Daydreams of Angels

by Heather O'Neill

Heather O'Neill's distinctive style and voice fill these charming, sometimes dark, always beguiling stories.

From “The Robot Baby,” in which we discover what happens when a robot feels emotion for the very first time, to “Heaven," about a grandfather who died for a few minutes when he was nine and visited the pearly gates, to "The Little Wolf-Boy of Northern Quebec," in which untamed children run wild through the streets of Paris, to “Dolls,” in which a little girl's forgotten dolls tell their own stories of woe and neglect, we are immersed in utterly unique worlds. Also included in the collection is "The End of Pinky," which has been made into short film by the NFB.

With this collection, Heather O'Neill showcases her diversity and skill as a writer and draws us in with each page.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Canada, Fantasy, Literary Fiction, Anthologies, Magical Realism

368 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2015

About the author

Heather O'Neill was born in Montreal and attended McGill University.

She published her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, in 2006. The novel won the Canada Reads competition (2007) and was awarded the Hugh Maclennan Award (2007). It was nominated for eight other awards included the Orange Prize, the Governor General's Award and the IMPAC Dublin Literary Prize. It was an international bestseller.

Her books The Girl Who Was Saturday Night (2014) and Daydreams of Angels (2015) were both shortlisted for the Giller Prize.

Her third novel The Lonely Hearts Hotel will be published in February 2017.

Her credits also include a screenplay, a book of poetry, and contributions to The New York Times Magazine, This American Life, The Globe and Mail, Elle Magazine, The Walrus and Rookie Magazine.

Reviews

[Gabrielle (Reading Rampage) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took a four-day weekend this week, and indulged in one of my favourite lazy weekend activities: waking up late and reading in bed with a big cup of coffee until I need a refill. And then bringing the fresh cup back to bed and reading some more. And wouldn't a book with the subtitle "Tall Tales and Twisted Fairy Stories" be the perfect book for that kind of morning?

I fell so hard for O'Neill's writing a couple of years ago, with her amazing novel "The Lonely Hearts Hotel" (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), which hit a lot of my buttons, and I wanted to explore her catalogue a bit further. And boy, can the woman write! I almost wish I could lick her words, like honey off a spoon. I could spend this entire review just quoting O'Neill's uncanny, poetic, funny and sensual sentences, but I wouldn't be doing you a favour: this is definitely the sort of writing you need to experience for yourself. Her fancy, unusual cocktail of words is just as enjoyable in short stories at it was with her intoxicating novel.

This is earlier work, so she is still sharpening her claws with some of these reinterpretations of fairy tales, but when she hits the mark (which is most of the time), she sizzles. She has a strong inclination towards certain themes: poverty and lack of parenting, sexual blossoming, mind-altering substances, cats, reimagined Biblical characters… There are certainly echoes of Dickens and Carroll in these pages, but also of Nin and Colette, who knew about that strange space where innocence and precociousness blend.

Stories that get left behind must tell themselves, as “The Gypsy and the Bear” learn the hard way. "Swan Lake for Beginners" is an amazing reflection on the organic nature of art, and how you can't force it to bloom. “Bartok for Children” is what might have happened to Pinocchio had he been a Canadian soldier who fell in WWII. And speaking of the war, “The History of a Rose Bush” is an upsetting tale of unrequited love in a dangerous time and place. “Messages in Bottles”, “The Gospel According to Mary K.”, “The Story of Little O”, so many quirky fables that surprised and delighted me.

I think that this is exactly the sort of tales I was expecting from Angela Carter and never quite got. Maybe it's a twisted Montreal girl thing, but O'Neill's work touches a very special nerve of mine, and I feel a strong connection with her beautiful, dirty mind. She makes squalor whimsical and sexy. Not perfect, but delicious. I need more O’Neill in my library.

[Haley Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heather O'Neill will you marry me

[Magdelanye · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are at all uptight, judgemental, or belong to the moral majority, you probably wont like these sprawling, lushly subversive stories. You might even get irritated, lost, or you might feel a need to trivialize the writing, the characters, the plots or lack of plots, and you might miss the brilliance that permeates each story.

