Why did she change so much? And what about Sam and Eddie? Sam and Eddie who? The bottom line is that I didn't emotionally connect with the story. I'll go for a 3 Stars because her writing voice was great as always. Besides, once more, she was incredibly skilled creating imperfect characters so perfectly. GL masters the art of creating flaws in characters without overdoing and I heart that. Jan 31, Elsa Bravante rated it really liked it Shelves: Dudaba de leer el libro, la pareja protagonista se conocen y son asiduos de un club de sexo y normalmente no es algo que me atraiga demasiado.
Tal y como yo lo veo, es todo un canto a la esperanza. Me ha gustado mucho. View all 12 comments. It starts off with one MC breaking off a 3-way relationship. Then quickly takes us to a sex club scene where our MCs meet for the first time. And yet, it's not erotica. Not in the least. There's no escaping Leigh's signature melancholy in her novels.
Both men have issues. Some physical, some psychological, some financial. There are always issues. Deep, real issues to be dealt with in this author's novels. The MCs often have to find happiness by finding a way to, not necessarily o Original. The MCs often have to find happiness by finding a way to, not necessarily overcome their problems, but at least learn to move past them and live with them. They have to find happiness within their own, and each other's, restrictions. Something that is not a big part of the plot arch but that I personally appreciated in this story is how all the characters were open minded and frank about sex.
There was never any shaming nor even any surprise or drama in relation to their sexuality. It simply was a fact and nothing more. It didn't define their lives or personalities. But it was an integral part of who and how they were. Because the setting is foreign to me, it felt like a utopian type of environment in spite of the issues most of the characters dealt with. A wonderful, fresh look at "acceptance" for everyone around us. View all 16 comments. Jun 20, Diana rated it really liked it Shelves: They both had their issues that they struggled with. Dylan just got out of a three way relationship and was trying to figure out life without his best friend.
While Angelo had major financial issues which involved his family. The second half of the book had a different vibe, at least for me. Many things are discovered and explained, plus a little drama thrown in. So if you decide to read this one and find yourself struggling, push through the first half. It does get better. View all 9 comments. We have two men, Dylan and Angelo, who anonymously hook up at a sex club. Fast forward a few days later, and their lives collide. Things start off shaky, but soon they find themselves unable to resist each other.
The sex can be hot as all hell, but without a connection, it'd be just pwp. We get two both in this instance. Garrett Leigh has always been an outstanding author, but I admit I wished she'd add a bit more steam to her stories. If you're looking for a beautiful story about trust, friendships, love, with a side of kink then give this a try!
View all 6 comments. It's about the many different masks we all wear and how we get from day to day. It's about striking your balance and learning to cope and finding love. Dream is also the hottest and sexiest of all of Garrett Leigh's books, that I've read. It starts with a bang and just keeps going! And yet, it never feels overdone. This book is erotic romance at its finest. It's a novel that celeb 4. It's a novel that celebrates sex and I cannot tell you just how gorgeous that is.
He's always there for those that need him, even if it means he goes without or suffers. His job at the Citizen Advice Bureau is stressful, but he goes the extra mile to try to get people the help they need. He actually cares about people; whether he knows them, or not. Dylan has been in love with his best friend, Sam, for ages, and his occasional 'with benefits' status with Sam and his girlfriend Eddie just complicates things.
After deciding that his sanity, and their friendship, won't survive if things continue, he steps away in hopes that some distance will help.
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In an effort to help himself forget, if only for a little while, he visits his favorite sex club for some anonomos sex. He never expected that his encounter with a man whom he doesn't even know what he looks like to trigger fantasies long after the encounter was over. He's a proud man, but he also doesn't really manage his illness all that well. And to top it off, he's taken over running the family deli that has been sinking in debt for years, after his father gambled away all its profits and left a mountain of debt.
Angelo craves connection, even while he can't fathom ever actually achieving it.
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He loves sex at the club because there is no pressure there. At least not the kind of pressure that results in expectations. Even still, he can't get the encounter with Dylan out of his head. Angelo's illness seemed really well researched. And Dylan was both caring and a touch insecure. Both are amazingly human, with flaws and strengths and they feel so deeply, even they have trouble measuring.
Dream is more than a romance - it's a love story. And I loved every moment I was lost in this book. View all 3 comments. Jan 25, Katerina rated it really liked it Shelves: If you hear hoofbeats, you're thinking of That's just the way it is in real life. I really loved this book.
