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A review by lindensea
Dreams Underfoot: The Newford Collection by Charles de Lint
3.0
My first de Lint! I tried reading The Little Country when I was younger (too young, actually) and got traumatized and stopped. But I still remember how enchanting the beginning was! I've always remembered the feeling of modernity and magic, mixed with folk music and a real sense of place. Dreams Underfoot shares all of that, and I think that's its strongest selling point.
This book is a collection of short stories, which is a strange way to begin a series, if you ask me, but a Bold one, for sure! Each story introduces a new inhabitant of the city of Newford (with the exception of the first story which takes place north of Los Angeles, and incidentally was possibly the strongest). The character stumbles upon some individual on the fringes of modern society and learns that the world is bigger. That's an over-simplification, but looking back, I believe most if not all follow that format. The first five or so stories had me reeling. It's the 90's, there are musicians everywhere, there are vague fey creatures, a sense of hazy, understated magic, and everyone compares things to Arthur Rackham or Pre-Raphaelite art?! Honestly, sometimes I felt like I had written this book. By which I mean that the author is incredibly specific (even self-indulgent) about his interests, and most of those are mine as well. It was a strange experience, and because of that, I really don't think I could give this book any less than 3 stars. Charles de Lint wrote it for people like me. And I appreciate him for that. It made me feel seen.
At the same time, Charles de Lint wrote it in 1993. I understand things have changed, and I'm cutting him some slack here, but this book has some issues. I truly got the sense that de Lint was trying his best to be progressive. He never tries to put women or minorities down intentionally. But the way they are written about is very dated.
Women are objectified frequently and used as character development for male characters. I sometimes got the sense that a character would be a self-insert of the author, and whenever women were involved with those characters, I felt uncomfortable. Of course, I could be reading the self-insert part wrong, but there IS one thing that is irrefutable: Mr. De Lint has a Type. The de Lint Girl is beautiful, with a slight build and delicate, pixie-ish features. Most have wide blue eyes and wild, lighter-toned hair. A couple are more punk-ish, yet still manage to retain some of that manic pixie dream girl goodness. Their ages are hard to determine. Young women seem to carry the weight of the world and appear more mature. Older women have he bodies of younger women and manage to maintain a childlike wonder. At least two de Lint Girls (let's just call them dLG, okay?) are actually confirmed to look like another dLG, even though they are all unrelated. Why??? I couldn't come up with a reason. Maybe it's explained in subsequent books, but I think Mr. de Lint just really liked that 90's waif look. It was a good look, I guess, but it started to feel uncanny that all the girls in this city looked the same. If I lived in Newford, I'd probably get creeped out by that alone.
The stories that involve POC are also problematic, but mostly in a dated sort of way. Although the term Roma, the less savory term is used even more. One bilingual character spoke in a white person's idea of Spanglish...I'll let an actually native Spanish speaker talk about this one, but it seemed pretty bad to me. If you listen to this in audiobook format, you'll also be treated to narrator's attempts at an accent, which really heightened the effect. That said, "That Explains Poland" was probably the most endearing story of the lot, if you could get past the racial stereotypes that were peppered throughout.
Despite the datedness, some stories still have an aura to them. A sense that you could be overlooking magic every time you walk down the street. A little nudge to respect everyone you pass because there's more to them than meets the eye. A firm belief in the equal magic of stories and music and dreams. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but I like de Lint's world quite a bit and will probably dip into it again. I just hope he grows with the times.
This book is a collection of short stories, which is a strange way to begin a series, if you ask me, but a Bold one, for sure! Each story introduces a new inhabitant of the city of Newford (with the exception of the first story which takes place north of Los Angeles, and incidentally was possibly the strongest). The character stumbles upon some individual on the fringes of modern society and learns that the world is bigger. That's an over-simplification, but looking back, I believe most if not all follow that format. The first five or so stories had me reeling. It's the 90's, there are musicians everywhere, there are vague fey creatures, a sense of hazy, understated magic, and everyone compares things to Arthur Rackham or Pre-Raphaelite art?! Honestly, sometimes I felt like I had written this book. By which I mean that the author is incredibly specific (even self-indulgent) about his interests, and most of those are mine as well. It was a strange experience, and because of that, I really don't think I could give this book any less than 3 stars. Charles de Lint wrote it for people like me. And I appreciate him for that. It made me feel seen.
At the same time, Charles de Lint wrote it in 1993. I understand things have changed, and I'm cutting him some slack here, but this book has some issues. I truly got the sense that de Lint was trying his best to be progressive. He never tries to put women or minorities down intentionally. But the way they are written about is very dated.
Women are objectified frequently and used as character development for male characters. I sometimes got the sense that a character would be a self-insert of the author, and whenever women were involved with those characters, I felt uncomfortable. Of course, I could be reading the self-insert part wrong, but there IS one thing that is irrefutable: Mr. De Lint has a Type. The de Lint Girl is beautiful, with a slight build and delicate, pixie-ish features. Most have wide blue eyes and wild, lighter-toned hair. A couple are more punk-ish, yet still manage to retain some of that manic pixie dream girl goodness. Their ages are hard to determine. Young women seem to carry the weight of the world and appear more mature. Older women have he bodies of younger women and manage to maintain a childlike wonder. At least two de Lint Girls (let's just call them dLG, okay?) are actually confirmed to look like another dLG, even though they are all unrelated. Why??? I couldn't come up with a reason. Maybe it's explained in subsequent books, but I think Mr. de Lint just really liked that 90's waif look. It was a good look, I guess, but it started to feel uncanny that all the girls in this city looked the same. If I lived in Newford, I'd probably get creeped out by that alone.
The stories that involve POC are also problematic, but mostly in a dated sort of way. Although the term Roma, the less savory term is used even more. One bilingual character spoke in a white person's idea of Spanglish...I'll let an actually native Spanish speaker talk about this one, but it seemed pretty bad to me. If you listen to this in audiobook format, you'll also be treated to narrator's attempts at an accent, which really heightened the effect. That said, "That Explains Poland" was probably the most endearing story of the lot, if you could get past the racial stereotypes that were peppered throughout.
Despite the datedness, some stories still have an aura to them. A sense that you could be overlooking magic every time you walk down the street. A little nudge to respect everyone you pass because there's more to them than meets the eye. A firm belief in the equal magic of stories and music and dreams. I'm not really sure how to describe it, but I like de Lint's world quite a bit and will probably dip into it again. I just hope he grows with the times.