Reviews

The Dream Years by Lisa Goldstein

mdpenguin's review

5.0

Much of the book is 4/7 stars -- the story isn't dry but the writing sometimes feels a bit so -- but the ending made me so happy that it pushed my opinion of it up to 7/7. I think that I may end up reading the last few chapters of it again later in my life. It's at the same time a critique and an affirmation of the Surrealist movement: finding its grounding most of all in love and wonder.

The turning point in reading it for me was the battle of Paris in 2012: the magical wonders with which the revolutionaries and the surrealists fought back filled me with such joy. I loved Goldstein when I read Henri's discussion with the soldier deserter from the country in which he accepted the soldier without requiring that the soldier accept everything that Henri and the revolutionaries stood for. It presaged Robert's final confrontation with Breton brilliantly and, I think, made Paul's assertion that Robert was the true surrealist a more sincere statement.