thegirlandherbooks:

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

The book is set in Portland, Oregon in the year 2002. Portland has three million inhabitants and continuous rain. It is deprived enough for the poorer inhabitants to have kwashiorkor, or protein-deprivation. The culture is much the same as the 1970s in the United States, though impoverished. There is also a massive war in the Middle East, with Egypt and Israel allied against Iran.

George Orr, a draftsman, has long been abusing drugs to prevent himself from having “effective” dreams, which retroactively change reality. After having one of these dreams, the new reality is the only reality for everyone else, but George retains memory of the previous reality. Under threat of being placed in an asylum, Orr is forced to undergo “voluntary” psychiatric care for his drug abuse with the psychiatrist, William Haber.

I really enjoyed this story. I was glad to read it for my English class this past semester. It is science fiction, which I haven’t gotten the opportunity to read a lot of. I found the idea of manipulating reality by dreaming to be a great starting point in the novel. I appreciated how this novel took the idea of power in authority and even of ethnicity. Le Guin writes this novel so eloquently that it’s easy to follow and understand.

If you enjoyed 1984, then you will definitely enjoy this novel. Even the protagonist’s name sake is written for the author’s pseudonym George Orwell. These novels both have fairly similar. They both deal with authority and the willingness of fight back. I would highly recommend this novel!

4/5

(Source: how-novelistic)