The Lathe of Heaven

I am a big fan of Ursula K. Le Guin's most famous book The Left Hand of Darkness, not because it’s a particularly fluid or exciting read - in some places it positively drags - but because of the amazing concepts and what it means to science fiction, so I was expecting something similar with The Lathe of Heaven.

I didn’t quite get it, not on that scale, and although this might seem like a negative review at first, it gets really positive by the end.

This is a book about the morals of the world and how external decisions out of our control can radically affect our existence, in the essence of love for example, of unexpectedly finding, nurturing, losing, and regaining it, going round in endless circles and maybe never feeling comfortable with what you’ve got, which is the polar essence of our mortal existence.

The Lathe of Heaven fails to create a narrative that holds your attention over long periods of time because of the way it chunders through the chat instead of getting on with the plot, especially as there are only three characters of note, George Orr, Dr. Haber, and Heather Lelache. In fact, there isn’t much plot and it’s hard to recall what the book is even about at times, other than a sort of time-travel experience that’s governed by going in and out of dreams, each time on waking up, the world having changed because of somehow interlinking the content of that dream to the world that now exists outside.

Dreaming and how these dreams are controlled is the highbrow science fiction element of the book, and considering the small array of characters and the relatively straightforward concept behind it - dream - world changes - dream - world changes again, it could have been so much more.

What it does really well however is create a seed of doubt between reality and insanity and, if you were able to subconsciously change the world, begs the question how would you go about it? If you were able to completely eradicate war simply by dreaming, through a wish if you like, would the planet be a better place because of it or, after multiple attempts to change everything for the good of all, would the world become a gray precursor to a sterile existence in the middle realm of constraints and blandness in the same mold as 1984 by George Orwell?

The mess of the world we live in is perhaps that way because there is no global power or decision-making body to try and even things out for overall harmony, with war remaining hateful and ugly because of so many different factions fighting for power.

Ursula K. Le Guin addresses this conflict by dreaming aliens into the story, to explain that war on earth might become irrelevant if we had a third-party to really fight against instead of each other, to emphasize how conflict is nothing more than a group of giant human insects with nothing better to do than battle for power and territory within.

She does a really good job of provoking thought and retrospect into why we are here, and although it can be rather mournful and sad and not necessarily fun for reading at times, her brain is phenomenal, just don’t expect a gripping narrative with a strong storyline and plot.

There’s a beauty to the prose and a sense that after everything we’ve still got each other, rain or shine, no matter the costs, the changes, or what you put us through, we remain and prosper and carry on.

A sense of hope. Even the aliens are understandable as we realize they’re after the same thing: a little bit of love, friendship, sympathy and empathy.

There’s a section later on where George Orr gets given a free vinyl copy of The Beatles record With a Little Help from My Friends, which he takes home and plays over and over again, with The Lathe of Heaven being quite wonderful at gluing little things like that together and providing introspective details, but as a thriller, not so much, and some people might struggle with it.

I upgraded my rating from 3 to 4 stars after writing this review, you know, because reflection has that effect!

It’s nowhere near as good or profound as The Left Hand of Darkness, but still worth a read.