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Beautiful Dreamer
In a small Southern town, a white man tries to prevent a lynching and finds himself branded by the mob --- and worse, finds himself sheltering the dead man's son. When the killers come around to finish the job, the two victims are forced to flee across the country in the hopes of escaping men with nothing but vengeance on their minds.
Just one step behind the vigilantes a solitary lawman tracks the men as he wrestles with the choice to either turn the customary blind eye or to put a stop to the intolerable logic of racial hatred. As the point of view moves seamlessly between characters, Christopher Bigsby crafts what Booklist calls a "taut, poetic narrative that has all the hypnotic power of an incantation."
Dark and gritty, Beautiful Dreamer traces the struggle between reluctant good and dedicated evil, where morality is a matter of life or death and the choices made have consequences as lasting as they are unexpected.
Just one step behind the vigilantes a solitary lawman tracks the men as he wrestles with the choice to either turn the customary blind eye or to put a stop to the intolerable logic of racial hatred. As the point of view moves seamlessly between characters, Christopher Bigsby crafts what Booklist calls a "taut, poetic narrative that has all the hypnotic power of an incantation."
Dark and gritty, Beautiful Dreamer traces the struggle between reluctant good and dedicated evil, where morality is a matter of life or death and the choices made have consequences as lasting as they are unexpected.
- GenresFiction
192 pages, Hardcover
First published August 22, 2006
66 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 20, 2022
This was a powerful tale of grace and bravery. This is the story of the bonds that can form between human beings, the lesson that not everything bad that happens is bad, that not all bad people are all bad nor good people all good. Redemption comes in unexpected ways.
I cried; not because it was sad which it was, but because it was beautiful.
The reviews are poor, no one I have tried to explain this book to have understood. But my heart understood and loved this book.
I cried; not because it was sad which it was, but because it was beautiful.
The reviews are poor, no one I have tried to explain this book to have understood. But my heart understood and loved this book.
December 26, 2015
Well.
Now that I've finished it, the review I had in my head has changed somewhat.
The entire time I was reading it, enjoying the chase, wanting to see it play out but not sure if that's all the book was or if there were more, the two things that bothered me consistently were 1) not knowing when this took place and 2) the flipping around of points of view between 4 different people, sometimes not knowing who was talking for a few paragraphs in. The time I thought was just past when slaves were freed, then it crept to early centuries, then a truck was mentioned, so I was thinking 30s, then a plane...I'm thinking it was set in the early 1960s, though I'm still not sure. No date was mentioned in the book -- and while I'm ok with that normally, when you introduce new information into a story that changes your perspective, I don't like it. Don't tell me halfway through a book how to pronounce someone's name, say, when I've been saying it in my head all along. As for 4 POVs, two of which were written in first person and the other two in third, that can screw with you if you don't know who is talking. One is introduced a good three-fourths through, too, just to mess with you a bit.
Now, for the good: This is not a talky book. In fact, dialogue is few and far between, and not a lot of exposition to tell the story, so that you feel it, live it. I like that. It seems short at under 200 pages, but with so little dialog, it's a nice weighty ready. It's written well, and when you consider this author is British, even more so. Well done. I'd like to explore more by this writer, even will forgive him the indiscretions above, if I come across any more of his books. However, my local library only has this one, even if he has an impressive CV to his name.
As to the story itself, keep with it past the first few pages, which are a jumbled flashback that you don't know is a flashback...I nearly put it down myself but glad I stayed with it. Still, and without giving anything away, the story was not what I expected it to be, and the ending disappointing.
Now that I've finished it, the review I had in my head has changed somewhat.
The entire time I was reading it, enjoying the chase, wanting to see it play out but not sure if that's all the book was or if there were more, the two things that bothered me consistently were 1) not knowing when this took place and 2) the flipping around of points of view between 4 different people, sometimes not knowing who was talking for a few paragraphs in. The time I thought was just past when slaves were freed, then it crept to early centuries, then a truck was mentioned, so I was thinking 30s, then a plane...I'm thinking it was set in the early 1960s, though I'm still not sure. No date was mentioned in the book -- and while I'm ok with that normally, when you introduce new information into a story that changes your perspective, I don't like it. Don't tell me halfway through a book how to pronounce someone's name, say, when I've been saying it in my head all along. As for 4 POVs, two of which were written in first person and the other two in third, that can screw with you if you don't know who is talking. One is introduced a good three-fourths through, too, just to mess with you a bit.
Now, for the good: This is not a talky book. In fact, dialogue is few and far between, and not a lot of exposition to tell the story, so that you feel it, live it. I like that. It seems short at under 200 pages, but with so little dialog, it's a nice weighty ready. It's written well, and when you consider this author is British, even more so. Well done. I'd like to explore more by this writer, even will forgive him the indiscretions above, if I come across any more of his books. However, my local library only has this one, even if he has an impressive CV to his name.
As to the story itself, keep with it past the first few pages, which are a jumbled flashback that you don't know is a flashback...I nearly put it down myself but glad I stayed with it. Still, and without giving anything away, the story was not what I expected it to be, and the ending disappointing.
July 14, 2009
AAAGH, another book club selection. Maybe I'm just too much of a happy optimistic person to enjoy these types of reads, but jeez, this was depressing and reminiscent of a horrible era for our country. The unfortunate part is that this most likely does still exist in some areas near to us and definitely the concept occurs all of the world. Nonetheless, very depressing to me. As for the writing, I did not appreciate the flow although it did lend some credibility to the period it was set in. Hard to read, depressing, and I considered a root canal to relieve the banter in my head..hahahahaha
April 1, 2012
Well, this is one of the books you don't appreciate until you've finished it. It took me quite a while to finish it, and it completely failed to keep me interested, at a point, I was just waiting for the whole thing to end.
The silence, the tension, it was too much.
But later on, it becomes apparent that the author intentionally made that really slow build up, just to achieve a successful climax.
I loved it.
The silence, the tension, it was too much.
But later on, it becomes apparent that the author intentionally made that really slow build up, just to achieve a successful climax.
I loved it.
April 28, 2022
This sparsely written novel about racially motivated violence in a small Southern town brings together a white man and a black boy as they go on the run after the boy's father is lynched. This unlikely pairing is poignant and heartbreaking.
I found the writing style to be a bit confusing, but effective in that the author doesn't attempt to sugarcoat the story.
I found the writing style to be a bit confusing, but effective in that the author doesn't attempt to sugarcoat the story.
April 13, 2010
I knew this book had received less than glowing reviews from readers but I wanted to read it for myself. The author should have been able to do so much more with the storyline. Trying to convey the thinking of the characters ended up sounding more like the rambling of idiots. So disappointing.
May 23, 2011
A beautiful, powerful book about race relations in early 20th C. America. More than that though, it is about good versus evil, doing what is right. I found it to be a very engrossing read, that I just couldn't put down.
July 18, 2010
Can't remember enough about this book to give it a rating. If it's so immemorable, I'm going to say it was okay.
February 24, 2011
This was one of the 2007 RUSA Notable Books winners. For the complete list, go to http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/rus...
August 28, 2019
Good writing, interesting shifts in perspectives. Didn't love the ending, but glad I read this one.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews