What if your art became reality? What are your responsibilities to that new reality? Isabelle is a painter that falls under the spell of her new mentor, Rushkin - a troll of a man that makes astonishing paintings. She learns how to extend her gift to such a degree that the subjects come to life (not a spoiler).While navigating this dream/reality world, Isabelle finds out that there is a yin and yang to this stuff. And this is where de Lint shines - he is not afraid of making the hard choices in

Good for character building from the first one, "Dreams Underfoot", followed that one well with the characters and gave you some things to think about. Beginning is VERY SLOW and meticulously detailed to the point where you almost just want to stop reading it.. BUT!.. if you can get through the beginning and trudge through some slow parts, it starts to pick up steam like 200 pages in. haha. Good book, still love De'Lint's wonderful imagination and imagery, though this was a long and tedious read...

Despite the interesting concept and excellent (tense, satisfying and with a good twist) ending, parts of this book really seemed to drag. I can't specifically point at any elements that weren't necessary (for establishing characters, setting up the plot and providing clues for the twist at the end), but there were points when I was really starting to lose interest in the story. Perhaps it was the POV jumps - the story is split between events of the present day (early nineties) and the 1970s; the...

This may be my favourite book of all time. I am such a fan of Charles De Lint - his characters are so vivid and real, his imagery incredibly evocative, his themes magical and compelling - and this book is absolutely wonderful.I have lost track of the number of times I have read this book. I've destroyed one copy of it, just by rereading it one too many times, and my current copy (although still readable) is definitely well-loved. I have never read a De Lint book I didn't like - they are all amaz...

4.5 stars. Beautifully written, with superbly drawn characters and a very original fantasy element. Loved it. Highly recommended.

Dream & memory, memory & dream...Each beyond truth, yet not what they seem.A red crow for Rosalind and one for Cosette, but the soulless man has none to get.People of Crowsea, what do you see?Creatures of wonder, imagined by me. Return the red crow to our memories & dreams.Give us new life, though it's not what it seems.

I really wanted a fantasy book to read, something I could lose myself in now that the weather's turned grey and rainy, and in that sense, this book didn't disappoint. It was easy to lose myself in Newford (although, knowing nothing about de Lint's world, I kept wondering if it was a real place or not) and in its arts scene he lovingly describes. It was also easy to lose myself in the community of characters, a kind of fantasy in itself, I suppose. These were all enjoyable things to read, and imm...

Memory and Dream is richly layered, deep and thought provoking, yet at the same time captivating and enthralling. Like so many of De Lint's novels, it's rooted in reality and the magic is hidden at first. This enables the reader to get drawn into the story and experience the magic in the same way the protagonists are experiencing it. The end effect is that the supernatural elements seem believable. This story starts out in the early 90s as the reclusive painter Isabelle Copley receives a letter

This is my first de Lint novel, and I have to say, it's one of the best contemporary/urban fantasy novels I've read. Set in the fictional city of Newford, the novel follows the lives of three artists--a painter, a writer, and a publisher--friends and lovers of magic. What I love so much about this novel is how it entwines the trauma of human experience with hope and magic. Though technically the fifth Newford novel, I had no trouble starting with Memory and Dream and will certainly continue with...

This story had a deep impact on me. It opens with an innocent sketch in a town square; it soon becomes a deeply engaging study of the act of creation and the mind of an artist.If I took out my editor’s pencil, I’d only be able to mark one paragraph in the entire book, where a minor character is granted a bit too much page space to rant about his over-intellectualised opinions of art. It is in character though. And that’s it. The single tiny flaw I was aware of, if flaw it is. I mention it only t...

1992. Isabelle is a successful and respected artist when her slightly reclusive life is interrupted, first by the arrival of a letter from her dearest friend, dead these five years, and then by another friend, wanting her to illustrate an anthology of the dead friend's short stories.1973. Izzy is a naive art student when she meets Vincent Rushkin, one of the greatest living painters of her age, and he takes her on as an apprentice...but Rushkin is controlling, and abusive, and while what he has

I don’t pay much attention to blurbs on book covers. The worst one are when the publisher has cherry-picked a list of adjectives from someone’s review, as if hearing that the New York Times thought a book is “inspiring, powerful, thought-provoking” is going to make me want to read it any more or less. Blurbs have little substance and are not helpful. Most of the time. But I’m going to start off by quoting the Library Journal blurb on the front cover of my edition of Memory & Dream:De Lint moves

I’ve been looking forward to this book for a while now and was so glad that it met my expectations, although in a way that I did not expect. One of my book-club women had recommended Charles de Lint’s work to me and I knew that this book was one of my reading project books for this year. I took it on holiday with me, starting it on the airplane.To begin with, I was worried. I’m a dedicated fantasy reader and this was billed as fantasy and yet I wasn’t seeing how it could be fantasy. Imagine my r...

Okay, this is one of those books that jumps back and forth from the past to the present day. I guess that fits with the "memory" part of the title.So far, Isabelle has received a letter that got lost in the mail for five years, mailed by her friend Kathy right before she died. That same day, she is contacted by mutual friend Alan about illustrating a book of Kathy's short stories.But there's something weird going on with Isabelle, and with her art...**********************Final review, with spoil...

Note: This is an updated review, incorporating elements from my first and second readings. I gave "Memory and Dream" 4.5 stars in my review here the first time that I read it (this past summer), but I just finished rereading it and believe that 4.832 stars :) (and thus a rounding up to 5 in the stars line) is in order.I have far more experience with fantasy set in distinctly different worlds than with contemporary, especially urban, fantasy. In fact, to my knowledge, I'd read only two such novel...

This story is primarily about an painter dealing with (a) her ability to perform magic through her painting and (b) her troubles dealing with the negative parts of reality.[author Charles de Lint] is undoubtedly a fine writer and I like that he doesn't follow the standard fantasy good vs evil tropes. Instead, he writes about ordinary vs evil. The weakness in this is that ordinary people are, well, ordinary. Additionally in this book a lot of story is told in flashbacks, but flashbacks told after...

3.5I adore Charles Lint, Newford, all the characters that fill it - everything about his world.I just think sometimes the "magic" of his writing is a little hit and miss. Unfortunately this was the case with Memory and Dream. Parts of it mesmerised, and these parts I would happily give five full stars and claim perfection. Other parts felt overly preachy, tell not show, this is what you should feel because people are awful etc etc.Still, the perfect moments are there, the plot is interesting and...

I have a soft spot for Charles de Lint. He has a way of writing urban fantasy that doesn't feel like urban fantasy. It feels like literature. It is expansive, the ideas are greater than the book itself, the thematic elements linger with the reader long after the last page is read. Memory and Dream is no exception. I read a review of this a few days ago that stated that the main character Izzy/Isabelle is not a sympathetic character. I find that incredibly hard to believe. The moment I started re...

3.5 starsIt's been a long time since I read a book like this and initially I found the image-laden realistic description style clunky, feeling that far fewer words were needed to express the ideas on offer. I was soon sucked into the story though, and after a while I realised my reading experience was very similar to watching a film, which was fun.I found this a quick and easy read, a little cheesy and artificial, but emotionally intense and very absorbing. I enjoyed the tropes - the bohemian qu...