false 218775 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg 218775 4 3220332 1973 A Book of Dreams total:25|5:10|4:8|3:4|2:3|1:0| 25 100 47 8 128081 4.09 32 9 15413009 881006 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.25 20 1973 5 1 false Sat May 18 00:00:00 -0700 2002 Thu Feb 14 10:22:20 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 22 03:26:38 -0800 2008 more...]]> 10172843 666846 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 4 0 false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Dec 09 08:29:35 -0800 2007 Fri Dec 21 07:47:57 -0800 2007
The writing was at times really amazing, I would give this book a rating of five, except that the part where he becomes an aimless hip...more...]]> 20567631 324323 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 4 0 false Fri May 09 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 20 06:42:29 -0700 2008 Fri May 09 06:55:17 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4945175 71720 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 4 0 false Sat Sep 01 11:45:31 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 22 11:15:28 -0700 2007 Thu Dec 17 06:31:48 -0800 2009 19920541 974210 3187410 0060135468 9780060135461 1 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1214472886m/3187410.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1214472886s/3187410.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3187410.A_Book_of_Dreams 2.00 2 Did any of this really happen? When Peter Reich published A Book of Dreams in 1973, his father, Wilhelm Reich, had been rediscovered as, at the very least, a prophet of the sexual revolution--but also quite possibly the discoverer of a hitherto unknown form of energy, called Orgone. (These aspects of his work were related: Good sex makes the Orgone flow.) The older Reich died in a federal prison in 1957, prosecuted, or by some account persecuted, for claiming that Orgone technology could cure cancer. Peter was 12 at the time.
Answering the basic question about Reich--i.e., "genius or madman?"--isn't really the point of A Book of Dreams, which is the most haunting memoir I have ever read. The son says he has no competence to judge his father's claims about Orgone Energy. In the preface to an edition reissued in 1989 (the last one, & now unfortunately out of print) he admits to "still hedging" on the matter.
What certainly was real, in any case, was the aura of discovery & adventure radiating from his father--as well as the sickening terror of watching the laboratory ransacked by Gmen, and the complex experience of mourning a father rediscovered by others as a counterculture hero.
This is a book about growing up with a magician: a loving but mysterious father, powerful in his command of the secrets of the universe, but also vulnerable in ways that a boy of 8 or 9 could never imagine. I trust A Book of Dreams, not as a definitive statement of the truth about Wilhelm Reich, but for how it captures the feelings of childhood, when the frontier between reality and imagination can be easily crossed. In the son's own words: "Perhaps the story, released now and no longer secret, generates some energy of its own."]]> 1973 2 0 false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1975 Fri Apr 11 01:03:24 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 11 01:11:17 -0700 2008 17057125 248231 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 3 0 false Fri Mar 21 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 05 04:40:55 -0800 2008 Wed Mar 05 04:40:55 -0800 2008 8305474 178679 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 0 0 false Fri Oct 26 23:59:05 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 27 00:00:07 -0700 2007 15848183 923907 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 5 1 false Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1999 Tue Feb 19 18:09:34 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 19 18:10:31 -0800 2008 79270012 1274129 3187410 0060135468 9780060135461 1 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1214472886m/3187410.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1214472886s/3187410.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3187410.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 Did any of this really happen? When Peter Reich published A Book of Dreams in 1973, his father, Wilhelm Reich, had been rediscovered as, at the very least, a prophet of the sexual revolution--but also quite possibly the discoverer of a hitherto unknown form of energy, called Orgone. (These aspects of his work were related: Good sex makes the Orgone flow.) The older Reich died in a federal prison in 1957, prosecuted, or by some account persecuted, for claiming that Orgone technology could cure cancer. Peter was 12 at the time.
Answering the basic question about Reich--i.e., "genius or madman?"--isn't really the point of A Book of Dreams, which is the most haunting memoir I have ever read. The son says he has no competence to judge his father's claims about Orgone Energy. In the preface to an edition reissued in 1989 (the last one, & now unfortunately out of print) he admits to "still hedging" on the matter.
What certainly was real, in any case, was the aura of discovery & adventure radiating from his father--as well as the sickening terror of watching the laboratory ransacked by Gmen, and the complex experience of mourning a father rediscovered by others as a counterculture hero.
This is a book about growing up with a magician: a loving but mysterious father, powerful in his command of the secrets of the universe, but also vulnerable in ways that a boy of 8 or 9 could never imagine. I trust A Book of Dreams, not as a definitive statement of the truth about Wilhelm Reich, but for how it captures the feelings of childhood, when the frontier between reality and imagination can be easily crossed. In the son's own words: "Perhaps the story, released now and no longer secret, generates some energy of its own."]]> 1973 2 0 false Fri Dec 11 11:20:07 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 28 23:21:53 -0800 2009 Fri Dec 11 11:20:13 -0800 2009 77979700 199028 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 0 0 false Mon Nov 16 11:49:52 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 16 11:49:52 -0800 2009 74901260 2835189 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 0 0 false Sun Oct 18 05:16:58 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 18 05:16:58 -0700 2009 74797348 2761926 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 0 0 false Fri Oct 16 23:02:53 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 23:02:53 -0700 2009 74732491 276512 2470306 0214200094 9780214200090 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2470306.A_Book_of_Dreams 3.50 2 1973 5 0 false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 09:59:43 -0700 2009 Fri Oct 16 10:00:47 -0700 2009 74452718 1697111 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 0 0 false Tue Oct 13 19:07:58 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 13 19:07:58 -0700 2009 72525882 2777179 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 0 0 false Fri Sep 25 22:36:30 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 22:36:30 -0700 2009 65305354 2570370 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 0 0 false Tue Jul 28 14:01:14 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 14:01:14 -0700 2009 60448962 307364 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 0 0 false Sat Jun 20 16:07:34 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 20 16:07:34 -0700 2009 60049892 2425565 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 3 0 false Wed Jun 17 11:06:18 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 11:06:18 -0700 2009 59594323 2416563 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 5 0 false Sun Nov 15 12:10:24 -0800 2009 Sun Jun 14 01:34:10 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 14 01:34:10 -0700 2009 57091420 209431 218775 0525484159 9780525484158 7 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218775.A_Book_of_Dreams 4.00 25 1973 0 0 false Sat May 23 15:46:59 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 15:47:01 -0700 2009 8 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=218775