book. I could have floundered on my own for years and never come to one tenth of these conclusions on my own. I especially appreciate Kamenetz's intense honesty and openness in sharing his own dreams and life experiences.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is getting great reviews, October 13, 2007

By	TalkingDream "talkingdream" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

"The History of Last Night's Dream" may well change [your life]. Kamenetz's fierce honesty and unflinching self-revelation inspire both admiration and awe and sympathy and a sense of kinship. We are all dreamers, are we not? This smart, funny, and revolutionary book is filled with compassion for our dreaming minds, for the ways in which they reveal ourselves to ourselves, for the ways our dreams, nighttime or waking, can carry us back to love and so to God.
--Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune
"Last Night's Dream" is the tale of Kamenetz's attempt to break free ...by training himself to place dream imagery on an equal footing with text in his quest for a spiritual connection. The book is deeply personal and artfully written; Kamenetz was an established poet before his 1994 classic "The Jew in the Lotus" turned him into a Jewish Renewal celebrity. It is also an accessible primer on the evolving status afforded dreams in Jewish and Western thought and science.
-- Jerusalem Report

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Honesty that cuts to the bone, August 28, 2008

By	G. Buglion (Hyde Park, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The History of Last Night's Dream: Discovering the Hidden Path to the Soul (Plus) (Paperback)

Reading The History of Last Night's dream is like looking into the open door of a private home - only instead of seeing the furniture and decor - you get to feel into Kammenetz's soul. I am awed by his honesty and the 'direct hit' the dreams have for propelling him into what really appears to be true inner growth.I found that it started a little slow - but keep reading! It will blow your mind - and change your ideas about dreams!