Like all other books by GL. I enjoy reading this author beyond measure. But I just have to get rid of this, because it happens over and over again in romance books. People with depression and chronic pain don't fuck like rabbits. Depression, antidepressants and sex Each of you will have felt sick before. And if it's just a headache or a gastrointestinal flu. The first thing you feel like Exactly what I mean.
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Let's go fucking ; No sex drive anymore Sex life and fibromyalgia But this is fiction. And I shut my eyes. Certainly the hottest book of hers. Apr 28, Rachel marked it as to-read Shelves: Dylan appeared in another book that I did not read, that was MF with Dylan as a third. It takes a lot of misunderstandings and struggles to communicate to get to a solid relationship. I really got into his character, especially seeing his trouble getting diagnosed while in the US, costing him all his savings.
Angelo is incredibly stubborn and Dylan has to persevere to get anywhere with him, also getting fed up a few times. It made the ending and solutions too fast and easy after all the problems for Angelo. Last, the attack on Dylan seemed disconnected from anything else in the story, kind of unnecessary. Nevertheless, Angelo and Dylan were characters I connected with and the relationship development was solid. Feb 02, Ariana rated it really liked it Shelves: Another very touching book by Garrett Leigh. When Leigh creates literary works of art, I imagine they parallel her edible art.
Delectable but sometimes biting, succulent and most definitely spicy. What surprised me this round was the character crossovers. I just knew it was the latest and greatest Garrett Special and I had to have it. Misfits is easily my favorite and I was thrilled to see Dylan step up to the center stage.
Leave it to Garrett to start this story with a bang…or more precisely a ruthless shag. Dylan is recovering from a brutal breakup. He was in a poly relationship with his best friend and his girl but a shift occurred and he realized he was on the other side of the rift. Licking his wounds, he decided a distraction was in order. A visit to the local sex club with a session in the basement blind and ferocious should help jump-start his clean slate.
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It was certainly a night to remember. When he runs into his sensational lover at work, his equilibrium is rattled. The air around them thrums with electricity, charged like a loose live wire. And just like a power surge the impressive spike leaves them stunned. Dylan craves Angelo with an incessant hunger. Dylan awakens something buried deep in Angelo and he yearns to hold onto it. Her fastidious research is clear every time. My eyes open a little bit wider with every book. In a final grasp at holding things together, he seeks help from a debt adviser.
His dreams are simple yet appear completely out of reach. Unless he opens his heart. Which brings me to….. I love how genuine the emotions are between Angelo and Dylan. They are overcome from the very first moment with a torrent of feels. Their passion is intense but they quickly become friends. But Angelo is terrified of allowing anyone past his walls. Hitting rock bottom brings everything into focus. But is he too late?
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And why would Dylan want him with all of his baggage? Dylan craves to move forward but he must stop lingering with one foot in the past. I desperately wished for them find their footing together. Can they set their hearts on the same path? You should really find out. With a heavy dose of real life. This book is for: Garrett fans will most definitely want to grab this little dream as soon as possible.
Apr 12, Xia Xia Lake rated it liked it Shelves: I like the flawed characters she builds. I liked Angelo and Dylan's struggles and how they defined their journey. However I couldn't connect so well to the MCs as to give this book 4 or 5 stars. It felt to me that the book might have been written too fast and maybe it needed one more rewriting to strengthen some of the scenes before being published. I'm adding the scenes I'm referring to under spoiler. Dylan in the beginning During the second part of the book we focus on Dylan's anxiety. He didn't come as such an anxious person that would have panic attacks in the first part of the book.
Just someone who was suffering because he had to let go of his best friend. The book focused on Dylan's anxiety in the second part as if he had been an anxious person all along. Again, he didn't come out to me like this in the beginning. The club scene where Dylan has a panic attack Where did the panic attack came from? It just sprang on the page, sex, bang, panic attack. I didn't notice anything before Angelo. I needed one or two extra sentences to show how Dylan's behavior was beginning to change, what did he do that it triggered Angelo and made him ask Dylan what was wrong?
The hostage situation Felt pointless. The scene in Dylan's office where Angelo informs him he was the one that banged him in the club when Dylan had his blindfold on I lol-ed. I also considered it a lame move undignified for Angelo's character who was a cool dude.
You have a nice day, now. The stalking Everyone is a stalker in this book. Angelo, Dylan, Dylan's friend Sam. I'm giving the side eye to Rhys as well who pops up everywhere. Dylan's job and Angelo's debts I am a financial fraud auditor that works every day with numbers, invoices, amounts - I got so confused at times by the financial stuff in this book that I skimmed the pages when the DRO discussions were beginning. She's still on my auto buy even if I gave Dream 3 stars.
