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| Dream Angus: The Celtic God of Dreams | 
 enlarge | Author: Alexander Mccall Smith
Publisher: Canongate U.S.
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy New: $7.42
You Save: $5.58 (43%)
New (31) Used (16) Collectible (1) from $3.65
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 221397
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.2 x 0.5
ISBN: 1847670156
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781847670151
ASIN: 1847670156
Publication Date: July 27, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
“Elegant . . . Spare, polished . . . Smith fluidly weaves in contemporary vignettes.” —Publishers Weekly
The latest addition to the Myths series from Canongate, now available in paperback, is a beguiling tale from the beloved author of the best-selling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Angus is one of the earliest Celtic deities and one of the most cherished to this day. Like an even more handsome combination of Apollo and Eros, he is the god of love, youth, and beauty. Just the sight of him has made people fall in love, and he has the power to reveal a person’s true love in a dream, if asked politely. Alexander McCall Smith has turned his renowned storytelling talents to crafting irresistible stories from this ancient myth. Five exquisite contemporary fables of love lost and found unfold alongside Angus’s search for the beautiful Caer, the swan maiden he met in his dreams. McCall Smith unites reality and dreams, today and the ancient past, mesmerizingly, leaving the reader to wonder: what is life but the pursuit of dreams?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Magical Angus November 11, 2008
Alexander McCall Smith does it again.
Language and myth combine to make this tribute to Angus, Celtic Dreamer and Bringer of Love, both poignant and unforgettable. Prepare to be shown the shadow of Dream Angus in your own life and the everyday lives of those around you. Celtic mythology is alive and well and with us today between the covers of this fine volume.
A perfect gift for the someone you would love to love.
Spans Myth and Reality from Yesterday to Today June 3, 2008
1 out of 2 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.
 Dream Angus is no Dream May 29, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Dream Angus is part of a multi-author series, "The Myths", in which contemporary authors retell various myths. Loving Smith's other works, and being fascinated by Celtic mythology, I thought this would be a winner. I was wrong.
Smith's format is to tell the myth of Angus side by side (actually chapter by chapter) with short stories. Each short story has an incident, theme or something else connecting it to the previous chapter about Angus' life.
While the idea was stunning, the result was very unsatisfying.
There is only one memorable character, Bodb; he is the only one in the myth that is given any personality. So many lovely opportunities to flesh out a myth, to make the gods human, is missed. With the exception of Bodb, it reads more like a straight telling out of a Bullfinch type anthology, instead of a retelling.
The accompanying short stories are drab and, though emotion is intended, they just don't fulfill that promise. The ending, again intended to be emotional and fulfilling, quite frankly left me cold and disappointed.
Overall, it was a poor effort on Smith's part--in a hurry to meet the deadline?--and I was glad this is not my first time reading him, or I wouldn't again.
Mystical October 8, 2007
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
The book was happy and sad at the same time. You really could not put it down when you started.
"Life is but a..."? August 7, 2007
29 out of 30 found this review helpful
Perhaps you are owed the disclaimer that 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 I have not previously been drawn.
"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 recommend with some fervor is this 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.
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