The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin (1929, USA) has been on my want to read list for a long time.  Two events pushed it to the front of the list.  Francine Prose in her How to Read Like a Writer praised very highly her style and I received notice on a free service to which I subscribe that for one day only the price of a Kindle edition was reduced from $11.95 to $0.99.  

The book deals with the nature of dreams, with consciousness, with the fluidity of so called "reality". It portrays a society that paid no attention to warnings over global warming and the terrible consequences of this.  

There are lots of posts online about The Lathe of Heaven so I shall just say what I liked about it and I did not so much.  

I liked a lot the vision of an alternative post apostolic America, seeing the early warnings of global warming.  I liked the descriptions of Portland, Oregon, the setting for the novel.  I enjoyed the idea that dreams can change actual reality.  I was mixed on the various quotes that proceed each chapter.  I did not find the characters that interesting.  I think I understand the metaphysics behind The Lathe of Heaven and I am in sympathy with them and in 1971 would have been in total accord with the theory of consciousness constructing reality.  The prose is lush and I can see people heavily stoned in 1971 saying "wow this is really deep".  

I am glad I have now read this book and very glad I did not pay $11.00 for it.


Mel u