So what do I love the most about HO'N that has skyrocketed her into my life?
There is her diction of course, her teasing wordplay, and there are her marginal characters claiming centre stage and carrying on with impunity. It is her generosity of spirit that so appeals to me, and the crazy optimism that lurks under the dingiest reality, that life is good and worth living. Returning to these stories for the weeks of their reading, as I struggled with the other books I was working my way through at the time, I was deeply grateful for their refreshing, uplifting effect.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

There was a parade in Pas-Grand-Chose for all the mad scientists when they got off the plane. They were a curious sight with their hair sticking straight up in the air, their bottle-cap glasses and their briefcases that had smoke coming out of them. They had cardboard boxes filled with beakers and Dungeons and Dragons sets. None of them had girlfriends.

Daydreams of Angels is like a book of fairytales for grownups – with magic and imponderables and talking with angels – and while many stories border on the absurd, each gem in this unusual collection lingers in the heart; these aren't moralistic or instructive tales, but rather, whimsical fantasies that get to the core of what it means to be human. As a huge fan of Heather O'Neill (and her novels Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Girl Who Was Saturday Night), it's a pleasure to see her freed from the long form and marvel at what she can condense into a few pages.

As always, O'Neill's language and gift for metaphor is what makes her writing so interesting line by line. There are recurring images of trumpets and roses and wolves, and as in her novels, so many, many cats doing curious things:

•Only a black cat saw her but it was too busy saying witty things to alert anyone.

•The declawed kitten tiptoed on the table in just its stockings.

•There was an aging black cat that had dyed its fur with a cheap bottle of dye from the pharmacy, but it wasn't fooling anybody.

And the moon figures prominently, too:

•The surface of the moon on a clear night looked all dented, like it had been out drinking and driving and had now lost its licence after a crash.

•All that the Gypsy could see was the big fat moon, which looked like the bald head on a gentleman who sat in front of you at the movie theatre, blocking your view.

•The moon looked like the Day-Glo face of a wristwatch.

And more and more metaphors:

•His cigarette smoke wavered above his head like a French philosopher's thought bubbles.

•His sequins glimmered like a distant galaxy whose constellations were emitting their tragic messages in Morse Code.

•The dolls had red, glistening lips. They looked as if they were dying to say something but had been warned not to say another word by their teachers. Their eyes were so shiny that at times it seemed as if they were welling up with tears. Their cheeks were rosy, as if they had come in from skating moments before. And their hair was so curly that it always seemed to be shaking, as if they had just taken the pins out and now it was tumbling down and they were laughing.

The writing is, thusly, so inventive that it's a pleasure to read just for the word combinations themselves, but repeatedly in this collection, I was broadsided by the truths at the center of what seemed at first blush to be simple fantasies. Love, love, love me some Heather O'Neill (which is why I let her do all the talking in this review).

[Antoinette]

DNF after 6 stories. Just not my type of stories. Too whimsical and fantastical. Still plan to read one of her novels

[Ashley Daviau · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, Heather O'Neill delivers an absolutely stunning story. Or really in this case, a whole bunch of stunning stories because each one was freaking amazing! Each story captured me right from the first sentence to the very last. I loved that they were all kind of fairytales but based in Montreal like her previous works. This collection of stories was beautiful and touching yet whimsical and lighthearted at the same time. I absolutely adored Daydreams of Angels and find myself wishing there were twice as many stories!

[h.e.yoseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daydreams of Angels is a collection of thought-provoking and quirky short stories by Canada’s very own Heather O’Neill. In it we travel across time and across the globe, and reminisce with the characters about the forgotten versions of themselves.

