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| Dream Angus: The Celtic God of Dreams (Myths, The) | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexander Mccall Smith
Publisher: Canongate U.S.
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy Used: $0.24
You Save: $17.76 (99%)
New (33) Used (46) Collectible (4) from $0.24
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 303017
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 196
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 1841958239
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.917
EAN: 9781841958231
ASIN: 1841958239
Publication Date: September 12, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The beloved author of the hugely best-selling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series joins the growing list of writers in Canongate’s groundbreaking Myths series with an absorbing retelling of a seminal Celtic tale of love, youth, and beauty. Angus is one of the earliest Celtic deities and one of the most beloved. He is a trickster and a romantic, a combination of Eros and Apollo, with four birds fluttering about his head, each of which is a kiss. He has the power to reveal to you in a dream your true love, if asked, and if in the mood. In McCall Smith’s magical new vision of the ancient tales, five different young men named Angus find themselves living the myths of their namesake, from his search for the girl he loves to his discovery that the man who raised him is not his father. In the hands of one of the great storytellers living today, Dream Angus will charm and mesmerize readers.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Spans Myth and Reality from Yesterday to Today June 3, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I find Alexander McCall Smith's stories about Africa and her people to be fascinating. I wondered what his story-telling gift would make of the Celtic god of dreams. The structure surprised me, as the stories moved back and forth between the mythical God and the role of dreams in real life. On occasion, the connections between the stories were wrought with almost sublime irony and meaning. My favorite story in the book is I Dream of You which connects past and present, myth and reality in a most enjoyable way and describes the role that dream therapy can play in helping us.
The sentences in the book often sparkle with wit and wisdom that will leave you thinking about their wider meaning, rather merely wanting to continue reading the story: "They shouted to one another, words of encouragement, words of dismay at missed chances, urging others to run faster, to outwit the other group." That sentence has more imagination, meat, and insight in it than many novels that I read.
I found that the book was overly tied to the myth of Angus, the god. Mr. McCall Smith is much better with writing about people than writing about gods. With a shift in emphasis toward the current world, this would have been an outstanding, five-star book. As it is, the "current world" sections are terrific.
Good Dreams February 7, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This slim book by the author of the popular Ladies Detective Agency series alternates dreamily between made-up Celtic mythology, maybe a bit fey but original, and some echoing episodes of modern life. I normally don't like this kind of thing at all, and it was, in the reading, captivating. Andrew McCall Smith knows how to tell a story. He's also a skilled writer, so the scenes are sewn together with a light and dextrous hand, moving easily from lyrical description to dialogue. The moral themes of the detective novels are infused rather than read aloud here. McCall Smith seems to have a fundamental optimism about life, and you feel he does not disdain his characters, despite their bad deeds, and various kinds of unhappiness or aimlessness, but rather offers them for our view with love and respect, seasoned with a bit of humor.
Life is but a...? October 18, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Fact: I will read with pleasure almost anything written by Alexander McCall Smith -- some titles with more pleasure than others, but anything with his name on the cover is practically guaranteed to provide gentle humor, sharp but never acerbic insight about people, and a view into worlds new to me.
"Dream Angus" hits all those marks and one more: it looks at the playful serious curious business of dreams and the purposes to which they might be put.
There are all kinds of serious words that can be delivered about a little book like this and probably there are treatises about whether Smith has written down the "One True Angus" or the one that he has simply invented. But I am not an aficionado of myth. What I causes me to recommend this book so strongly is its optimistic invitation to open oneself to possibiliities offered by the good, but perhaps unconventional scenarios of our dreams.
Your minister or mother or physician could issue this invitation (or imperative) to you, but it would not be as much fun.
he does it again July 6, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
this book was a breath of fresh air. it exposed me to celtic mythology which i know little of. not only does it focus on the myth of dream angus but on people living daily life and how in the seemingly mundane wonderment can exist in this case the gift if dreaming. we see dream angus in the past and present. we see how he will always have a place. smith's writing is beautifully crafted as always. he seems to have away of making you feel right with the world even with its struggles. if you are a fan of smith's you will not be disappointed and if you aren't you will become one.
ethereal & gorgeous July 6, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
For lovers of Celtic mythology and lore, this is a must read. For dreamers (and who doesn't dream?) ... it's a must read.
Alexander McCall Smith has written a gorgeous retelling of the myth of Angus, interlaced with a series of deeply provocative modern vignettes. I read Dream Angus in one sitting, stunned at the beauty & eloquence of McCall Smith's storytelling. For me, the tales provoked tears of empathy with the human experience. I can see myself giving this slim volume as gifts, many times over. It's a tale to read again and again ... either in its entirety, or by individual chapters.
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