Here Comes the Dreamer

By Carole Giangrande

Alastair Luce is a dreamer, one of three who tell this tale. A Canadian expat in the 1950s, he lives in a New York City suburb with his wife, Nora, a passionate American who misses the excitement of wartime life and finds an outlet — and a lover — during the Red scare. Alastair's an artist, a quiet man who paints houses for a living, fears atomic holocaust, drinks too much and worries about his suffering child, Grace. Just before the accident that kills his daughter's best friend Todd, he offers a ride to their teenage neighbour, Claire Bernard. She continues the story as a witness to tragedy, a wry observer of suburban mores and a compassionate friend of Alastair, whose talent and politics she'd long admired. Yet in the era of Vietnam, she's not prepared for his love or his anguish as she marries and leaves for Canada. In Toronto, it's Alastair's exiled daughter Grace who speaks, giving voice to her fury, an artist who works to “burn” the city down with brilliant colour, who resents Claire for hurting her dad, and still grieves the loss of young Todd. Yet Grace, Claire and Alastair are bound together by their history, and a crisis draws their painful stories to a climax. It's then that Grace ventures homeward for the first time, into a startling vision of the unknown.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inanna Poetry and Fiction Series
• Release date: Jul 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781771332521

Carole Giangrande

Carole Giangrande’s two most recent books (the novellas Here Comes The Dreamer and Midsummer) were both published by Inanna. A previous novella, A Gardener On The Moon, won the 2010 Ken Klonsky Novella Contest. She’s the author of the novels, An Ordinary Star (2004) and A Forest Burning (2000) and a short story collection, Missing Persons (1994), as well as two non-fiction books: Down To Earth: The Crisis in Canadian Farming (1985) and The Nuclear North: The People, The Regions and the Arms Race (1983). She’s worked as a broadcast journalist for CBC Radio, and her fiction, poetry, articles and reviews have appeared in literary journals and in Canada’s major newspapers.

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Reviews for Here Comes the Dreamer

[shetreadssoftly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Here Comes the Dreamer by Carole Giangrande is a very highly recommended, poignant, heartbreaking novella.

The story unfolds through three different narrators. First, house painter and artist Alastair Luce, who is married to the mercurial and abusive Nora, worries about his beloved daughter, Grace, and Nora's treatment of her. We know from the opening that Nora will leave him, in fact that she already had in every way but officially even before the incident. The incident is a tragic accident, that taints Alastair's life and makes it one full of sorrow, depression, disappointments, and regret, but also, after a season, one of quiet acceptance and forgiveness.

Claire is a teenage neighbor and friend to Grace who accepts a ride from Alastair and is present when the accident takes place. She has a crush on him as a teen, but is also friends with Grace, and recognizes the artistic talent Grace inherited from her father. Claire keeps in touch with Alastair and, later Grace. Claire is the witness to the disintegrating family and the one voice that gives the tragedy clarity and shape. She also has blame unfairly cast in her direction simply because she was present at the accident. We are witnesses to the dysfunctional dynamics in Claire's family too, but it is clear that she was better able to endure it and her parents were never abusive or dismissive.

The final narrator is Grace, who has inherited her father's love of color and knows he loves her. At the same time she knows her abusive mother never loved or tried to understand her. Grace is an adult in her section, successful in her societal fringe environment and role. However, she has never come to terms with her mother's rejection and abuse of her and still blames Claire, the one consistent friend she's had, for her father's accident.. She has become adept at wounding people who care with her words to keep them at a distance.

The writing is incredible - Giangrande's ability to capture emotions in a descriptive way is phenomenal. She also does an excellent job developing her characters through their own words as well as the viewpoints of others. Alastair's voice is melancholy, resigned to his place, forgiving. Claire's voice is a clarion call to pay attention and not judge too harshly, but look at the circumstances, the facts, the truth. She is asking for some empathy and understanding. Grace's voice is full of pain, blame, and self-preservation, with a tint of mental illness just under the surface - or is it artistic genius? An excellent book that will make you think.

Here are three quotes I noted as an example of the writing:

"Trouble came to Alastair Luce like a nasty slap of a wave at high tide, one wave after another. He'd been happy at times, but happiness was a breaker and it crashed and broke on the hard rock of the unexpected. Sorrow was no different." opening
"Times were good and one neighbour bought a Chrysler with vast, gull-like fins. Soon there were more in the neighbourhood, as if the first one had laid eggs and hatched a flock." (pg. 7)
"For some reasons unknown to me, Betty-Ann [Claire's sister] was frantic to build a home of human timber, to disassemble her family limb from limb as if we were there to warm her, nothing more." (pg. 51)

Disclosure: I received an advanced reading copy of this book from TLC for review purposes.