Still recommend the book, maybe it's me, not the book. View all 13 comments. A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review but I was also able to grab this for free from Amazon. I enjoyed this more than I did Whisper book 2. The relationship between Dylan and Angelo was very insta which I hate , but I was able to overlook it in this case for the most part because the chemistry between these guys was so amazing! I love Garrett Leigh as a writer and will read anything she writes.
I can't say this or Whisper will make it to my top 5 GL books, bu A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review but I was also able to grab this for free from Amazon. Dream is on the lighter side to what GL traditionally writes, and that was fun. When Angelo and Dylan meet for the first time, I was so, so anxious and excited, eager to what would happen between them. If nothing else, I will re-read that scene over and over. It's obvious they both care about the other despite Angelo being standoffish and they don't want to ruin what they could have together by simply having sex and not talking to each other and getting to know the other.
I would have loved to have seen Dylan and Sam and Eddie together. How hot would that have been? And I was totally thrown to learn Eddie was a girl!!! In the beginning of the story when Dylan is doing his internal monologue about Sam and Eddie and their 3-way relationship, I was like, whoa baby!! And then - then Dylan uses "she" to describe Eddie, and I was like, awwwww , well shoot. So I had to re-read the beginning of the story and picture it a totally new way. Angelo's mother is a completely selfish and self absorbed, clueless person. She refused to sell her home or raise the menu prices to help from going in the hole.
When creditors finally came calling and took the diner's supplies and things to get their money, Angelo's mother has a hissy fit and says he didn't do enough to save the business. I wanted to punch her. She does eventually see the light, but Angelo is too forgiving of her. Had she done what needed to be done right from the start, everything would have been much better off. Despite that dramafest situation and another that happens later to Dylan I had fun with this story and think Angelo and Dylan are my favs of the series so far.
I give this 4 stars. DNF pretty early on. I can tell this is not my cuppa. I'm so sorry for not being able to do this. I tried to like this, Honestly I did. I know I'm the minority. So fell free to ignore me. There is lots of review saying how awesome this book is. But for me every time I would pick it up after a couple of pages, I would just put it right back down.
I'm not going to rate this because that wouldn't be fair. Oct 16, Rafa Brewster rated it really liked it. ARC received courtesy of author in exchange for an honest and fair review. An anonymous, sweaty, no-holds-barred kink club marathon bang. Yes, I do realize I just spoiled the opening salvo for you but I regret nothing. Consider it a warning of sorts. Dream started off with Dylan, who had been pining for his best friend Sam for years, pulling back from their friendship in the hopes of finding his own happiness.
I may have been intrigued by him in What Matters but I was a complete and total goner for him in Dream. He was an easy character to love from the very start — open and giving and so, so vulnerable — both in his complicated relationship with Sam and for his developing feelings for Angelo.
I loved that he was not afraid to let his feelings show when he wanted to see where things could go with Angelo. But with the weight of the world on his once strong shoulders, Angelo seemed more like a wounded lion past his prime, too proud and too scared to let down his guard. It broke my heart to see him afraid to hope and take everything Dylan had to offer after barely surviving practically on his own for so long.
What I liked the most about the book was seeing the two of them attempt to build something together outside of the club. It was a slow and sometimes torturous process that required honesty and patience and the kind of trust both men were in short supply of. I also loved the bit of open play the two men indulged in at the club, as well as the possibility for more in their future together. There was some social commentary on healthcare, social and financial services and the general state of the world that resonated with me and I should note, did not come off as preachy.
Despite how much I was loving our heroes and the steady build of their relationship, the book sort of lost me after a shakeup well into the final third. The story was thrown into overdrive and unfortunately adversely affected what would have been a very convincing HEA for me. While logically I know that dramatic events spur people to grab life and love by the horns, something about the way this played out for them took me out of the story.
Despite the shaky end, I absolutely adored Dylan and Angelo and am dying to read more of this new series. May 16, haletostilinski rated it really liked it Shelves: They were scorching hot together and their connection was really good and lovely. As one who isn't a fan of open relationships it bothered me because I have no idea if Angelo and Dylan are just them together even when they had thoughts like "he was the only one for me, no one else compared" or "I was in love with him" there were still comments made that made it unclear if they were joking or serious about them still "playing" with others at the club?
I mean neither had thoughts of being bothered or jealous of them with someone else in a sexual way with romantic feelings, a tad, but even then So I have no idea, and that bothers me, that it isn't clear. I mean I can assume that they're monogamous but at the end there was a preview for them which tells me there will be another novel with them - and who knows if it'll be just them in that book?
