Thief of Dreams

Considering all the ordinary books that reach such a wide audience, I don't understand how this could receive so little notice. John Yount has created a small masterpiece. At the outset Madeline Talley is returning to her parents' farm in North Carolina with her 13-year-old son, having left her inconsiderate, drinking and womanizing husband. "Home" is not comfortable. Her parents don't understand what is wrong with Madeline's marriage and her son misses his father. This is 1948, when women are expected to stand by their men. The point-of-view shifts among all three family members and although Madeline is the most sympathetic, the Talley males are equally believable and multi-dimensional. Ultimately a crisis brings them together and makes them reconsider their lives as a family. This slim volume is a page-turner, a character study and a period piece, all in one. It ends too soon and sticks in your mind.

John Yount is one of our truly underappreciated writers. He's able here to inhabit each of the three characters: Edward Tally, the estranged father and husband; Madeline, his wife and James, their young son who watches the bonds of the family fray to the point it seems they can never be repaired. Each one of these people is real, flawed, human and redeemable.