The Lake Dreams the Sky: A Love Story [Hardcover]

Swain Wolfe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998

A departure from his critically acclaimed fable, The Woman Who Lives in the Earth, Swain Wolfe's second novel is a sensuous and haunting love story set near a deep mountain lake in Montana.

After twenty-three years away, Liz, a Boston career woman, returns to visit her eccentric grandmother and to seek solace from the lake that made her believe the world was alive and aware. Among her long-stored treasures she finds a primitive painting of a woman, which she connects to a legend from her childhood, a romance about lovers whose passion sets the lake on fire.

The Lake Dreams the Sky tells the story of the post-World War II romance between Rose, a local waitress, and a drifter named Cody. Their defiance of society's unwritten rules makes the lovers outlaws in an unforgiving time.

The Lake Dreams the Sky indelibly conjures a landscape of passion, shifting perception, and the visceral longing that shapes our lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Held together by the slightest of plots and some heavy-duty preaching, this second novel by Wolfe (after The Woman Who Lives in the Earth) succeeds on the strength of his seductive prose and compassionate voice. Wolfe begins with the Montana homecoming of a career woman after a 23-year absence. Back at her grandmother's house on the lake where she grew up, in a community where white people and Indians don't get along, middle-aged Boston real estate demographer Liz rediscovers a painting familiar from her childhood and opens a window on a romance from 50 years earlier. In the years following WWII, Rose, a half-breed waitress, became involved with a white itinerant saw filer and artist named Cody, infuriating the town with a love that, legend has it, "set the lake on fire." Most of the novel deals with the tribulations of Rose and Cody as they face the narrow-minded rancor of people who are offended by their passion. Though some self-righteous moralizing weighs down the tale, Wolfe maintains narrative momentum and a rising sense of menace as the lovers discover that an unwritten moral code has turned them into pariahs, and the community into a vengeful force. As asides, Wolfe provides some interesting tidbits?that Indians owned slaves, for instance, and invented lemon meringue. But it's the strong sense of place and appealing central characters that move this story of doomed love to its transcendent denouement.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Wolfe's (The Woman Who Lives in the Earth, HarperCollins, 1996) second novel is a soft, lyrical, and somewhat meandering story about two doomed lovers, Rose and Cody. Their story is revealed when Liz, a businesswoman from Boston, returns home to spend a weekend with her rather eccentric grandmother. She discovers a painting of the half-Indian Rose, and the story begins to unwind through alternative chapters. Rose is a waitress and Cody a logger when they meet. Their love affair flourishes, but even readers who are yearning for a happy-ever-after ending will begin to surrender to the gray and ominous foreshadowing of the couple's brief romantic interlude. The novel has an authentic sense of Indian legend and lore and an atmospheric mystical voice, yet the prose seems often confusing and just plain dull. Library patrons looking for a good love story will probably be disappointed but nonetheless challenged by the author's ability to set a shopworn tale in a unique place. A worthwhile purchase for libraries with large fiction collections.AMargaret Ann Hanes, Sterling Heights P.L., MI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 334 pages
• Publisher: Cliff Street Books; 1st edition (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060174129
• ISBN-13: 978-0060174125
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,178,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining story but...., June 20, 2000

By 

Christine - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lake Dreams the Sky (Paperback)

I really enjoyed reading this book. But all along, something bothered me. I finally figured out at the end what it was...I just couldn't FEEL for these characters. I couldn't relate to the depth of their love, it just didn't 'move' me that way. I did enjoy the other aspects though, the story line and twists.

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful multi-layered storytelling, June 14, 2000

By 

Alisa Shaw - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lake Dreams the Sky (Paperback)

"The Lake Dreams the Sky" has at its center the story of Rose and Cody, and how they had a love so powerful it could set the lake on fire. This sounds like an impossible myth, but as the story unfolds Rose and Cody become real people with a fascinating story to tell. Like Wolfe's work "The Woman Who Lives in the Earth," this beautiful story has a mystical feel to it. But unlike a pure fable, this novel contains the sense of a real place and characters which make a book truly memorable.