Idk, it bothers me, while I get it might not bother others, but yeah And the characters didn't help to dispel that worry. But despite all that If you don't mind threesomes and a potentially? I was actually expecting a ton more angst than what was in this. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of Garret Leigh angst, but it wasn't unbearable angst. I felt so bad for Angelo - having that disease would freak me out all the time, wondering if I would get exhausted at any moment, and so on - and what he had to deal with, but it was awesome seeing him learning to deal with it and get better at managing his disease and being able to live life almost normally with Dylan.
Dylan, I felt we didn't get as much of him as with Angelo. We got stuff, but he wasn't really focused - maybe because he didn't have as much angst in his life as Angelo, but I think characters can be just as interesting without a ton of angst, so I would have loved more with Dylan and his life, and maybe more on his father and his mother who left them. Similarly, it's arguable that the Moorish Mendoza might represent Marx whose nickname was "the Moor".
Thus, the forces of evil seem to be associated with Hegel and Marx, even though they the Doctor and Mendoza advocate, not the rule of reason, but the rule of unreason, the liberation of desire and passion. Some of Mendoza's more sexual theories even sound like those of Wilhelm Reich. I suspect that Carter didn't see things in such black and white terms. Carter was reading a lot of Marcuse whose "Eros and Civilisation" analysed both Freud and Marx and whose earlier "Reason and Revolution" had analysed Hegel and Adorno in the early 70's.
Hence, it's possible that Carter's novel was more influenced by the Frankfurt School than Structuralism or Post-Structuralism. Is This the End of the Tale? It's possible that Desiderio's "indifference" reflected Carter's dual commitment to both reason and passion. The desire of one individual is not necessarily consistent with the desire or will or welfare of another.
It can present itself as an act of will or an exercise of brute force, especially in the case of the wilful abuse or rape of women by men. Whatever the nature of Carter's stance, it was far more sophisticated than that of the countercultural hippy movement that had emerged in the 60's. It was definitely no endorsement of sexual liberation of men at the expense of women. Liberation needs to be contained by some level of personal and social responsibility, as the indifferent Desiderio concludes, "a check, an impulse of restraint". A crazy quest book, the narrator is sent on a quest to defeat the fiendish Doctor Hoffman whose peculiar desire machines are sapping the life from the entire country.
Rather like Oblomov this is a circular novel with the narrator returning to the starting point. I had the feeling that this book is allegorical and I wondered whether it was about the construction of the self with the male and female leads representing the animus and the anima, in which case nothing really happens in terms of the ex A crazy quest book, the narrator is sent on a quest to defeat the fiendish Doctor Hoffman whose peculiar desire machines are sapping the life from the entire country.
Thinking about the novel as a journey through the self leading to the emergence of an adult personality one notes that he begins his quest in childhood, moves through his ancestry and heritage, has or rather undergoes sexual experiences, but finally is able to overcome the mind's obsession with sex to achieve selfhood. In which case desire is infernal and mechanical, a sticky hamster wheel. In a way it is unsatisfying, a picaresque novel with explicit sex visited upon the narrator by Centaurs and a team of acrobats view spoiler [ don't ask if you don't want to know hide spoiler ] among others.
Deeply Carterian in it's mixture of mind and explicit physicality. View all 4 comments. Nov 16, Aubrey rated it really liked it Shelves: My ongoing class of philosophy hindered as much as helped my reception of this, for I am as familiar with Big Name's rhapsodizing on freedom and reality and metaphysical stuff as I am sick of their standardized tools of female objectification and other exotification.
I will likely reread this further on so as to ensure as careful attention to throughout as, in this initial encounter, only came forward i I will likely reread this further on so as to ensure as careful attention to throughout as, in this initial encounter, only came forward in the final pages. It is unlikely, though, increased inception will lead to instinctive appreciation, for a piece that makes its point through the sensationalized culture is only successful within a very restricted morass of the world's reality. I see the composer of all these myriad violations of more often than not that of women is both female and operating through structured imagination overtly acknowledged by the tome itself, but not all imperialists are men.
I would have hated him less if he had been less bored with his inventions. Many a review of this mentions feminism, enough that the inherent theoretical nature of this particular working of "feminism" carries through clear enough, a dry and gaping maw memorized in classrooms and beholden to none living by virtue of its coagulated citations. As near as I can get at it, the machinations of rape and debasement work towards a critique of the patriarchy, on one side sterile order and the other side exuberant torture with nary a space for humanity in between.
