The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin keeps the streak alive. It's the third great book I've read from her--totally different than her others, but still terrific. In it, a man in the dystopian near future discovers that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. The natural consequences of this, when revealed to his therapist, become the stuff of fable. Indeed, the novel is a brisk 180 pages, and reads more like a parable than her other works. 

One thing I loved about the story is its specificity. Le Guin is a proud Oregon writer, and in the novel we encounter small towns like Zigzag and French Glen, Portland landmarks like the Lloyd Center and the St. John's bridge, and geology like the Coast Range and Mt. Hood. Aimee Bender, another good writer prone to the magical and fantastic, takes the opposite approach, deliberately making her worlds vague and universal. But I liked Le Guin's persistence in rooting her spiritual fantasy to a very real place. The Lathe of Heaven had just enough authority, in its reality, to make the subconscious flights of fancy that much more jarring.