The Lathe of Heaven

I give stars in proportion to the level of profound truth that an author unveils. In “The Lathe of Heaven”, Ursula K. Le Guin artfully explores two of humankind’s great mass delusions: the illusion of choice (the most difficult of all to accept) and the illusion that stable sirens can exist for any significant period of time without tension.She explores the illusion of choice by imagining a scenario in which a human gains the power the choose the course of not only his own life but the entire path of the universe. The result: unreality and the loss of his sanity. As an offshoot of the main theme we are treated to another important lesson. Every STABLE scenario he creates to relieve societal tensions in one realm creates tensions in another.Ursula K. Le Guin saw it. Can we accept it?

This book is a science fiction classic and with good reason. It imagines a world very completely, one that is not too different from our current world. The protagonist, Mr. Orr, is a dreamer who changes reality with his dreams. He is cared for by an ambitious and ethically challenged psychiatrist, who uses Orr's dreams to change reality, but not to good effect. It's a mind-bending and fabulously well written meditation on the nature of reality, and dreams. A must read.

Le Guin always produces a great read. Her talent as a writer and storyteller is remarkable. In this work she creates multiple complex possibilities with good humor and flowing prose.

With a little help from our friends! I’m so glad Ursula Le Guin wrote this book! Since Calderon’s Life is a Dream and Cervantes Don Quixote, oh yeah, Hamlet and MacBeth! Who was that? Shakespeare! Le Guin’s dreams have wholesomeness and contain just the right amount of terror and Hell to know a bad dream playing out. I am deeply grateful to life for bringing Le Guin’s sensibility to China, the East, and Zen. With love, Vandy

I liked it. I found some of it hard to read. Some of the descriptions, thoughts, and conversations just seemed to go on and on, littered with words I had never read before. Quickly followed by explanations that I had no understanding of, lol. But I still liked the story. I would read more by Le Guin. She is a challenge!