Lorde illustrated this better with her insistence on sensuality, a self that draws strength from its connections and derives meaning from holistic interweaving, avoiding completely the splintered categories of "work", "play", all the patriarchally ordained sunderings of pain and pleasure as founded on the Male. This "better" of mine, of course, hinges on her use of the valuing the personal rather than desecrating the impersonal, but my dislike of girlfriends in refrigerators is and will remain consistent. Therefore, every minute of the day, they were all, male and female alike, engrossed in weaving and embrodiering the rich fabric of the very world they lived in and, like so many Penelopes, their work was never finished.
And now I understood they were not so much weaving a fabric of ritual with which to cover themselves but using the tools of ritual to shore up the very walls of the world. Carter's critique came through the clearest from the land of the centaurs on, as much for its warning of what this category of desire desired as for the author removing herself from Japan and indigenous people and whatever ideological fodder she stabilized through her sampled appropriation.
Here, finally, was an eye on the so-called "West", where pain and destruction are sacrosanct on a very specific dichotomy, founded by science and painless propagation, fueled by circular reasoning and centric pathos, always and ever foundered by destiny of might makes right. Here was the Catholicism I knew so well, part Houyhnhnm ideal of peace via genocide, part human that simply must live.
The stereotypes I rail against are, at their heart, lazy and low quality writing, and this is not a piece of work that averages out to lazy and low quality. Blame the prose, blame the principles, blame my readerly gaze that only grew fully fleshed at the very end, but I am missing too much to resolutely reject the beauty's appeal. Perhaps those who more frequently remember their dreams will have better luck.
My own only succeed in reaching the surface every month or so, and those few are always grotesque. View all 7 comments. I'm baffled by the other reviewers calling this book "erotic" or "sexy. If you find this book sexy, there is something seriously wrong with you. This book reminded me of Burroughs's Junky or Cohen's Beautiful Losers , in that it is sexually explicit in a fantastical and determinedly grotesque and cruel way.
I get the feeling that writers like Carter, Burroughs, and Cohen are I'm baffled by the other reviewers calling this book "erotic" or "sexy. I get the feeling that writers like Carter, Burroughs, and Cohen are trying very hard to break through some kind of social boundary that just keeps receding in front of them, so they work themselves up into a froth getting more and more intensely grotesque and cruel in an attempt to shock.
Carter does manage to keep it interesting for a bit longer than either of those other two, but in the end it's still ridiculous and pointless. I do really love a lot of Carter's short stories, which is why I picked up this book. They're much stronger, I suspect just because it's not as wide a field to develop that grotesquerie into something dull. But fortunately this familiar-but-strange voyage across the haunted archetypal landscapes of desire could be even better. Angela Carter remaking classic stories is great, but forging her own from the detritus of centuries of signs and suggestions, she's completely stunning.
Her goals here as I just found myself commenting on Aubrey's rightly probing review have to do with displaying how sheer imagination and the freeing of the unconscious are not necessarily incompatible with the same horrible power structures they're often assumed to oppose. An uncritical liberation may only free those elements of society who were free to begin with. It's an issue with surrealism from someone who obviously loves many things about surrealism and a disillusionment with 60s radicalism.
The resulting images are often morally ambiguous and unsettling, but Carter has a determined and significant agenda, I think. Ou seja, o Desejo. Doctor Hoffman is a villain of the 'cold genius' variety, and for most of this novel his presence is only evident through his nefarious actions.
He has launched an attack on a nameless city and his weapon of choice is 'actualized desire,' which rends deep tears in the fabric of daily life for the city's citizens. Reality morphs into a series of unreliable and upredictable forms. The narrator-hero of the story is Desiderio, secretary to the Minister of Determination. The Minister, a perfect foil Doctor Hoffman is a villain of the 'cold genius' variety, and for most of this novel his presence is only evident through his nefarious actions.
The Minister, a perfect foil to the Doctor, has been charged with organizing a response to the Doctor's assault, including the deployment of a squadron of Determination Police. The Minister eventually dispatches Desiderio to the countryside as a covert agent tasked with following up a lead on the Doctor. At this point Desiderio's path grows quite crooked and gnarled as he veers back and forth between his mission and total escape from his life heretofore. In following the current of his desires he comes close to death on a number of occasions.
Eventually he falls in with a curious pair of travelers who will lead him to his destiny. Carter, in her inimitable way, weaves myth, human psychology, and the surreal into a compelling plot that can at times seem nonsensical but does lead to a pleasing form of retrospective clarity. To share too much would spoil the fun, so I will leave it there. For me, this book fulfilled all of the promise I found in Heroes and Villains that didn't quite come to fruition.
