SOURCE: A review of The Dream of a Beast, in The Los Angeles Times Book Review, February 5, 1989, p. 4.

In the following excerpt, Raksin asserts that "Ultimately, then, The Dream of a Beast is an eloquent testament to the value of listening to the poetry of everyday life…."

Like Blue Velvet and Parents, two recent films about the domestic 1950s, this inspired, surrealistic novel reveals the emotional currents swirling beneath the calm surface of suburban life. But rather than depicting these feelings as a dark, dangerous underworld best suppressed with a smile, as the films have done, Jordan, director of the 1986 film Mona Lisa and one of Ireland's pre-eminent fiction writers, presents them as sources of great energy and creativity. By relating to our environment more viscerally, Jordan suggests, we can overcome the alienation that arises from stultifying routine.

The novel begins with portents of change and decay hanging...