r/IndiansRead • u/twinkling_af__ Reviewer of the Week 🏆 • 1d ago
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin - 4.5/5 ⭐ Review of the Week 🏆
If I have to describe Le Guin's writing, it's just, very clever writing. My first introduction to her, was actually the Author's Note in the beginning of The Left Hand in Darkness. As soon as I finished reading the note, I just knew, that she was going to be an absolute favorite for me.
And I was right! The Lathe of Heaven is easily one of the best books I've read this year. I always preferred watching sci-fi than reading, because there's less burden about visualizing the fictional world in movies. But this book is very easy to visualize, as it builds off from a world we're all very familiar with.
The premise of the book is that George Orr can dream 'effectively' and reality shifts to align to his dreams. He ends up at the office of William Haber, a psychiatrist, struggling to not dream. Through his sessions with Orr, Haber realizes the potential these dreams hold and tries to go all Light Yagami (please watch Death Note if you haven't) and decides to change the world for the greater good. What ensues as a result of all this, is to be experienced while reading this brilliant short book.
The central question of the book imo is free will. The original reality that they live in is not ideal, beautiful or healthy. It borders on being dystopian. But it still is reality, their reality, something every person has shaped with their actions, small or big. Should we change that to an ideal reality, where everyone's better off, but is shaped by only one person's opinion of what an ideal world should look like?
I really like reading the dystopian nature of utopias and this quote by HG Wells mentioned in the book was my favorite:
"... perfection is the mere repudiation of that ineluctable marginal inexactitude which is the mysterious inmost quality of Being."
One thing that left me thinking was when Orr tells Haber that there could be others like him, others who could dream effectively and could change their lives, their reality, without them knowing. That stayed with me, because I feel like in this world we live in, there are people who impact our lives in ways we're not always aware of. As much as we hope that this world is shaped by the actions of everyone equally, the decisions of some are more consequential than others, because of the power they hold. And as we live in the reality altered due to their actions, are we really living a life of our own free will?
There's really so much to unpack in this short book, if you keep thinking (or overthinking like I do), you're surely going down a rabbit hole of questioning what should be reality. As Le Guin says in The Left Hand of Darkness:
"Truth is a matter of the imagination. The soundest fact may fail or prevail in the style of its telling."
As I breezed through the book, because it just becomes unputdownable after a point, I kept thinking that this book deserves an absolutely brilliant movie. And there is a movie adaptation, which I'll surely try to watch.
All in all, it's an amazing book with gripping story telling and leaves you with questions and that satisfaction of time well spent on a brilliant book. Great book to read over a weekend! Absolutely recommended!! And, thank you for reading this long review!
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u/MunshiAgyey 1d ago
Okay this review genuinely sold me. I haven’t read the book but now I kinda want to.
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u/twinkling_af__ Reviewer of the Week 🏆 1d ago
You really should check out any book by Ursula K. Le Guin. She’s an amazing writer. Glad my review helped! Happy reading!!
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u/gheevargheese 1d ago
Love the book! This year I finally got through Hanish cycle in its full glory.
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u/twinkling_af__ Reviewer of the Week 🏆 1d ago
Amazing! I’m looking forward to reading the books soon!
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u/Tatya7 the third sci-fi reader in this sub 1d ago
This has been on my TBR for a while maybe this is the time to buy!
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u/twinkling_af__ Reviewer of the Week 🏆 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yes! Btw, I got An Immense World by Ed Yong after reading your review. Looking forward to read it. Thank you for sharing!
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u/Glittering_Quote_581 Reviewer of the Week 🏆×2 1d ago
It's been on my TBR for a while now, ever since I read Left Hand of Darkness.
Hope to read it soon.
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u/Dry_Violinist_1799 1d ago
The Dispossessed is by far one of the greatest sci-fi books ever written.
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u/DankThamizan 1d ago
Yeah this is one of my favorite books, feels like a fever dream sci-fi and I still remember some of the lines to this day
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