Not quite a 5-star book, but close. Apr 06, Marc rated it it was amazing.
If you are a fan of fantastic i. Though my copy is missing the final pages! A feminist cross between Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Kobo Abe's Secret Rendezvous all three feature anthropomorphized horses, by the way , those looking for something shocking, intelligent, and entertaining will find much to appreciate here. The atmosphere of the book is truly indescribable.
Opening with quotations from Robert Desnos and Alfred Jarry, the work is very much influenced by Surrealism. I'd normally write a longer, more in-depth review, but I'm still digesting what I've read. May 23, Brian rated it it was ok. Aug 06, Alexander Popov rated it it was amazing. Apr 27, Jamie rated it really liked it Recommends it for: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Well, I should rephrase. This is by no means a beach read, a rainy day read, a quick-n-easy read. As with most of Carter's work well, all I've come across, anyhow , you'll likely scratch your head through most of the text, and hopefully come away with a dozen glittering nuggets of truth or beauty or profundity. Hoffman has created a so-termed "Reality War" and is attempting to transform the world into a totalitarian system of actualized desire. He's destroyed space and time, erased the division between the abstract and the object, and left his 'subjects' in a state of mass chaos.
As I said, if you don't like a book that will leave you dazed and confused, this isn't necessarily the book for you. Carter's engagement with theory is in full-force here, as she draws from Freud and Jung, Lacan--and either pulls from or pre-dates a lot of feminist and queer theory particularly in terms of performativity and illusory identity. And I don't mean simply that she illustrates such theory, but that the book itself reads like theory at several points. However, her prose never ceases to amaze, of course. Take this passage, for example: They were sinister, abominable, inverted mutations, part clockwork, part vegetable, and part brute Their hides were streaked, blotched and marbled and some trembled on the point of reverting completely to the beast Perhaps that was why they kept them in cages But, if some were antlered like stags, others had the branches of trees sprouting out of their bland foreheads and showed us the clusters of roses growing in their armpits when they held out their hands to us All the figures presented a dream-like fusion of diverse states of being, blind, speechless beings from a nocturnal forest where trees had eyes and dragons rolled about on wheels.
Which is why, at times, take her ideologies with a grain of salt, because I think Carter would cackle to think readers were taking everything seriously and intellectually. The one issue I had with this book and often have with Carter is that her intellectual stance maintains an undercurrent of detachment between reader and text.
I suppose this is a side-effect of her self-proclaimed "demythologizing" project; she doesn't want to allow the reader to nestle into pure escapism. And this doesn't discount the novel on the whole, but there were definite points where I was left a bit colder than at others. Carter remains one of my absolute favorite authors, though-so don't get me wrong. Either way, give her a shot. I can't say enough about this great book. I could fill up a book bubbling over this thing, but I will pull my horses to make these simple hopefully coherent snorts.
It's such a treat each sentance and every word. I rolled it over in my brain before digesting it. Let's say Shelly, Vance, Lautremont and Doyle wrote the Holy Mountain movie scriptryptich to that effect might come near where this book is. He has turned what we know upsidown with his bizarre subconscious manifestations of rape and death. Reality police take people into custody to check if they pass for real. If it burns it's real!! The orgasm releases erotic energy that can stop clocks. Everyone is employing the subconscious to realize warped versions of reality with the help of Dr. I dont really get a sense of a time period until a radio is mentioned or later on, helicopters.
The science is not developed in here except in a strange passing intresting creation, reminding me of Poe or Shelly, but the characters are the main menu on this wonderful book. Protagonist Desiderio goes from hunting Dr. Hoffman with his boss the important 'Minister' via clues, this madness must be stopped by any means. Later he is just trying to stay alive and out of jail with a mish mash of the wierd: The River People who paint their faces and have dead fish as dolls with their primordial verbal history.
The Erotic Traveler who perverts the flesh using nature as an inspiration at his side; the syphillic faced Lafluer. The Acrobats of Desire who juggle their own limbs. Greek god centaurs whose well explained developed religion involves bowel movement everyone can make the sign of god. Animal, root and meat faced prostitutes.
Angela Carter had a direct tap on the English language and her creative squirmbrain unfortunately she's dead now with this morsel and she really went nuts with it. This hidden gem of a book deep in dead trees I had never heard of. A friend picked it up randomly, read it, and then she threatened me with jagged eye slicing fish gills over my nose, and abstract geometric curse words until I read it. Glad I was easily threatened like this!!! I really owe my gill assassin some homage.
