“All men dream,” Colonel Lawrence wrote, “but not equally. Those who dream by night wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.” (245)
Mary Doria Russell is one of my favorite authors. The unique thing about her, though, is that I’m always surprised that I like her books. They are invariably genres or subjects I don’t have much interest in but eventually try anyway. And I usually end up loving them. Although I had more trouble with Dreamers of the Day (2008), it still followed a similar pattern. I had a vague idea that it had something to do with the middle east and involved a dog. I know very little about the middle east, especially anything about the detailed intricacy of its history and politics, so the only reason I picked up this book was because I’m slowly working my way through Russell’s entire oeuvre.
Dreamers was my first Mary Doria Russell and I loved it, also relatively unexpectedly!
Suggestions on which of hers to tackle next?
Hmmm…I’ve liked everything I’ve read by her so far. I read The Sparrow first and loved it. Children of God, as a follow-up to The Sparrow, didn’t quite live up to my expectations, even though it was worth reading. And then I read Doc, just because I saw it at my library, and I really liked that one as well–even though I thought I knew everything I wanted to know about Doc Holliday after seeing Val Kilmer in Tombstone.