As with most short story collections (unless you’re maybe Flannery O’Connor or Jorge Luis Borges) there are going to be some stories that are stronger than the rest — though not exempt, in O’Neill’s collection I thoroughly enjoyed the whimsy and heartbreak found in each story.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've said the gist of this quote from the Toronto Star before but they say it best: "[O'Neill] writes like a sort of demented angel with an uncanny knack for metaphor." A knack is definitely putting it lightly. Anything I read of hers I love just because of the descriptions and the sheer absurdity of the images and stories going on here. I enjoy her novels a bit more but by no means should you skip this weird collection of stories if you're a fan of hers. We've got cloned Russians, robots, a gypsy who isn't really a gypsy, and Montreal in ways you've never seen it. Definitely not to be missed.

[Angélique (MapleBooks) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daydreams of Angels is a little piece of magic. It brought me back to the same feelings I had in my childhood while reading Alice in Wonderland or The Wizard of Oz. These books immersed me in a world of wonders, which left me fascinated but also slightly scared… after all, Alice almost drowns in her tears and a walking scarecrow wasn't my vision of a best friend!
Daydreams of Angels possesses this ambivalence too. It's beautifully written and immerses the reader into its oneiric worlds with no effort. However it's also heartbreaking and very often tragic. While giving life to angels and talking bears and abandoned dolls and half-mechanical people, it also tells extremely thought-provoking stories about real-life childhood and family legacy.

"It was because of his childhood that he couldn't trust anybody."

A few themes tie all twenty six stories of Daydreams of Angels together. My favourite one was the consequences of a child's environment and family over his or her future. Several characters in the book—often little girls—are abused or neglected. Sometimes they live in extreme poverty. Always, they were born with a good heart but their surrounding—social pressure, mean adults or families—eventually define who they become.
In "The Saddest Chorus Girl in The World", a girl is running away from her step-father and become a dancer with not much ambition in life; "The Story of Little O"—probably the most heartbreaking story in the book—shows the tragic depravation of a little girl left to her own devices; and "The Story of Rose Bush", a girl fostered by an abusive family after her father disappeared during WW2, will remind you of Sarah in A Little Princess by Burnett with a much darker, grown-up twist. A few characters, like the guru in "The Holy Dove Parade", even despise the whole family concept:

"He didn't believe in biological families. He thought that the root of capitalism was that when we were born, our parents owned us. And he said that biological families had a knack of teaching people to band together and hate outsiders, which was essentially just getting them prepared to wage war against others."

However, Heather O'Neill shows how nurture and a child's future are tied in a peculiar way, not always giving the expected result. In the incredible story "Swan Lake for Beginners"—one of my favourites in the book—a (slightly mad) scientist is trying to clone the famous dancer Rudolf Nureyev. While they manage to give birth to batch after batch of clones, the team is confronted with an odd issue: most clones don't want to dance, most of them—when forced to—hate dancing, and the ones who eventually dance are nowhere as good as the original Nureyev. The story shows that Nureyev's relation to dancing was much more than the result of an adequate physiology. Dancing was a way to express and affirm himself, and even survive in a harsh environment.

"You were defined by being loved. Love exposed you to loneliness. Love gave you a personality but damaged you, too."

Yet, not all stories are (entirely) tragic. Other shows the power of a single person to make a child's life brighter. "The Man Without A Heart"—another favourite of mine—shows how a single man, damaged and prejudiced against, can make a difference in a child's future. "Bartok for Children", a modern Pinocchio story, also shows how a man can instil affection and a family sense into a seemingly heartless boy.

There would be a lot more to say about Daydreams of Angels but instead of going on forever about it, I thought you might as well pick up the book and enjoy it first hand. It feels like reading a mix of dreams and childhood recollections. Heather O'Neill's style is simple, vivid and fluid, immersing the reader with great ease in magic and sometimes sinister worlds. Let's wish Daydreams of Angels the best of luck for the Giller Prize 2015 and in any case: read it. Just read it.

