{"id":203,"date":"2006-03-04T17:06:35","date_gmt":"2006-03-05T00:06:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=203"},"modified":"2026-03-22T09:09:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T13:09:29","slug":"memory-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/203","title":{"rendered":"Memory & Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Memory & Dream<\/a><\/em> (1995) Charles de Lint<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Memory & Dream<\/em> is not my favorite Charles de Lint book. Partially, because I keep forgetting that it’s a novel and not a short story collection, so I pick up the book, start reading, and then think, “boy, this is a really long story.” Then I remember that it’s a novel, and I have to shift my expectations. It seems like a small thing, but it always throws me off, just at the point where I’m getting into the story.<\/p>\n

Memory & Dream<\/em> is set in Newford, so regular Newford characters like Jilly make appearances time and again, but the focus of the story is on Isabelle. There are two time-lines: The story begins in the present, 1993, and then jumps back 20 years to when Isabelle and Kathy and Alan were in college.<\/p>\n

Isabelle is a painter and Kathy, her roommate, is a writer. They are all in college together, along with with Jilly Coppercorn and Sophie Etiole. Jilly makes several appearances at different times in the story. Sophie is just mentioned in passing several times.<\/p>\n

Like the short story collections, and unlike Jack of Kinrowan<\/em>, Memory & Dream<\/em> has the darker themes of abuse and poverty, however, these themes are more subdued into the overall story of Alan’s effort to publish a collection of Kathy’s short stories, and to get Isabelle to illustrate them, and in the process we learn what drove Isabelle to radically change how she painted, as well as what happened to Kathy.<\/p>\n

As with all his books, the storytelling is good, and the characters are interesting, but there’s something about this book that’s different from his other books, that just doesn’t pull me in quite as deeply as his other stories. However, not my favorite Charles de Lint is still pretty excellent, and well worth reading. This just lacks a certain something that I can’t quite put my finger on.<\/p>\n

And strangely, I was reminded at one point of the book The Golden Key<\/em>. The magic in the two stories is quite different, but the idea of a painter being able to create actual magic with their art… Of course now that I think about it, Lalo the Limner in Thieves’ World<\/em><\/a> had something similar, so perhaps the idea is more common than I thought.<\/p>\n

If you have not before read Charles de Lint, this would be a fine place to start, however, as this is not one of my favorite of his books, so I would personally recommend Jack of Kinrowan<\/em> or one of his short story collections to start with instead of Memory & Dream<\/em>.
\nRating: 7\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Memory & Dream (1995) Charles de Lint Memory & Dream is not my favorite Charles de Lint book. Partially, because I keep forgetting that it’s a novel and not a short story collection, so I pick up the book, start reading, and then think, “boy, this is a really long story.” Then I remember that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,291,934,34],"tags":[71,161],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-paper","category-trigger-warnings","category-urban-fantasy","tag-charles-de-lint","tag-newford"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-3h","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3283,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3283","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":0},"title":"The Very Best of Charles de Lint","author":"Michelle","date":"November 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010) Charles de Lint I love Charles de Lint. I believe I have all of his mass published story anthologies, and several of the smaller press novellas, so I'd read most of the stories in this collection. Doesn't matter. I can read his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Very-Best-of-Charles-de-Lint.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":285,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/285","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":1},"title":"Widdershins","author":"Michelle","date":"July 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Widdershins (2006) Charles de Lint Widdershins is the latest book by Charles de Lint, and I debated for about a month as to whether I wanted to buy it in hardback or wait for it to come out in paperback. First there was the fact that I own Spirits in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/Widdershins.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5316,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/5316","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":2},"title":"The Very Best of Charles de Lint","author":"Michelle","date":"July 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010) Charles de Lint In Which We Meet Jilly Coppercorn Coyote Stories Laughter in the Leaves The Badger in the Bag And the Rafters Were Ringing Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood The Stone Drum Timeskip Freewheeling A Wish Named Arnold Into the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Very-Best-of-Charles-de-Lint.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3550,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/3550","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":3},"title":"Companions to the Moon","author":"Michelle","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Companions to the Moon (2007) Charles de Lint This is a short story that's not connected to Newford--just the story of a woman who thinks her boyfriend is cheating on her, and what she discovers. Of course, this is Charles de Lint, so you never expect what she discovers. Charles\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"Companions to the Moon","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/companions-t-the-moon-196x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2310,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2310","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":4},"title":"Muse and Reverie","author":"Michelle","date":"March 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Muse and Reverie (2009) Charles de Lint The last Newford short story collection was in 2002, so it was quite a wait for this fifth collection. In the interim of course, he has had stories in a variety of anthologies, many of which I have, some of which I picked\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/muse-and-reverie.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/35","url_meta":{"origin":203,"position":5},"title":"Waifs and Strays","author":"Michelle","date":"July 21, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Waifs and Strays (2002) Charles de Lint Charles de Lint's latest short story collection is not as much for young adults as it is about young adults. As I recognized several titles in this collection from other collections, I hadn't been in a hurry to get this collection. That was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Anthology"","block_context":{"text":"Anthology","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/anthology"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2004\/07\/Waifs-and-Strays.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}