|
Gordon Dahlquist has been known primarily for his work on the stage, writing and directing a number of critically acclaimed plays and experimental films. His first novel, THE GLASS BOOKS OF THE DREAM EATERS, is an ambitious project, close to 800 pages in length, with a gradually expanding cast of characters and a plot that is cinematic in tone and scope. It reads like an unlikely collaboration between Jules Verne and Anais Nin, focusing on the speculative and the erotic, yet treads boldly into and across so many other genres that it's impossible to accurately or fully classify the novel.
The first paragraph sets its 19th century European tone, introducing one of the three main protagonists while incorporating quite wonderfully a number of the elements that make the novel the challenging, engaging work that it is. We learn within the first few sentences that Roger Bascombe has mysteriously and abruptly broken off his engagement to Celeste Temple by means of a short note, which closes with the coldly polite request that Temple not contact or see him again. Temple, being the victim of this inelegant dumping, is understandably upset but perhaps is more curious as to how this state of affairs has come to pass. So she decides to surreptitiously follow Bascombe to see what --- or whom --- has occasioned his leave-taking. In our enlightened era this behavior would be called stalking, and perhaps it is. However, it's not without merit --- for as Temple and the reader soon learn, Bascombe is up to no good.
Temple watches Bascombe board a train and she boldly follows, only to find herself in the midst of a costumed party at which some of the masked attendants are participating in murder, mayhem and more. The "more" in this case includes a mysterious device that is at once deadly and powerful, one that will shape and control nations through heads of state. Temple though is not the only interloper present. The deadly assassin Cardinal Chang, who is neither Catholic nor Chinese, is also secretly in attendance, dispatched on an assignment only to discover that his intended target is already a victim. Chang crosses paths briefly with Temple, and in turn meets Doctor Abelard Svenson, a competent if somewhat underachieving surgeon who also finds himself interjected into the murky mix as he attempts to minister to his royal charge, a young wastrel more interested in drinking and wenching than in learning the ways and means of ruling. The lives of Temple, Chang and Svenson subsequently intersect in common cause, separate, and converge to traumatic and climactic effect, even as a malevolent force beyond their understanding attempts to destroy them while they try to save a nation.
Dahlquist paints on a broad canvas here, reveling in the comparative freedom of prose writing while maintaining a steady hand with admirable control and giving his imagination free reign. As complex as THE GLASS BOOKS OF THE DREAM EATERS may be, Dahlquist is having a good time here, and that feeling is transposed to the reader. The work is by turns romantic, violent (very much so), speculative, suspenseful, erotic (again, extremely so), mysterious and thrilling, often incorporating all of these elements into a single passage. It is also, to say the least, a challenging work: the characters are legion, and the reader is well served to find a way to keep track of each and every one who walks and flits across the page, even as plotlines intersect, mate and go off in multiple directions.
THE GLASS BOOKS OF THE DREAM EATERS is an ambitious and challenging work that makes demands but more than amply rewards the persistent and patient reader. And if I read the conclusion of this work correctly, more from Dahlquist in this vein will be forthcoming.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
 Click here now to buy this book from Amazon.com.
© Copyright 1996-2009, Bookreporter.com. All rights reserved.
Back to top.
|