[Steph · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't like any of these short stories I really tried but I just couldn't get into them. Even though most of them if not all of them have a Canadian Setting and context. They're really unique and I liked the concept of each story the delivery was not great and I hated some of the historical connections that she made it just didn't come off well.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heather O’Neill you are my favourite
Thanks for spinning all this gold

[Sarah Obsesses over Books & Cookies · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heather O'Neill is a rarity. She writes askant of what is usually the norm. In this collection she takes fairytales and twists them making them even stranger with her unique storytelling and Canadian essence. Some you might recognize like Pinocchio and the Bible and others are just out there but they are all so very good.

My favorites include The Gypsy and the Bear- "One afternoon in 1946 a child was telling his toy soldiers the tale of a certain tall, menacing-looking Gypsy who was waking down a road in rural France. He had a trained bear and he played the violin. Something magical was meant to happen to him, naturally. However, in the middle of the tale, the child was called to lunch and never returned to the story." And then the Gypsy contemplates his existence and ends up in a brothel.

Another memorable one is the Gospel According to Mary K. "Jesus and I were in Grade Six when we first met, and back then not everyone was allowed to hang out with me. A part of the reason was the way I dressed. I was the only girl in class who had a pair of high heels, and for my birthday my mother bought me a ton of black bracelets with studs on them. Other people's parents said I looked like a whore, and they didn't want their kids to get my whore cooties or something."

Swan Lake for Beginners involves a scientist named Vladimir Latska who would help the government when their greatest dancer Rudolf Nureyev decided to leave the country so the scientist clones the dancer and we learn what happens when science tries to get involve with curating the population.

There's a retelling of Ferdinand the bull but in three parts with three different versions of Ferdinand.

And there's a story about where babies come from (not from storks).

Usually there is a grandparent telling the tale. Or it revolves around siblings, usually orphaned and always poor. Heather O'Neill describes the underbelly of civilization and always with a twinkle in her eye. I don't read short story collections a lot because I prefer to get lost in a single longer novel but these tales have so much depth and are so creative I'm glad I finally pulled this from my shelves.

[Gretel · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a few individual gems but overall this collection is nothing to rave about. While reading the first few stories I'd be impressed by certain descriptions and strange character traits, but as I progressed further through the book everything became quite repetitive. Poor child, Quebec, strange quirk, some kind of sexual awakening, repeat. The characters's quirks just all seemed to bleed into one another, and to me it felt that O'Neill was just filling in her own version of mad libs. Change strange adverb with another one here etc. Another thing that made the stories blur into each other was the matter of so many of them being told second hand, e.g. a child recalling a story their grandparent told. Why not just hear it from the horse's mouth?

I hoped to like this more, as I've really grown to appreciate short story collections, but I think revamped/modern fairy tales have been done to death. There's talent here, but I'd suggest reading this book over a long period of time to get the most out of these stories.

[Ian M. Pyatt · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this one as the other two books of hers I've read were really good.

This started out very slow for me and was almost ready to DNF this, but wanted to finish in case things got better. They did, but only slightly, thus my low rating. Perhaps a re-read at a different time and only one or two stories at a time might change my opinion.

[Dov Zeller]

I couldn't get into this one. Read the first story, which was conceptually a little interesting but with writing that just felt tedious and uninspired. And gave up very soon into the second story, which I found pretty grating (the writing made me shrink away in horror for some reason). So, chalk that up to "not a good fit for moi."

[Bibliomaniaque · Rating 3 out of 5]

C'était bien! Sans plus. J'ai corné les pages de quelques nouvelles, mais c'est simplement parce qu'elles me semblaient meilleures que d'autres, pas parce qu'elles étaient extraordinaires.

[sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now, you might wonder why I'm putting this in my favourites' shelf even though I only gave this four stars. The reason for that is quite simple, really. Whilst this collection of short stories ended on a somewhat disappointing note (for me - and taste is very personal), some of the stories within this book are some of the best fiction I've ever had the chance to consume.

Usually, I rate an anthology or collection of short stories according to my favourite stories within it, as I tend to forget the ones I like least, but problem was that the last few stories of Daydreams of Angels were the stories I liked the least in the book. Had they been towards the middle, and had my absolute favourites been towards the end, I might have given this a 4.5 or even 5.0 stars. Which might sound silly, but I feel like I do need to take the order of the stories into account, as that is a vital part of the book.

