Memory And Dream [Paperback]

Charles De Lint (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Orb: Tom Doherty Associates; 1ST edition (1994)
• ASIN: B000OTMP82
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Charles de Lint and his wife, the artist MaryAnn Harris, live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His evocative novels, including Moonheart, Forests of the Heart, and The Onion Girl, have earned him a devoted following and critical acclaim as a master of contemporary magical fiction

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shows us the world is a magical place, October 1, 2001

By 

wysewomon "wysewomon" (Paonia, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memory and Dream (Paperback)

After I read _Memory and Dream_, I stumbled around for about a week just thinking, "Wow..." De Lint's work often affects me that way, but this book did it to me even more than usual. I think it's because the characters who populate De Lint's stories are so much like people I know. Most people don't tend to write about people I know, or people who think the way I do.

The story is a deceptively simple one of an artist who is going through a change in her life being forced to own her past and her power. But although the theme is one that is seen often, De Lint makes it real in a way that no one else can. He has a very good heart knowledge of the true pain of life and he presents it in a way that neither minimizes it nor romanticizes it. He does the same with his urban settings; this is not a clean or perfect world, and stories are just as likely to happen in an alley as in a mansion.

Because the settings and the characters are so real, it is easy to believe in the fantasy elements. De Lint's work often deals with the lives and experiences of artists, musicians, and storytellers. Their work is a kind of magic anyway; all De Lint does is make the magic more vivid. He really shows us how the world is a magical place, and when everyone else is saying real magic is dead that's a message I want to hear over and over again.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing, July 31, 2000

By 

HH (Phoenix, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memory and Dream (Paperback)

This book starts out with a chance meeting between Isabelle, an aspiring artist, and Rushkin, a famous painter. Rushkin offers to take Isabelle on as a student and begins teaching her the finer points of his art. As Isabelle begins to discover, one of the finer points of Rushkin's art is the ability to bring faerie creatures to life through the paintings. These creatures would "cross over" from "the before" to take up real lives in Isabelle's world. But soon after Isabelle discovers the pleasure of bringing these creatures to life, she has to deal with the grief of losing them because somebody is preying upon these faerie creatures. Isabelle must fight to save them from destruction.

This was the first novel I've read by Charles de Lint and it certainly won't be the last. My favorite part of the book was the way everything was tied together and chance encounters brought quick results. It seemed like every action of every character was somehow part of the big picture, and it tied things up into a very neat little package. I loved the interactions of the characters, especially the faerie characters. Every person seemed vibrant and alive, like I could meet them outside of the book.

Although I don't see this book as being one that epic fantasy readers would get excited about (it was a relatively short book and not very deep) it might be good for a break between epic novels. I would definitely recommend it to people who like light fantasy or people who enjoy books where our world collides with a more mysterious one.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For all who search for magic and recreate enchanted reality., October 31, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Memory and Dream (Paperback)

As a book is read and moved from shelf to bedside and back
again, it always gathers signs of how much it is loved. My
own copy of Memory and Dream, a creamy hardcover, has now
obtained a large watermark, countless bent and rippled pages,
and worn edges that speak ofhow much love it. Memory and
Dream is a book for anyone who wishes for a little magic in a
world which can be such a cruel and bitter place. The story
follows an artist, Isabelle Copley, who is brought back
suddenly into her own past, jolted by a letter from a long-
dead friend. As Isabelle went through her life, she
unconciously developed the self-protective habit of rewriting
her memory, creating a story of her past that is what she
wants it to be rather than what it was. As she is slowly
forced to confront the truths of the past and her own part in
the events which drove her to her solitude, her past comes
back to haunt her in many ways. The tale is also told by a
variety of characters, from Isabelle to her friends and
loves both past and present. The narrative travels back
and forth between present and past, each timeline following
its own progression until they collide in a revealing and
extraordinary finish. The book is full of the excitement and
danger of magic, the joy of creating, and characters who
become people you know and care about. The emotional trip
through the story is not a kind one, the desriptions of the
beginning slowly building into a spiral of emotion and action
that is haunting by the end. As with all of Charles de
Lint1s novels, it ends as so often stories end in real life,
bitter-sweet, something to be remembered and pondered over.