Dream Angus: The Celtic God of Dreams by Alexander McCall Smith
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Book Reviews of Dream Angus: The Celtic God of Dreams
Book Review: Spans Myth and Reality from Yesterday to Today
Summary: 4 Stars
I find Alexander McCall Smith's stories about Africa and her people to be fascinating. I wondered what his story-telling gift would make of the Celtic god of dreams. The structure surprised me, as the stories moved back and forth between the mythical God and the role of dreams in real life. On occasion, the connections between the stories were wrought with almost sublime irony and meaning. My favorite story in the book is I Dream of You which connects past and present, myth and reality in a most enjoyable way and describes the role that dream therapy can play in helping us.
The sentences in the book often sparkle with wit and wisdom that will leave you thinking about their wider meaning, rather merely wanting to continue reading the story: "They shouted to one another, words of encouragement, words of dismay at missed chances, urging others to run faster, to outwit the other group." That sentence has more imagination, meat, and insight in it than many novels that I read.
I found that the book was overly tied to the myth of Angus, the god. Mr. McCall Smith is much better with writing about people than writing about gods. With a shift in emphasis toward the current world, this would have been an outstanding, five-star book. As it is, the "current world" sections are terrific.
Book Review: Dream Angus is no Dream
Summary: 1 Stars
Dream Angus is part of a multi-author series, "The Myths", in which contemporary authors retell various myths. Loving Smith's other works, and being fascinated by Celtic mythology, I thought this would be a winner. I was wrong.
Smith's format is to tell the myth of Angus side by side (actually chapter by chapter) with short stories. Each short story has an incident, theme or something else connecting it to the previous chapter about Angus' life.
While the idea was stunning, the result was very unsatisfying.
There is only one memorable character, Bodb; he is the only one in the myth that is given any personality. So many lovely opportunities to flesh out a myth, to make the gods human, is missed. With the exception of Bodb, it reads more like a straight telling out of a Bullfinch type anthology, instead of a retelling.
The accompanying short stories are drab and, though emotion is intended, they just don't fulfill that promise. The ending, again intended to be emotional and fulfilling, quite frankly left me cold and disappointed.
Overall, it was a poor effort on Smith's part--in a hurry to meet the deadline?--and I was glad this is not my first time reading him, or I wouldn't again.
Book Review: Mystical
Summary: 5 Stars
The book was happy and sad at the same time. You really could not put it down when you started.Book Review: "Life is but a..."?
Summary: 5 Stars
Perhaps you are owed the disclaimer that I will read with pleasure almost anything written by Alexander McCall Smith -- some titles with more pleasure than others, but anything with his name on the cover is practically guaranteed to provide gentle humor, sharp but never acerbic insight about people, and a view into worlds I have not previously been drawn.
"Dream Angus" hits all those marks and one more: it looks at the playful serious curious business of dreams and the purposes to which they might be put.
There are all kinds of serious words that can be delivered about a little book like this and probably there are treatises about whether Smith has written down the "One True Angus" or the one that he has simply invented. But I am not an aficionado of myth. What I recommend with some fervor is this optimistic invitation to open oneself to possibiliities offered by the good, but perhaps unconventional scenarios of our dreams.
Your minister or mother or physician could issue this invitation (or imperative) to you, but it would not be as much fun.
Book Review: A Dream to Read!
Summary: 5 Stars
I am not all that familiar with Celtic mythology and had actually never heard of Angus (god of dreams and love), so I was a bit worried that some bits of the story would be lost on me...but I need not have worried. Dream Angus is a quite a wonderful retelling of this myth. After doing a bit of research, I find that McCall Smith has kept the bones from source material and dressed them up in contemporary garments and he has, I believe, done it a very likeable and compelling way! Like a couple of others in this series, we are presented with vignettes which weave back and forth between ancient mythological settings and more contemporary ones; giving us the opportunity to hear Angus tale from birth to finding his own true love while also being given a glimpse of how he is still relevant in the modern world...for Angus, it seems still bestows upon us his precious and wonderful dreams! We find that Angus touches the lives of someone in each little story, and each is compelling and beautiful in its own way. I was particularly amused to see Angus cast as a psychotherapist using lucid dreaming to help his patients...a nice little twist! I would definitely recommend this as a light, but amusing retelling of Angus, Celtic God of Dreams, I don't think you'll be disappointed! I'm certainly glad to have read this and I'm looking forward to seeing more in this series!