Beautiful Dreamer
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Book Overview
In a small Southern town, a white man tries to prevent a lynching and finds himself branded by the mob --- and worse, finds himself sheltering the dead man's son. When the killers come around to finish the job, the two victims are forced to flee across the country in the hopes of escaping men with nothing but vengeance on their minds. Just one step behind the vigilantes a solitary lawman tracks the men as he wrestles with the choice to either turn the customary blind eye or to put a stop to the intolerable logic of racial hatred. As the point of view moves seamlessly between characters, Christopher Bigsby crafts what "Booklist "calls a "taut, poetic narrative that has all the hypnotic power of an incantation." Dark and gritty, "Beautiful Dreamer "traces the struggle between reluctant good and dedicated evil, where morality is a matter of life or death and the choices made have consequences as lasting as they are unexpected.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0312355831
ISBN13:9780312355838
Release Date:August 2006
Publisher:Thomas Dunne Books
Length:183 Pages
Weight:0.77 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 6.3" x 8.5"
Customer Reviews
1 rating
A simple, horrific - if sometimes implausible - short book. A very worthwhile read.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
I flinched as I read the word "nigger" throughout the book - a word I find difficult to even write in this review. But in reality, the word represents a distillation of hatred that is necessary in the telling of this story. The violence in this story is not my style. What held my interest was the writing. I loved the effect of the starkly different voices telling their own versions of the story, from their unique perspectives, as the entire story unfolded. Getting inside the minds of racist redneck murderers and their prey on such an intimate level is first rate (and haunting) character development. Upon reflection, the harsh reality of the racism portrayed in this book, set against the unlikely alliance and mutual understanding between a white man and a black child that is developed, provides a satisfying resolution. There are several points in the story where the reader has to take implausible leaps of faith in order to allow the story to unfold as it does. If this is a weakness, to me it is a minor one. Redemption, in the end, is in the heart of the reader.
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