Beautiful Dreamers

by Minrose Gwin

It’s 1953 when Memory Feather and her mother, Virginia, are welcomed back home to the Mississippi Gulf Coast community of Belle Cote by Virginia’s childhood friend Mac McFadden, whose verve and energy buoy the recently divorced Virginia to embrace this new chapter.

Memory (“Mem”) is not like other she is attune to the voices of plants and animals, and is missing two fingers on her left hand. The three of them knit their lives together and become a close, though unconventional, family. 

While Mac’s wealth, brains, and good humor have allowed him to carve out a niche in Belle Cote, his position as a gay man active in the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement exposes him to censure, harassment, and even brutality. When the unscrupulous and charismatic Tony Amato arrives in Belle Cote as Mac’s “guest,” he sets in motion a series of events that will shatter familial bonds and forever change Mem’s life. An adult Mem recounts the story of the scars Tony left on her teenage years, confronting her own role in the disastrous events of that final summer.

For fans of Jill McCorkle and Silas House, Beautiful Dreamers is Gwin’s finest work to date. Sweeping, dramatic, and vividly rendered, it is a novel of innocence and betrayal, love and intolerance, and the care and honesty we owe families we choose. 

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 27, 2024

About the author

Minrose Gwin is the author of three novels: The Queen of Palmyra, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and a finalist for the John Gardner Fiction Book Award; Promise; and The Accidentals. Wishing for Snow, her 2004 memoir about the convergence of poetry and psychosis in her mother’s life, was reissued by Harper Perennial in 2011. Wearing another hat, she has written four books of literary and cultural criticism and history, most recently Remembering Medgar Evers: Writing the Long Civil Rights Movement, and coedited The Literature of the American South, a Norton anthology. Minrose began her career as a newspaper reporter. Since then, she has taught as a professor at universities across the country, most recently the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She currently lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Like the characters in Promise, she grew up in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not a fan of books with unlikeable characters, but if that’s your jam, you’ll love this one.

[Kt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing in this book is absolutely incredible. Looking forward to reading more from this author. I loveeeeee Minerva and I love the nature elements in this book. 10/10.

[Leah Tyler]

See full review in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

“Beautiful Dreamers” is Mississippi author Minrose Gwin’s immersive work of historical fiction centered on the coming of age of Memory “Mem” Feather, an imaginative child who talks to animals and has a three-fingered hand she tenderly calls her “paw.”

Set during the 1950s Lavender Scare (a spinoff of McCarthy’s anti-communist Red Scare that targeted homosexuals), social upheaval rips into Mem’s fictional Gulf Coast town as she struggles to make sense of the world. Guided by her pragmatic mother, Virginia, Mem is indelibly shaped by the unique characters who flow in and out of their lives as they seek to expand the definition of family..."

https://www.ajc.com/things-to-do/50s-...

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a gift from my sister-in-laws and so glad they gifted it to me!! This was an amazing story of family, guilt, love, bigotry, and abuse. I know, a lot going on!!

The story is based around 3 people in the deep South during the late 1950's and early 1960's. Virginia Feather and her daughter Memory go home to Mississippi after Memory's father leaves them. They go to live with Virginia's friend, Mac who is gay and owns an antique shop. All is well with the little "family" until Tony arrives. He is one of those types that just wins over everyone. He is supposed to be Tony's boyfriend, but we find his often with Virginia and Memory becomes worried. Everyone is won over by Tony, including Memory. They all forgive him of things he does because of his poor childhood and his good looks.

I felt really sorry for Memory because she not only has to deal with the loss of her father, but sees she is losing her mother and Mac to this person. Then Tony attacks her....

I will leave it at that because I don't want to give anything away. It is the story of a child who needs someone to help her grow up and she is really left on her own. The adults in the story didn't want to see what was going on.

A quick note: I loved the cat, Minerva!! She was the heroine!!

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was about halfway through this book when I logged on here to mark it on my Reading shelf and I was flabbergasted to find it only has 32 (now 33 reviews). Historical, queer, Southern, and an unlikable narrator?? I am definitely the intended audience.

[Readingwithavengeance · Rating 4 out of 5]

What happens when you have to choose between the family you're born to and the family you hand pick? This is an exquisitely written coming of age story that takes place in a small southern town during the 50's (and that that entails!) There is a smidge of magical realism that is delightful.

[liv · Rating 5 out of 5]

all i can say is holy shit this needs to be read by everyone. the writing, the plot, the setting, the pacing is all BEAUTIFUL

[Kathleen Rodgers · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unforgettable and seductive read, Beautiful Dreamers, the latest novel by celebrated author Minrose Gwin, takes the reader from the high desert of Albuquerque, New Mexico, to the salty air of Belle Cote, a small town on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The story opens in 1953 and is narrated by Memory Feather (Mem), an adolescent girl born with a withered hand and the ability to listen to plants and animals. Mem’s mom, Virginia, born of southern privilege, is recently divorced and is working as a motel maid in Albuquerque when she and Mem move back to Belle Cote at the insistence of Mem’s grandparents. Grandparents Mem has never met until now. She learns they are set in their small town ways.

