Opium Dreams

by Margaret Gibson

In Margaret Gibson’s powerful first novel, a daughter’s poignant attempt to understand her dying father illuminates both their lives. Writer Maggie Glass watches her father fade into the murky realm of Alzheimer’s. To understand the man Timothy Glass was, Maggie pieces together fragments of his life, and, in doing so, gradually tells her own harrowing story. Spanning decades, the novel brilliantly interweaves the strands of a family’s past and present, vividly evoking an Ontario farm in the ’30s; the North African desert in wartime; a hospital in British Columbia, where a returning soldier’s dreams for the future alter irrevocably; Toronto in the ’50s, and in the decades that follow. Infused with startling imagery and with language that cuts straight to the bone of meaning, Opium Dreams is a moving and life-affirming novel from one of Canada’s most gifted writers.

Genres: Fiction, Canada, Book Club

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Margaret Gibson was a Canadian novelist and short story writer who lived in Toronto, Ontario. Gibson began writing in the early 1970s to document her struggle with mental illness. Biographical references are, however, in conflict as to whether Gibson suffered from schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. She died in 2006 of breast cancer, aged 57.

Reviews

[Barbara Carter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that I feel I would get much more out of by reading it again. I knew nothing of the author.
Picking this book up at a used book store, liking the cover and that it's Canadian. After I finished reading it I googled the author.
A couple of my favorites lines are: It was said. I thought, My pain fills a thimble; his fills an ocean.
The clock hand falls like a meat cleaver.
This book is not an easy light read, but I liked it!

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maggie Glass is the narrator in this novel, a fortyish poet and writer who has suffered from epilepsy and all its attendant effects. She is one of three sisters and a single mom who refers to her son simply as “The Kid”. Maggie has traveled to Toronto to be with her dying father, to try to understand his life so she can in turn understand her own.

Maggie tries to piece together her father’s past, especially his time as a tail gunner in North Africa during the war. She tries to connect these memories to her own experiences of being molested as a teenager, her suicide attempt with poison and the time she spent in a mental institution.

As Maggie watches her father descend slowly into the murky grips of Alzheimer’s, she pieces together fragments of his life, a process during which she gradually tells her own story. As she watches him deteriorate and slip in and out of a coma, she comes to terms with him as both a man and a father, finally finding a way to forgive him for his past betrayals.

In this volume Gibson explores a number of these through her past memories, including loss, sexual abuse, the impact of war on a man’s psyche and the death of a parent. Since these are such common themes, Gibson wrestles with a way to write about them that provides something different for the reader. In some ways she succeeds and in other ways she falters.

This is not an easy read and is often depressing. There are long descriptive passages steeped in raw neediness, excessive literary fragmentation and needless repetition. The character of Maggie in the narrative is similar to that of the author Margaret, who has autism and appears to be trying to work out her personal issues through her character. Still, despite its failures, there are passages filled with excellent writing and Gibson won the Books in Canada First Novel award in 1997 for her effort.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seemed that Gibson is trying to do for Timothy Glass, the Alzheimer's-suffering patriarch in this novel, what Faulkner was able to do for Benjy in The Sound and the Fury; i.e., write the unspeakable into existence. That she doesn't quite pull it off is no slight against her sustained and courageous effort. The other main character of Maggie Glass--Timothy's daughter--is more problematic in my mind, especially her mental illness that she shares with her father, now apparently resolved in both of their cases, and the story of her putative rape, which is left ambiguous throughout the entire novel (did it really happen? Was it imagined? Symbolic?). Both characters are presented as partially broken, fragmented creatures who love each other and share a certain harmonic affinity, but the details of their respective narratives do not always shed light, and so in the end I was left somewhat frustrated at what I was having to guess when I had expected to be told. I will say that the closing scene with the young Timothy and Old Bob is as heartbreaking as any I have ever read, and that's saying something.

[Susan Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm really surprised at the low cumulative rating for this book. Yes there are snippets that read like poetry which I don't think works in a novel. But other than that quibble, this book fascinates me. A tale of a father, the daughter he most understands and fears and their journey to themselves and each other. The book traverses war, PTSD, trauma, medical trauma and family estrangement. I felt drawn into a luminous space reading Opium Dreams which is exactly the tone of the book.

[Michelle Browne · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book annoyed and upset me but did stick with me. Between rape as a quickly dropped plot point, randomly mentioned and nonlinear elements, and strange elements thrown in for the sake of artiness, this was a thoroughly frustrating read. Normally I'm somewhat forgiving of literary novels, but this was just really annoying and inconclusive.

[Debbie Nitsotolis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get past 60 pages

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really amazing writing! I was sad to learn that this was the writer's only novel, and that she died of breast cancer in 2006.

[Donna Walker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hadn't read Margret Gibson until Opium Dreams. Since this is her first novel, it may not be typical of her accumulated work. As a writer, I found her to be eloquent. Her descriptions of the characters' recollections did evoke pictures in my mind and read well. I did begin to find them tedious after awhile, though. I imagine they did a good job of identifying the confused thinking of a person with Alzheimer’s and piecing together the recollections of the characters' lives and their relationships. For me, they consumed too much of the story line, so I eventually began skimming those elaborate and evocative descriptions to get on with the story development.
I did want to learn more of the relationships, events, and outcomes, so I kept reading to the end. I'm glad I stuck with it, but confess that I didn't really find the conclusion satisfying. This book has stick with me, which is a tribute to the author, but in part, this is because I found Opium Dreams to be a very strange read.

[Zoom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Margaret Gibson. A lot. This is her first novel, and it has been many, many years since I read her short stories. Opium Dreams is like, well, an opium dream. It explores the confluence of awake and asleep, madness and sanity, comas and consciousness. A father and daughter float - together and apart - through mental illness and Alzheimer's. They grasp at memories, fragments of memories, fragments that disintegrate as they're remembered. Deep dark secrets flutter around the edges of diminishing lucidity, tantalizing, elusive and terrifying. You want them to remember, but you dread it too.

It's a captivating book, particularly the later chapters. The writing style is poetic and evocative, and I think it's perfectly paired with the story. There is something poetic about losing one's connection to external reality.

[Linda · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book, but found it rather torturous to read. Maybe she was trying to write in the style of Margaret Attwood. Couldn't get close to any of the characters, as if there was a wall preventing you from coming any further. I had to persevere to finish it and then wasn't sure why.

[Shar Wallis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just read over the other reviews of this book. I was surprised to see it get everywhere from 1 star to 5. I can understand how the bouncing around would bring the number of stars down. So would the fact that it's a depressing book. The writing was very descriptive. I also enjoyed the story of their child/parent relationship and thought the epilogue was especially well written.

[Whyvonwhy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book raised some good questions about physical and mental states, in light of Alzheimer's and mental illness both. Thought provoking but the reading was a struggle -- and not because of the questions raised. It was like too much teenage angst instead of a good philosophical novel.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ridiculously depressing.

[Joy]

"My father was taller than God. Once, I asked him to throw a handful of blue stars up into the sky and I am not sure that he did not.
His silence filled whole rooms."

[Andree Lachapelle]

I have tried to read this numerous times, but while well-written, it is incredibly depressing!

[Val · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some high points, including a well-written ending, but at any time was not difficult to put down.

[Gordon · Rating 3 out of 5]

More raw-edged than I'm used to, which made it hard to relate to the characters or draw any useful lessons. Still, in some ways cathartic.

[Amyem]

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