Dorothea Dreams

by Suzy McKee Charnas

Dorothea, a reclusive artist is visited by a dying friend, communicates with ghostly apparitions, and is held hostage by a group of desperate terrorists

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Speculative Fiction, Ghosts, Science Fiction

308 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Suzy McKee Charnas, a native New Yorker raised and educated in Manhattan, surfaced as an author with WALK TO THE END OF THE WORLD (1974), a no-punches-pulled feminist SF novel and Campbell award finalist. The three further books that sprang from WALK (comprising a futurist, feminist epic about how people make history and create myth) closed in 1999 with THE CONQUEROR’S CHILD, a Tiptree winner (as is the series in its entirety).

Meanwhile, she taught for two years in Nigeria with the Peace Corps, married, and moved to New Mexico, where she has lived, taught, and written fiction and non-fiction for forty five years. She teaches SF from time to time, and travels every year to genre conventions around the country and (occasionally) around the world.

Her varied SF and fantasy works have also won the Hugo award, the Nebula award, the Gigamesh Award (Spain), and the Mythopoeic award for Young-Adult fantasy. A play based on her novel THE VAMPIRE TAPESTRY has been staged on both coasts. STAGESTRUCK VAMPIRES (Tachyon Books) collects her best short fiction, plus essays on writing feminist SF and on seeing her play script first become a professionally staged drama in San Francisco. Currently, she’s working at getting all of her work out in e-book, audio, and other formats, and moving several decades’ worth of manuscripts, correspondence, etc. out of a slightly leaky garage and sent off to be archived at the University of Oregon Special Collections. She has two cats and a gentleman boarder (also a cat), good friends and colleagues, ideas for new work, and travel plans for the future.

Reviews

[Mir · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fantasy and ghost elements alluded to in the blurb could pretty easily be written out. The main threads here are understated considerations of realistic issues such as terminal illness, racial and economic inequalities, self-doubt, and personal misunderstandings. I wouldn't call the the ghost an afterthought, though -- it felt more as if Charnas has started with the germ of a ghost story but discovered in the process of writing that she really wanted to talk about something else. There were a lot of things I thought were well done in this novel, but somehow overall... I'm not sure. Trying to include too much in too little space, perhaps.

[Denise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reclusive artist Dorothea finds herself haunted, visited in her dreams by a ghost from the French Revolution. But it is the living that shatter her self-imposed solitude, bringing violence into her home.

Not a bad read, but it didn't quite grab me. I expected rather more ghost story and less teenage idiots and hostage drama.

[Michael Norwitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gentle ghost story, of s reclusive American artist haunted by the spirit from 18th century France, and the way it effects her and the people who have come into her life. The book has more the air of a midlife crisis novel with the slightest dash of fantasy, than anything horror, and made for pleasurable reading.

[Brooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really really good book, I stumbled on it while reading through some of Charles De Lint's older tweets; this is set in New Mexico and is an urban fantasy/thriller/racial tension/mysterious happenings kind of a story, plus a story in a story and a sharp turn halfway through that is unexpected. I would never have picked this one up if it weren't for a chance encounter on twitter--technology can be grand for readers.

[scarlettraces · Rating 2 out of 5]

just a real chore to read. if i read more Charnas, i'll stick to the overt feminist SF, i seem to remember that was quite decent.