Still, please do not let my lack of wonder when faced with the last few stories make you any less excited about this book. As I said, I believe that taste is a very personal thing, and I thoroughly believe that every story within this book was a masterpiece. Which might sound a bit intense, but I don't care. Heather O'Neill is an artist. Not only an artist, but one of the most wonderful ones, in my opinion. Was this book perfect? No, not to me, at the very least. Would I still recommend it to everyone? Yes.

I just can't put into words what this book made me feel, because I simply lack the talent to do so. And I'm not putting myself down by saying that; I just think that this book is a whole new level of art, and that I don't have enough knowledge yet to fully understand it and grasp its deeper meanings. Which like, okay, so. This isn't pretentious. It SO easily could be, and yet, it really, really isn't. This feels genuine, and though it shows many different things, it never feels judgmental. This is such a complex piece of art, and I'm just in awe.

I'm so so so so so so glad I finally read this, and I just... I have no words. It's that simple. Still, since this was a collection of short stories, I guess I'll tell you which ones were my favourites: The Holy Dove Parade, Where Babies Come From, Messages in Bottles & The Story of a Rose Bush.

I'm sorry this review isn't more coherent or informative, but it just made me feel the way I feel when I stand in front of a painting I fell in love with at a museum; unable to stop staring and thinking of anything but how lucky I am to live in a world where art can take you so many places you never even thought of before.

All in all, I'm oh so glad I live in a world where Heather O'Neill writes books, and I'll forever be thankful to my mother for wanting me to read this so badly that she bought it for me for Christmas, even though it wasn't in my wish list.

Merci, mère, d'avoir dit un beau gros "fuck you" au chantier battu qu'était ma liste de souhaits. Les chances que tu lises cette critique sont quasi inexistantes, mais je n'apprécie pas moins ce que tu as fait.

[Jean-marcel · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are stories of lost children, happy children, poor folk, folk with hearts of stone, folk with hearts of glass, ballet dancers, chorus girls, wolfboys and mandogs, robots and toasters, oldsters telling crazy stories, poverty and excess and everything in between. The tales are sometimes cute, sometimes innocent, sometimes a bit dirty, sometimes perplexing. I liked the book. It helped that most of these are quite short and don't carry on their particular theme for two long. Realism is not a priority but the level of symbolism is very high. Everything has a projected meaning but I wasn't always convinced. Most of the time, though, it works.

The medium of the short story is excellent and should not be ignored or treated as a trifle. In my case, I use them as an opportunity to investigate authors or even swaths of literature I would not bother with otherwise. It's truly great when a deliberate, patient reader like me can take in a story in a single sitting, and learn something about the author at the same time. I may not rush out to grab ONeill's novels but I was impressed here with her cleverness and the layers of fascinating ambiguity she constructed within these enigmatic little pieces.

[Sherry Monger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories are not my favourite literary form, but these stories are absolutely brilliant!Someone at the Toronto Star has said that O'Neill writes like a "demented angel" and I would wholeheartedly agree. The first thing you need to do before reading is to give up all preconceived ideas about how a story should go. These ones are fantastical,impossible and you can never successfully predict where they are going to go. There is the story of the cloned Rudolph Nureyevs and the one where Jesus is in Grade 6 with the narrator, and the chain smoking angels. These tales are sometimes comical and sometimes shocking and always involve people existing on the edges of society. Many times I was unable to immediately continue on to the next story - I had to put the book down to contemplate what I had just read. This is the most creative mind that I have read in quite some time.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really disappointed with this book. It wasn't bad, but I felt each story wasn't confident in its plot. The first story, The Gypsy and the Bear, is a perfect example of what to expect for the following stories: imagination, similes galore and no meaning. Most stories seemed to be going in a certain direction but at the end made a ninety degree turn that left me confused and unsatisfied. As for the Giller Prize nomination, I reckon that is because if the many references to Montreal. I suppose if you are familiar with that city you will get an extra flavour with the stories. Also, O'Neill's writing style didn't wow me. It wasn't extraordinary, which certainly would have lent a hand to this collection.

