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Dreamtime Alice: A Memoir
The vivid, seductive memoir of Sayer's years spent tap dancing to the drumming of her father, a famous Australian jazz musician, on the streets of New York and New Orleans.
368 pages, Paperback
First published February 24, 1998
3 people are currently reading
123 people want to read
About the author
Mandy Sayer
32 books26 followersMandy Sayer is an award-winning novelist and non-fiction writer. Her most recent book, Australian Gypsies: Their Secret History, has just been published by New South Press.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 16, 2020
Please read the GR book description here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
It is a good description. Not only is it accurate, it also gives you a feel for the writing style. I bet it is written by the author. One senses here, and in the book, the wonder, the spirit, the art to be found in music and dance—the exhilaration that excites father and daughter.
The memoir is a blend of struggle and hope. Struggle because what lies ahead for Mandy will not be easy. Hope because Mandy, still only twenty when she arrives in New York City in August 1983, has dreams of success. Success still lies ahead in the future. Hope because she sees performing beside her father as a means of getting close to him-- growing up he had often been absent. And hope because she is also searching for a man to love and to be loved by. During the year and a half she performs beside her father in New York City and New Orleans, she matures. Though seeking a closer tie to her father, what she actually achieves is self-awareness and independence. She learns to stand on her own two feet.
Along Mandy’s path toward maturity, the difficulties she has had to overcome are vividly drawn. The events that unfold capture a reader’s attention. You find yourself rooting for Mandy. Success is shown to be ninety-nine percent hard work. Reading this book gives readers a chance to see what the life of a street performer is really like. Treatment at NYC’s Belview Hospital is observed. One calamity follows another. Then, when Mandy gets professional dance training and is shown true kindness through a friend providing apprenticeship, I was at least as thrilled as Mandy must have been! Why? Well, because the writing, the prose has brought the reader right up close to her.
On completing this book, I am compelled to see what will unfold next in Mandy’s life. I know approximately, but this isn’t enough. I want to know the nitty gritty details. I am pretty darn sure I will be told in an engaging, captivating manner. I have immediately picked up the next, The Poet's Wife, the last of the author’s three memoirs.
Casey Withoos narrates all three of the memoirs. She has an Australian accent that is a pure delight to listen to—it Is not overly thick. The narration is easy to follow. Four stars for the narration.
**********************
*Velocity: A Memoir 4 tars
*Dreamtime Alice 4 stars
*The Poet's Wife currently reading
It is a good description. Not only is it accurate, it also gives you a feel for the writing style. I bet it is written by the author. One senses here, and in the book, the wonder, the spirit, the art to be found in music and dance—the exhilaration that excites father and daughter.
The memoir is a blend of struggle and hope. Struggle because what lies ahead for Mandy will not be easy. Hope because Mandy, still only twenty when she arrives in New York City in August 1983, has dreams of success. Success still lies ahead in the future. Hope because she sees performing beside her father as a means of getting close to him-- growing up he had often been absent. And hope because she is also searching for a man to love and to be loved by. During the year and a half she performs beside her father in New York City and New Orleans, she matures. Though seeking a closer tie to her father, what she actually achieves is self-awareness and independence. She learns to stand on her own two feet.
Along Mandy’s path toward maturity, the difficulties she has had to overcome are vividly drawn. The events that unfold capture a reader’s attention. You find yourself rooting for Mandy. Success is shown to be ninety-nine percent hard work. Reading this book gives readers a chance to see what the life of a street performer is really like. Treatment at NYC’s Belview Hospital is observed. One calamity follows another. Then, when Mandy gets professional dance training and is shown true kindness through a friend providing apprenticeship, I was at least as thrilled as Mandy must have been! Why? Well, because the writing, the prose has brought the reader right up close to her.
On completing this book, I am compelled to see what will unfold next in Mandy’s life. I know approximately, but this isn’t enough. I want to know the nitty gritty details. I am pretty darn sure I will be told in an engaging, captivating manner. I have immediately picked up the next, The Poet's Wife, the last of the author’s three memoirs.
Casey Withoos narrates all three of the memoirs. She has an Australian accent that is a pure delight to listen to—it Is not overly thick. The narration is easy to follow. Four stars for the narration.
**********************
*Velocity: A Memoir 4 tars
*Dreamtime Alice 4 stars
*The Poet's Wife currently reading
October 29, 2019
Mandy Sayer is a good writer but there was a sameness about the narrative---I kept on waiting for something more to happen---and it did---but not enough to lift it out of ordinary.
February 18, 2021
Painfully honest. Mandy Sayer tells the story of a young woman and her father from Sydney, making a living busking, tap-dancing and playing drums. From the bright lights of New York, to the jazz clubs of New Orleans, the protagonist learns about music, performing, people and herself. Between the various bands her father plays with, she meets men and experiments with relationships, with sometimes disastrous results. But we admire her spirit, her self belief and confidence, to make it despite all adversity. I found my copy in a second hand bookshop in Perth, and it inspired me for my new life with the West Australian Circus, far from home and friends. If she could do it, so could I.
