Customer Reviews

The Weight of Dreams

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It's been a while since I've read a book that I literally couldn't put down until it was finished. Agee writes characters--both human and animal--with depth, realism and emotion. The reader becomes a part of their world, like a spirit floating above them and within them, seeing all, feeling all. Reading this book, you *experience* what the Nebraska wind feels like, the taste of dust, the wet-earth smell of a horse ridden hard...and emotions so poignant and real that you feel your own vulnerabilities are laid open and exposed.

I read many books. I clean my shelves of most of the novels, as I know I'll never be inspired to read them again. This novel is a keeper, and I'll certainly return to Ty and Dakota's world. I learned a great deal from reading Agee's story, about places I've never been and people who are kindred souls inside though they be strangers on the outside. This book is fiction, but it speaks truth that you can feel in your bones.

This book had me staying up more than a couple nights way past my bedtime, unable to put it down. It's really several books wrapped into one. On different levels it is a crime fiction story leading to a courtroom drama, a bitter family melodrama, an unsettling look into the shady side of horse shows, a detailed account of cattle ranching through a storm-driven winter, a tale of guilt and personal salvation, a passionate and sensual love story, a travelogue portraying the stark beauty of the Nebraska Sandhills, an examination of race relations (white and Native American), and a story of hanging onto a family ranch on the edge of bankruptcy.

The author sustains all these threads by interconnecting them with considerable suspense and tension. It's like film noir - dark, brooding, always on the verge of violence or mischance. And under that interplay of tensions is a moral vision that seems often at the point of being lost completely.

Agee populates her novel with a large cast of characters, using shifting points of view to explore their unfolding relationships and internal lives. With the focus of a short-story writer, she introduces and opens up incidents that seem to bring the narrative almost to a stop, while we wait to learn how these scenes take their place in the larger picture embracing all of them. While some readers may find the pace of the novel somewhat slow because of this, I was fascinated by the richness of detail and would have been happy for even more, especially exploring the resolution of the central conflict of the narrative - between its protagonist, Ty Bonte, and his nemesis, Harney Rivers.

I'm happy to recommend this book. Like other reviewers familiar with the terrain and seasons of the Nebraska Sandhills, I was pleased to see this rolling region of the Great Plains and its people represented so faithfully and in an engaging story told by a gifted writer.

I was born in NE, lived there, then in other remote ranching areas. The people, times, and conditions that are masterfully described in this book are what it is all about. I doubt that those who have lived their lives in cities, on lots, among throngs of people, and within the mainstream of the American culture, can fully realize the truth and character of this story and work. I probably see these people and events through a different window than the author, but she has captured their essence. Read it and live the special life of those who look across rolling hills of nothingness and see everything!

Jonis Agee is an exceptional artist at putting the reader in the place of the action, and the minds of her characters. In this rewarding story the reader lives the tough life of the far-from-perfect hero, Ty Bronte, and feels the sensitive love of the woman Dakota - - a match, not made in heaven, but on the perfectly discribed Nebraska sandhills. While reading this book Agee makes us use all of our senses: we ride through the hills on horses we can feel, we work cattle we can smell, we eat food and drink whiskey we can taste, we hear the birds singing, and we fall in love with Dakota and Ty Bonte. We also learn to hate Harney Rivers and delight with his reward. This is a wonderful, exciting and educational book. If you want to ride through the Sandhills go with Agee.

Jonis Agee's "The Weight of Dreams" is a well-told studyof good versus evil in a modern western setting. While each character can be labeled as a good guy or a bad guy, none are simply "types." Main character Ty Bonte is a flawed hero who pays for his early mistakes throughout his life and the life of the book. Protagonist Harney Rivers is almost purely evil. Supporting characters such as Ty's father, mother, and girlfriend, Dakota, fall at different places on the spectrum between good and evil with some characteristics of both. It is Agee's careful character construction and wealth of detail that makes the characters--and ultimately the story--believable and satisfying entertainment. Particularly notable is the way that Agee portrays Native American characters Joseph Starr, Cody Kidwell, and Latta Jaboy as humans who happen to be Native Americans. Agee writes Native American situations and characters in a factual manner without romanticizing, patronizing, or preaching. Obviously, she has done the research.

The same is true of the information Agee provides as background and setting for the novel. The Sandhills of Nebraska are as Agee describes them--harsh and unforgiving, but also timeless and ethereal. The profession and lifestyle of the rancher/horse trader/ horse trainer are factually accurate. Agee's reader gains a knowledge of a unique place and a way of life as an added treat to the pleasure of reading a hell of a good story. This is Agee's best so far, and if you've not read her work before, "The Weight of Dreams" is a terrific introduction.

To those who know them, Nebraska's Sandhills are often just the "hills." To those who do not, this is the best cattle ranching country in America, and Agee's novel captures the essence of this unique land, its people, culture, and traditions. The story is of an abused son, his hard and often cruel father, his distant mother, a woman who loves him, and of the son's personal demons, past sins, and ultimate redemption by his simple but fundamental goodness. The stark beauty of the rolling grassland, the relationship between men and women and their horses, ranchers and their land and livestock, and the growth of love between the two main characters, Ty and Dakota, is captured in detail, with emotion, understanding, and insight that makes the book a joy to read. Being a Nebraskan with five summers working on a Sandhills ranch as a youth, I was transported to that beautiful place where solitude and simplicity reign. The author's sense of place, knowledge of livestock and ranch life provide a wonderful guide for those unfamilar with this way of life and this region using the backdrop of a compelling story of the emotionally wounded "coming home." In a sentence, I loved the book.

A wonderful book that starts out slow, then hauls you so into it you can't put it down. Strong characterization...you just get the whole thing in your mind and they are so real. If you want a good read, I recomend this book. You won't be disappointed!

I read this while I was on vacation last month and I continue to think about this wonderful story that Jonis Agee has told. Rich characters and flawless prose make this one of the best books I've read all year.

Why this hasn't been made into a movie is beyond me.

Highly recommended!!!!!

I read this book when it first came out.
I recently purchased it as a gift for a family member.
I have read Jonas Agee's other books and loved them all.

In Nebraska, seventeen-year old Ty Bonte hates life. His brother is dead from a tractor accident that Ty blames himself for causing. His father, a local rancher, abuses him. His mother deserted the ranch and him for a softer life. His only escape is alcohol and the nearby Sandhills. However, even this small haven is shattered when Ty and his drinking buddy Harney Rivers beat the cr*p out of two Indians. Worse yet, they flee the scene expecting their victims to die. A warrant for his arrest is issued forcing Ty to run away.

Two decades later, Ty lives in Kansas where he is very successful as a horse trader. He also is falling in love with Dakota Carlyle. However, before Dakota and Ty can pursue a future, Harney arrives, still as violent as he was when he was a teen. Ty, encouraged by his woman, returns to Nebraska to confront the consequences of his actions twenty years ago.

THE WEIGHT OF DREAMS is an interesting look at the harshness of ranch life on the Great Plains. The characters are fully developed as readers see inside them to learn what makes them tick. However, at times, the story line seems to stretch as long as the Plains themselves, leaving readers a bit bored. Still, Jonis Agee has written an intriguing tale that centers on a beautiful but severe land.

Harriet Klausner