[Alicia · Rating 5 out of 5]

She did it again. I will go to the ends of the earth to read anything that O'Neill writes. Her metaphors are an old friend that clings to the walls of my heart. I've loved her novels but something about these short stories were just meant to be for me. Within a few pages I'd be swollen to bursting with emotion. These stories are good for getting out those pent feels up feels. 10/10 would recommend.

[David Scrimshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

These magical short stories made me want to write my own outrageous stories.

What's stopping me besides time and energy?

They just wouldn't be this wonderful.

And technically, I don't want to spoil this for you, but there might even be a talking cat.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the stars! Absolutely wonderful! Heather O'Neill creates the best, most magical, similes I have ever read. This book is a work of art!

[G · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fables, mostly urban, some dark but all of them magical and utterly charming. O' Neill's writing is wonderful, evocative and packed with originality and verve. Loved.

[Elisabeth Gagnon · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'ai ri, j'ai pleuré, j'ai tout aimé

[Aly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Je croyais que ce livre était un roman. J'ai d'abord été déçue de constater que c'était des nouvelles mais après la deuxième histoire, j'étais déjà conquise.

Tout plein de gens et d'objets sont mis en scènes dans ces récits tantôt amusants, parfois troublants, tantôt mignons ou alors délicieusement absurdes. Des jouets, des chérubins, des animaux, des enfants, des adultes écorchés, des vieillards raconteurs, des hybrides, des robots et plusieurs autres encore.

Avec un titre pareil, il faut s'attendre à des univers fantaisistes ou simplement étranges et j'ai noté plusieurs clins d'oeil à des oeuvres littéraires, cinématographiques ou des contes et légendes.

Mon coup de coeur ? Comment se déroulerait une journée de classe typique pour certains personnages bibliques s'ils vivaient à Montréal à notre époque.

Presque 400 pages pour un livre de nouvelles, c'est peut-être un peu trop à mon goût, mais ça ne change rien au fait que la plume de l'auteure est sublime.

[Jacob Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

 We think these are our own thoughts, but they are not. They are like frozen-dinner thoughts. We buy them already made and then heat them up in our brains a little and then think them. As if they are our own. As if thoughts didn't take any effort.

There are two things I love about O'Neill's writing. One, the eloquent metaphors. ("Parents go through their children's psyches looking for contraband ideas the way that guards toss apart prisoners' cells looking for items that they might have smuggled in.") Two, the delightful little absurdities sprinkled throughout. ("A French philosopher had composed a text so difficult that no one had even been able to get through the title.")

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heather O’Neill’s writes a great modern fairy tale. So many of these stories took me back to hearing my family swap stories over a kitchen table whilst I played next to them. In snippets, the stories were transformed from the mundane to the magical and how she’s able to capture that is beyond me. I also like how, after reading several of her novels and now this short story collection, I feel like I see the same things from different perspectives. Montreal is forever mutable depending if we’re seeing a child from Little Burgundy or Westmount (or more often than not, crossing from one to the other throughout their lives). Deeply philosophical and erudite animals populate the page and ah— the little girls! How it makes me remember being a little girl myself and sometimes even miss it!

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whimsical and wistful collection of short stories by one of my favorite authors, really well done.
I'd heard a lot of these stories read on CBC probably 10+ years ago and I was amazed at how much I remembered them and could still hear them being read in my head.
Very good, I think in general I'm learning my preference is for big stories rather than short stories.

[Laurel McLean · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of pretty whimsical/fairy tale-esque short stories with strong Canadian/Montreal settings and themes. Some themes/characters felt somewhat familiar to that of Lullabies for Little Criminals, which I really enjoyed. Overall, some stories I liked more than others, but they were all pretty good - I’m just not a huge fan of collections of short stories.