Under Plum Lake

by Lionel Davidson

Book Overview

A young boy is ushered into a subterranean world where he encounters a civilization and kingdom unlike anything above ground. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553232142
• ISBN13: 9780553232141
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Bantam
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Lasting Impressions from Under Plum Lake

This has been my favorite book ever since I first read it almost ten years ago. I've read it at least a dozen times - more than I've read anything else. It is an incredibly imaginative, dream-inspiring story that creates the world of Egon, a fantastic place where people visit Pleasure Dromes to experience the Universe, eat ragusa plums and stardew, drink silver-maroon tigra, and develop their minds much more than does humanity. The earth's ocean floor becomes the sky and people travel on rainbows using magnetism. Davidson creates a world that people can easily identify with, but that is thoroughly unique and different from our world; and while Egon is incredibly fantastic, Davidson makes it believable - as though it really exists - which makes the book more enjoyable, because we feel like we can actually escape into its secret world. *Under Plum Lake* is a book that will remain with me for the rest of my life.*Under Plum Lake* can be enjoyed by children and adults alike, on either a lighthearted level or a deeper philosophical level -- for in addition to exploring a fantastical world (from the view of a young human boy), the book ponders knowledge, life, time, perception and deception, sanity, memory, existence, humanity, and the universe... or, to borrow a phrase from Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker series (also really good), *Under Plum Lake* ponders "life, the universe, and everything."

This book should NOT be out-of -print

This book is truly a classic - no other book from my childhood meant so much to me. It is not just a kiddies book - there is so much in there for adults too: Kids read it as a fantasy, adults as an allegory - I have read it as both. I am lucky enough to have my old (tatty) copy of it and I re-read it at least once a year and dip into it regularly - it is like a meditation.

complete enchantment

One of the previous reviewers expressed a wish that they had never returned the book to the library. I didn't return the book and that is why today, many years later, I have a copy.This is not meant to condone stealing from libraries but hopefully illustrates how powerful and profound this book's effect can be. It is a haunting text, that lingers in your imagination. It is both strange and new, and disturbingly familiar. Read it and discover the far off memories it stirs in you.

Under Plum Lake is one of the best books I've ever read.

I can't believe I'm not the only person to have ever read this book. I read it first when I was about 10, around 21 years ago. It has always stuck with me. But every time I've ever told anyone about it they've never heard of it. It was such an imaginative book, I felt like I was actually there as I read it. I've been drawn back to it over the years and I believe it is still at our local public library, but I've never had a copy of my own. I would love to know where I could get a copy. It's too bad a book this good is so hard to find.

Wonderful dreamlike magical story

It's a story that somehow captured my imagination so fully that it left me in a state of wonder.. I was very young when I last read Under Plum Lake, but I can't seem to forget the impact it had on me, so long ago. I too hope to someday share this book with my children, for few books manage to paint a more magical picture so vividly in the mind. When I think about it I feel deep nostalgia, and I'll keep looking until I find a copy for my own.