Dreams of Distant Lives

by Lee K. Abbott

Book Overview

"This is a writer whose language explores the range of life."--Bette Peretsky "Large in scope and meaning and unforgettable."--William Harrison

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399134557
• ISBN13: 9780399134555
• Release Date: April 1989
• Publisher: Putnam Publishing Group
• Length: 206 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Humor and heartbreak: don't miss this.

This, a favorite title by Lee K. Abbott, has been joined by later of his books, none of which disappoint -- the strength of his talent and skill comes through with each new book. "Wet Places At Noon" is also still available as I write this. If you have not read Lee K. Abbott, don't miss these stories. Accept no imitations. He writes with a mighty voice of muscle and sinew, but is deft with subtleties of character, and a rare kind of constant, underlying, wry humor. Although his voice is strong, it is the vulnerability of his characters that is their strength -- that which draws us into them. How can we not love them, flawed as we are? It is in the most human parts of them, their pain, weakness, confusion, loss, and whimsy that we identify, and yet we are shown their souls full of life, hope, and love. How can we not love them? We are them.

In Dreams Begin Responsibilities

Like the famous short story by Delmore Schartz, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, Lee K. Abbott's stories create a vivid dream-world where we learn alongside his characters what honestly matters in life. Abbott's style has tommy gun rapidity and unyielding intensity.No matter what I say, I will not be able to describe the energy and weight of a Lee K. Abbott story. The unique aesthetic and content of his work makes him one of the premier short fiction craftsmen in America. In Abbott we have found another fiction writing giant to join the ranks of Sherwood Anderson, Delmore Schwartz, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and Raymond Carver.

Lee K Abbott's stories are humbling in their honesty

I know of no other writer who brings readers into the story's world as quickly, as deftly, as intimately as Lee K Abbott. In Dreams of Distant Lives, Abbott, using mostly first person narratives, shows us the pain in the trials that are our everyday lives, shows us who and what we are one to another--fathers to sons, husbands to wives, us to ourselves--by taking us into the lives of his characters. We become the narrator's best buddy sitting across the table drinking his beer while he tells us his tale--a secret, it seems, for no one else's ears but our own. We're drawn in, hooked, with the first words. We become, in fact, so involved, so close to the narrator, so much a part of him and his life that it feels as if we not only wear his shoes, but his socks and his shirt--heck, we're in his underware. And Abbott does it with such apparent ease. Abbott's is a musical style; it has rhythm, a beat--it's the sound of our own hearts, of our own lives. "The Era of Great Numbers," a story about the obsession of college football, will leave you inside out laughing, nodding at its truth and with a chill against your skin. (It took me awhile to crawl back out ot that one.) In "The View of Me From Mars" (my favorite), Abbott tells a story by first telling another story that ends "...sad somehow and wise,..." which gives away the ending to "The View..." and yet, through Abbott's keen sense of style, in his expert hand, the end throws a punch to the guts. Hard. Dreams of Distant Lives, as with all of Lee K. Abbott's collections, is well worth the time for anyone who wishes to glimpse life honestly. His style is dense, yes, his stories not for the weak-hearted. Lee K Abbot's stories are humbling.