A great follow up to my Jeter read: This review was originally posted on sfbook. In terms of popularity I am astonished at how undervalued Angela Carter seems to be. Apart from the secret life of academia, where Carter is rightfully or wrongfully regularly exorcised by excited students, she remains a mystery to much of the literary world. There are a few reasons why I think this: Everything about her prose is erudite, esoteric, erotically intellectualised, so much so i In terms of popularity I am astonished at how undervalued Angela Carter seems to be.
Everything about her prose is erudite, esoteric, erotically intellectualised, so much so it feels as if one is reading the most perfect brain, or the history of the entire world. Her prose is masterfully stylistic but equally elegant and elongated, completely counterintuitive to the way reading happens now. Infernal Desire Machines may seem a confusing patch-work of stories but in its picaresque postmodern pastiche, Carter weaves an intricate, many-layered web of surrealism and magical realism like nobody else.
Everything within the novel is created and comes under the power of the author; her level of fine control over the writing is a revelation as each chapter builds on the previous. The novel itself - being picaresque - seems aimless, absurd and grotesque but therein lies another component that is so distinctively Carter but can be off-putting: The book very openly deals in topics like rape, masochism, sadomasochism, taboo, torture to an extent which would be terrifyingly brave by any author, but in Carter's hands becomes both detached and philosophically theoretical.
There is no authorial judgement: This mixed Eden-like pasture of at once heavenly fruits and rotten grounds makes for a roller-coaster reading, where pleasure and pain become vague, and the entire reading process turns into a convergence of highs and lows, not unlike taking a drug. But unlike other novels written under the influence of drugs, Infernal Desire Machines defies the contemporary idea that writing can either be fun or smart. Carter does both with aplomb, integrating her interest in feminism, nature, identity and desire [which crops again and again in her works] with a fantasy ride that could rival any page-turner nowadays: There are so many things in Infernal Desire Machines , that it is very easy to get lost in, but that is not to say one should not do so because there is no overall right way.
The novel expects compliance, it expects for the reader to be taken along for the ride, mind and eyes open, willing to accept the novel's strangeness and reality utterly. In essence, the novel demands and deserves to be read. May 17, Gregor Xane rated it it was amazing Shelves: Relentless, bizarre image after bizarre image, sandwiched between descriptions of violent sexual acts, sprinkled with beauty and black humor.
The writing was a heady combination of the formal and baroque. Truly unbelievable that such a variety of hideousness could be packed into so little space. Five stars for sheer audacity. Exactly what, I'm not really sure I could tell. Structurally, it was like a demented picaresque novel, though narratively, you just couldn't tell what would happen next. And yet, there was this underlying ennui, which after some contemplation, I think was actually a writerly feat exemplifying Desiderio's disillusioned way of looking at the world.
Either that, or maybe that's Carter usual modus operandi, I'll see when I read something else of hers. A myriad references Well, that was What is it about, you ask? Is it about the plight of the postmodern man, disaffected with all the old structures, like empiricism and Enlightenment reason, but as yet shaped by them, unable to find and grapple with his own desires, deemed to be impossible? Is it some kind of allegory or metaphor about ideological totalitarianism as exemplified by the Minister and the Doctor? Or a feminist narrative, deconstructing the ways we all interact with our sexual desires and showing how they are often governed by sexless, indifferent patriarchs or societal structures?
Fuck if I know. All I know is, the whole thing is so intricately woven and exquisite in its stylistic beauty and creative wit in the 18th century meaning of the word that I just HAD to give it 5 stars, even against my will to some extent, which is a first for me though I actually did the same with The Dispossessed. Not by that much, since I would estimate it to be around 4 and a half stars, but still.
Especially considering some really perplexing chapters, like number 8 and number 2, whose meaning and place in the narrative I can't tease out. So I reserve the right to decrease the rating at a whim, depending on how I feel when rereading it. And that is why, though I would like to, as I admire her artifice, I can't wholeheartedly add Carter's book to my list of favourites.
Not yet, at least. I'm just not feeling it. Love it, hate it or react indifferently to it - but read it, because it's unlike anything else you've read. Actually, after re-reading the book for a book club and discussing it there, I heard a lot of interesting theories and ideas and made sense of some of the book's peculiarities , so I am also adding it to my list of favourites with a newly found appreciation for it. Go read it, it's definitely worth your time.
View all 3 comments. Feb 11, Grace Harwood rated it it was amazing. This book is strange, unnerving in places, and sometimes a bit "out there" but I cannot emphasise enough how much I loved, loved, LOVED this book. Angela Carter's prose is like ice water tinkling over a crystal stream - it is sharp and enervating and makes you question everything you thought you ever knew about humanity.
