Dreamers Of The Day
December 15th, 2010 01:35 PM
“I suppose I ought to warn you at the outset that my present circumstances are puzzling, even to me. Nevertheless, I am sure of this much: My little story has become your history. You won’t really understand your times until you understand mine.”
So begins the account of Agnes Shanklin, the delightful narrator of Mary Doria Russell’s compelling new novel, Dreamers of the Day. Miss Shanklin’s “little story” turns out to be nothing less than the blooming of the Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell have gathered to discuss the re-invention of the modern world.
Agnes is a 40-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio who has come into a small inheritance in the wake of the Great War and a devastating influenza epidemic. She decides to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and arrives at the Semiramis Hotel just as the Peace Conference convenes. Agnes, accompanied by her small, noisy dachshund Rosie, joins the company of the historic luminaries who are discussing the fate of the Middle East in the Cairo hotel.
Although Agnes is in many ways an inconsequential character at the conference, she forges connections with Churchill, Lawrence and Bell as well as the charismatic German spy Karl Weilbacher. As Agnes observes the tumultuous inner workings of nation-building, she is drawn more and more deeply into geopolitical intrigue and toward a personal awakening.
Although Agnes is not a maker of history, the story of her personal transformation is as engaging as the more spectacular events taking place. She falls in love with Weilbacher, and their courtship becomes a test of her determination to cast off her mother's influence, to move beyond "decades of defining myself by what I would not do, what I did not want, what I could not be."
We are treated to fascinating glimpses into the historical issues associated with the current situation in the Middle East, and the imagined dreamers who helped, or hindered, the efforts to improve upon history. Russell’s exceptional story-telling talents and her ability to transport us to another time and place are displayed in full force in this novel. Dreamers of the Day is a thoroughly enjoyable mélange of romantic travelogue, spiritual discovery and cultural mosaic set against a pivotal moment in modern history, and is sure to please a wide range of readers.
The title of this book is taken from a T.E. Lawrence quote: “Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible.”
Mary Doria Russell is the author of The Sparrow, Children of God, and A Thread of Grace, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Her novels have won nine national and international literary awards. Russell lives with her family in Cleveland, Ohio, with a huge golden retriever named Leo Lebowski and a dachshund named Annie Fannie Sweet Feet.
Deb McVittie is the owner of 32 Books Co. in Edgemont Village.
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Jun - Jul 08
So begins the account of Agnes Shanklin, the delightful narrator of Mary Doria Russell’s compelling new novel, Dreamers of the Day. Miss Shanklin’s “little story” turns out to be nothing less than the blooming of the Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell have gathered to discuss the re-invention of the modern world.
Agnes is a 40-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio who has come into a small inheritance in the wake of the Great War and a devastating influenza epidemic. She decides to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and arrives at the Semiramis Hotel just as the Peace Conference convenes. Agnes, accompanied by her small, noisy dachshund Rosie, joins the company of the historic luminaries who are discussing the fate of the Middle East in the Cairo hotel.
Although Agnes is in many ways an inconsequential character at the conference, she forges connections with Churchill, Lawrence and Bell as well as the charismatic German spy Karl Weilbacher. As Agnes observes the tumultuous inner workings of nation-building, she is drawn more and more deeply into geopolitical intrigue and toward a personal awakening.
Although Agnes is not a maker of history, the story of her personal transformation is as engaging as the more spectacular events taking place. She falls in love with Weilbacher, and their courtship becomes a test of her determination to cast off her mother's influence, to move beyond "decades of defining myself by what I would not do, what I did not want, what I could not be."
We are treated to fascinating glimpses into the historical issues associated with the current situation in the Middle East, and the imagined dreamers who helped, or hindered, the efforts to improve upon history. Russell’s exceptional story-telling talents and her ability to transport us to another time and place are displayed in full force in this novel. Dreamers of the Day is a thoroughly enjoyable mélange of romantic travelogue, spiritual discovery and cultural mosaic set against a pivotal moment in modern history, and is sure to please a wide range of readers.
The title of this book is taken from a T.E. Lawrence quote: “Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that all was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, and make it possible.”
Mary Doria Russell is the author of The Sparrow, Children of God, and A Thread of Grace, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Her novels have won nine national and international literary awards. Russell lives with her family in Cleveland, Ohio, with a huge golden retriever named Leo Lebowski and a dachshund named Annie Fannie Sweet Feet.
Deb McVittie is the owner of 32 Books Co. in Edgemont Village.
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Jun - Jul 08
