Customer Reviews

Visions and Lullabies

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4 star:		(2)
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This novel brought back vivid memories of when I was a young teacher of Native Americans. Although many of my students had yielded to the white way and the modern world, there were many others who clung to the ways of their ancestors, and the hope that they could one day live as their forefathers had. This novel could have been written for them, and for all those who live and dream of those days of real freedom, natural beauty and simplicity that are now locked in the memories of the past. But more than a novel of the glory days and ways of the past, this is a novel of personal liberation and spirituality. It is about people who, while trying to do good, find themselves fugitives hiding in the wilds. With the help of one who lives the old nomadic ways, they find a new way of life. But more than a new way of life, living close to the land brings them in touch with the spirit of Mother Nature who helps them find connection with their true nature, that true nature being that special person that lies hidden in most people. Yielding to this nature, they are liberated from their former sense of identity which was imposed on them by the ways and forces of the modern world they fled from. Then their personal and material needs that once possessed them in the modern world begin to give way to a whole new perspective. They find their lives transformed, and liberation from the greed and lust of the modern world. They begin to see the world and their place and purpose in it with new eyes. When the law begins to close in on them, they realize that the people they once were are no more, and that to surrender to the world they once belonged to would mean the death of the spirit that now lives in them, and their way of life. In a desperate effort to remain the people they have become, they begin an almost hopeless struggle to stay free. The struggle brings heavy losses, but in the end one of the survivors sees a vision that reveals a dawning of a new age, and their place in it. Maybe a gradual return to our origins is what is in store for the coming millenium.

I found the "Visions and Lullabies" story line different from what I expected, by the title. It reflects the alienation that many feel in the increasingly complex and enthralling world in which we live. I think many of us fantasize about escaping the urban jungle, but, alas, few of us take the steps to actually leave the security of the city for the uncertainty and danger of the wilderness - what little of it there still exists.
Like the hero of the story, if we were to seek a more simple world we would find that others have gone before and that we are not alone.
Sadly, the reaction of the governmental powers that be are quite likely to respond as represented in this fine story. It is well worth the reading.

Excellent insight into the mindset and lifestyle of native Americans. The best book I've read of it's kind.

The characters are intriguing, and the plot is engaging to hold the reader's interest. The rescue is well planned and grabs the reader by surprise.

This novel would make a fine movie. I hope it does.

Visions and Lullabies is a touching story that will cpature your heart with each page that you turn. The love and respect that the characters share with each other and Mother Earth, makes the challenges they face in the wilderness a journey that becomes a part of their souls.

As a lover of the wilds and of freedom and the ways of the past, this book moved me deeply. The real things found in the unspoiled lands that give meaning and a sense of belonging, are brought out in this book. I am one who hopes the vision seen at the end of this book comes true.

The author of this novel sees nothing but evil and darkness in the civilized world. According to him, all the virtue, beauty and purposeful living, is in the wilds, where sleeping on the ground and reverting to a privitive state is seen as somehow liberating.

This improbable story is told by a middle-aged man (obviously in mid-life crisis) who, after experiencing an apparition while camping, leaves his wife and home for the wilds of the Black Hills. There he takes up with a half-breed who lives by poaching and scavenging and wandering aimlessly about in the wilderness. Finding liberation in this vagabond existence, he decides to stay with the half-breed. He returns to the city to tie up his affairs before departing forever the hated civilization, which he has come to despise even more, now that he has had the opportunity to dress like a savage and live amilessly without purpose.

While in the city he stumbles into a misguided nanny who has taken the law into her own hands by fleeing with the young child entrusted to her care. With the help of the half-breed they escape to the wilds where, under his tutelage, they all begin to learn the so called natural life and ways and wisdom of the primitive.

When the law begins to pursue them, they flee deeper into the wilds where another fleeing derelict joins them, and quickly falls under the spell of purposeless living. When the law closes in they foolishly take a stand against overwhelming odds, getting one of their number killed and another mortally wounded in the process.

Then while hiding deeper in the wilds, in the now freezing cold, one of the survivors (guess who) sees in a vision a cataclysmic event that explains the reason and purpose for their suffering and struggle.

This novel may appeal to some of the crackpots of the world, and if I ever have the misfortune to meet one, I'll donate him/her my copy.