There is so much going on in this book - at face value it is a series of picaresque incidents which lead the hero, Desiderio "The Desired One", a man of lowly social status to sa This book is strange, unnerving in places, and sometimes a bit "out there" but I cannot emphasise enough how much I loved, loved, LOVED this book.
There is so much going on in this book - at face value it is a series of picaresque incidents which lead the hero, Desiderio "The Desired One", a man of lowly social status to save society from Dr Hoffman's infernal desire making machines. Of course, the machines only produce what men desire themselves - and they have some very strange desires - which almost leads to the annihiliation of the "city" from which Desiderio emerges.
Just bubbling beneath the surface of the story is a palimpsest of so many texts from which Carter has obviously taken her inspiration - right from Chaucer through Swift and a very racy interpretation of the Houhynhms , Pope, Milton, Bronte and beyond. Because it has its roots in 18th century literature, it does that thing that 18th Century literature does, which provides space within the fiction to question the nature of the society we as the readers are situated within.
I had a moment of epiphany whilst reading the following: Living in society necessitates a sacrifice at at least on some levels for every single person who participates within it. Carter is such an inspirational writer - this book will seize you by your vitals and drag you on a rollercoaster ride of enlightenment. May 05, Jaina Bee rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: The tension between reason and passion in this book makes me feel like I'm being pelted by champagne snowballs while sitting in a hot tub of Mexican cocoa. Carter is a wicked, wanton wordsmith; a cerebral chanteuse of the silent opera that is a novel.
It is bitterly difficult to find a decent copy of this book in the US, at least. The fuzzy, fading print of the edition pictured may thwart all but the most devoted readers. But if you're of the party that considers the brain the most potent love The tension between reason and passion in this book makes me feel like I'm being pelted by champagne snowballs while sitting in a hot tub of Mexican cocoa.
But if you're of the party that considers the brain the most potent love organ, if constant mutations of setting and style intrigue you, if vivid, obscenely fetishistic vocabulary whets your whistle, do what you can to net this glittering beauty. Dec 01, Michael rated it it was amazing. That is how surreality is done. What a brilliant book. One of the best I've read. May 31, Shaun Mendum rated it liked it. Angela Carter never fails to both impress and confuse. Her picaresque novel is a science-fiction tale of blind love, surrealism, and liberation from modern ideologies.
Desiderio, a man without imagination, is sent on a mission to seek the sinister Doctor Hoffman, who with the help of his infernal machines, has broken the rules of reality and blended physics with the transcendental. Wrong is right, right is left, Nebulous Time develops its own infrastructure and ecosystem, and a selection of Angela Carter never fails to both impress and confuse. Wrong is right, right is left, Nebulous Time develops its own infrastructure and ecosystem, and a selection of slides in a travelling peep-show eerily predict the outcomes of his journey.
Infatuated by Albertina, a mysterious woman made of glass, he discovers on his way disturbing forms of rape and counterculture, both of which in many cases go hand in hand. Sexual desire, or "eroto-energy," as she calls it, is a big theme throughout the tale, and while at times it feels heavy and disturbing, it still by all means works. The way Carter bends time is fantastic.
She reveals the ending at the beginning, deliberately gives away surprises before they have arrived, and yet still leaves you shocked by her sheer power of words on page, for even then she is captivating. It pulls us into Desiderio's world of unreality and unwoven time, and left me sympathetic when he ultimately made his choices. While much of this novel is brilliantly constructed, and wonderfully theoretical, the use of metaphor and simile was, in my opinion, very heavy, and the intertextual references were enough to alienate me at times.
She, herself, commented on how she struggles with dialogue and prefers working with descriptive text, which is evident in this novel, but I felt like much of her theoretical analysis could have been pared down, or even simplified. I would recommend any of her works, for she is something of a literary heroin of mine, and a master of literature, but the sheer density of this manuscript leaves me advising only to read this book if you fancy a challenge.
You will learn a thing or two from investigating this story. I think this is a specific case of me having needs that I wanted this book to fill, but that the book itself does not want to fill. I don't blame either of us.
I have to admit that I started reading this book because a cute person on OKCupid had it in her book recs. I think that is the real purpose of OKCupid btw. What I even mean by "sexy book," though, is the big question. Lately I'm given to think about literature as a form of dating, in which both reader and book ha Sorry. Lately I'm given to think about literature as a form of dating, in which both reader and book have special needs and an agenda and are hoping to discover a blissful commonality.