As Mem and her mom settle into their life in Belle Cote, Mem finally gets to know Mac McFadden, her mom’s best friend from childhood. Mac is brilliant, kind, generous, and gay. Mac treats Mem more like a niece or even a surrogate daughter. Even his black cat Minerva takes to following Mem around. Mem in turn welcomes Minerva’s company. Mac owns an art gallery in town called the Beautiful Dreamer, but not everyone in town appreciates his vision or lifestyle.

The tension builds when Tony Amato comes to town. He’s handsome, charming, and yet something doesn’t feel right. Every time Tony appeared in a scene, I kept thinking, wow, Minrose Gwin is a master at creating the kind of villain who keeps everyone off balance while he lures them in. Just when you think you can trust him, think again.

The tragedy that follows is unsettling and will stay with me for a long time. I didn’t see it coming. Every one of Minrose Gwin’s characters is memorable, from Memory Feather to her mother, Virginia, to Mac McFadden, to Mac’s elderly neighbor, Miss Bess, to Minerva the cat. And to the beautiful dreamer…the one I keep looking for in my mind’s eye, the one I’m still trying to figure out.

Beautiful Dreamers is the kind of novel you don’t want to end. You want to stay with the characters, even though you’ve turned to the last page. To the last line. To the last word.

[Zach]

A could-have-been-perfect novel with a frustratingly fatal flaw deserves a long review. Beautiful Dreamers is the story of how a girl and her single mother end up back in the mother's native Mississippi, not fitting in with the mainstream citizens and preferring time with the town's gay outcast, Mac. Set primarily in the 1950s, there are deep threads of segregation and homophobia that get lightly touched (possibly too lightly for some tastes).

Minrose Gwin grew up in the Deep South, and her appreciation and love of that often-complicated place comes through strongly. The prose is beautiful and lyrical, with truly gorgeous descriptions of sights and smells. The supporting characters from Mac (definitely a dreamer), to Feather (stubborn), and even Tony (complicated) are flawed but real. Memory ("Mem") is the main character and narrator and she is, unfortunately given her prominent role, the weakest part of the novel. Simply put, Mem is just too much at once: a genius, woefully naive, plotting, able to talk to animals, asthmatic and the anxious, physically impaired, wise but ignorant. With well written other characters having really engaging experiences, it was frustrating to be annoyed with the character driving the story arc of the whole book.

Is Beautiful Dreamers still worth reading? Yes, for the beautiful prose alone. But the potential for a 5 star book was disappointingly lost!

[Darien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting novel and character development regarding the three primary side characters, however the narrator is simply unlikeable. She is too much all at once (a genius, able to talk to animals, disabled, asthmatic then anxious, wise yet ignorant, able to plan a murder) and generally just the weakest part of the story.

Also, the writing style overall is beautiful! The novel is set in 1950s and verrry light touches on the racism, homophobia and segregation of this time ( maybe too lightly??)

Anyways, obviously liked it 4/5

[Mary Robideaux · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nope, if you have read any Southern literature featuring a spunky young protagonist with a misfit mother with a gay friend, you could have written this book. Almost wholly predictable from the start, the author threw in some historical situations to aid the plot, but, frankly my dear, I didn't much care.

[G.P. Gottlieb · Rating 5 out of 5]

A divorced mother, her gay childhood friend, and the friend’s scheming lover are part of Memory Feather’s tumultuous 1950s childhood on the coast of Mississippi. Memory, born with a deformed hand and the gift of communicating with animals, learns some rough lessons about good and evil in Minrose Gwin's beautifully told coming-of-age tale. https://newbooksnetwork.com/beautiful...

[Brian Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not stop reading this book and being attentive to its very compelling story of mid century life in the South. Of all the endings, I did not expect what happened to be the case, and even it felt a little ham-fisted it worked. The descriptions of the landscape and the beauty of the Mississippi sound shine through. Also loved the narrative voice.

[Lauren Rhoades · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thrilling read. Memory Feather is an incredibly compelling narrator--I couldn't look away from the unfolding drama and horror of her situation. Each character is beautifully wrought in their complexity. One of the best books I've read all year.

[Janetkelsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh, so good

I liked a lot about this book. The characters, of course. The setting. That I had no idea which way the story would go. Wondered of there was a plot. There was. An enjoyable read. Thank you Minrose Gwin.

[Stven · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the prose style in this story, but I ran out of steam by page 88, a bit less than a third of the way through the book. It was interesting. It just wasn't interesting enough.

[Amanda Showalter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A enticing, whimsical, and muted coming of age story. Really enjoyed the prose and the narrative’s voice. The book has a beautiful setting and the author’s use of imagery was immersive.