October 24, 2018
A strange biographical story about some very strange characters indeed. "Alice" is a strange Australian girl, very naively trusting of a father that takes every advantage of her to eek out a living in New York and New Orleans busking. Sex and Drugs without the Rock and Roll.
March 16, 2019
Read it over the summer in high school, near a decade ago. I do remember loving it, and this was among the first books to expose me to ideas of "counter-culture," and different lifestyles, so to speak :)
February 19, 2021
Even though I usually like Aussie memoirs. I just couldn’t get into this one
February 5, 2012
While in the library the other day, I decided to go away from my old standby of fiction and instead browsed the Biography/Autobiography/Memoir/Books About Real People's Lives section. I picked up this on a whim, partially because of the title( sounds like it could be a band), partially because of the subject matter (street performers!) and partially because that is an awesome skirt on the cover. It has EMBROIDERED GOLD MUSIC NOTES. I found this to be a slow but satisfying read. Sayer has a very strong voice, and the imagery she conjures up feels almost movie-like. She doesn't spare any details of the hardships she faced while performing in New York and New Orleans. Some of the details are a little much, considering this came from a school library, but without them would lose some of its voice. This reminded me that I should read more memoirs, because they provide such fascinating insight into the minds of others.
October 28, 2011
Mandy Sayer can now be found freelancing for various Australian newspapers where her writing and observations bring a down-to-earth realism to the topics she covers.
And could it be any other way?
An early life spent scrapping by on the streets of US cities with nothing but her ability to tap and a father resolutely comitting them to living on his ability to play the drums and daily fill the busker's empty hat; she sees life at the level of the street artist. Through an enduring bond with her bohemian father she learns resilience, she learns that necessity tempers aspiration and she learns to take each day for what it is and what it offers.
This memoir of Mandy's formative years is well worth reading and in the meantime journalism provides her an outlet for exploring contemporary issues from the perspective of one who has known poverty (albeit a self-inflicted kind) but also a life in and around the arts.
And could it be any other way?
An early life spent scrapping by on the streets of US cities with nothing but her ability to tap and a father resolutely comitting them to living on his ability to play the drums and daily fill the busker's empty hat; she sees life at the level of the street artist. Through an enduring bond with her bohemian father she learns resilience, she learns that necessity tempers aspiration and she learns to take each day for what it is and what it offers.
This memoir of Mandy's formative years is well worth reading and in the meantime journalism provides her an outlet for exploring contemporary issues from the perspective of one who has known poverty (albeit a self-inflicted kind) but also a life in and around the arts.
Read
August 15, 2012The Great American Outdoors can be found not only in parks, this recent memoir reminds us, but also on city sidewalks. For “buskers,” or al fresco urban entertainers, the best sidewalks are the most heavily traveled and the least patrolled by police. If white boys can live and play the blues, Mandy Sayer proves that white girls can dance, even with sprained ankles that refuse to heal. Sayer is a native Australian who traveled to New York and then New Orleans for busking seasons with her charming but irresponsible father; her memoir’s down notes of neglect and near starvation make her book disturbingly memorable as well as highly entertaining.
July 13, 2009
The memoir of Mandy Sayers life as a street performer in New York and New Orleans with her unreliable jazz drummer father. Its a beautifully written always gripping and sometimes distrubing about street life and Mandy's growing out of the shadow of a charismatic parent to make a creative life of her own. I was completely enthralled
August 23, 2014
Clearly I am not very literary cos I found this hard going most of the time. Frankly I couldn't give a crap about her loser dad and her loser life busking illegally in New York and New Orleans. There were no redeeming features in their lives here, I didn't feel uplifted or entertained. Mmmm pretty pointless. And i have been way too generous with the stars. Result? Boring.
March 29, 2011
Loved it! One of the best memoirs I've ever read by a most surprising young Australian woman about her days as a street performer in NYC & New Orleans. She offers an entirely unexpected yet interesting view of both cities. Can't wait to read more of her writing, she has talent.
March 6, 2007
This is one of my favorite books. The story of a broken family and the bond between father and daughter. she grows up in the stangest of circumstances with him. Truly wonderful.
Want to read
August 4, 2009An okay read for those who like memoirs.
July 24, 2010
I really liked this book.
February 2, 2013
Fantastic read, lots of beautiful vignettes of 80s Sydney, and then it made me want to run off to Manhattan with my traveling-drum-kit and live off busking. If only Melita could tap dance :)
June 17, 2014
What an insight into a world I didn't know about. Great.
November 11, 2013
Fantastic book, would definitely recommend.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews