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Pickett's Dream

"...it brings to mind the timeless quality inherent in works such as Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby."

A review of Pickett’s Dream by former Senior Editor of McClelland & Stewart, who has worked with some of the most gifted writers in Canada, including Leonard Cohen, Farley Mowat, Michael Ondaajte, Mordecai Richler, and Gabrielle Roy

“As an editor, a spark ignites when one encounters, in a heap of unsolicited manuscripts, a unique and distinctive lyrical voice. This was my experience with Chris Carlisle’s Pickett’s Dream.

Here is a writer whose passion to reveal the human condition is as essential as breathing. And now decades later, the figures that live in his story remain vivid — the enigmatic priest, John Pickett, consumed by an indomitable love; the alluring Athena van Fleet, flirtatious and elusive, wed to the adulterous tycoon Ted Talbot; and the chronicler of this tale — the pensive, observant Brooke Adams — beset by passions of his own.

Propelled by a lyrical style that flows like a river, it brings to mind the timeless quality inherent in works such as Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby.

The rhythm and eloquence in the writing will invite the reader to retrace the story many times — to linger over the insights, the flashes of humor, and to savor the majestic beauty of the language. In our highly commercialized era, where expediency is a virtue, this creation of exquisite imagery and quiet reflection has had a lengthy journey to come into the light; yet it bears the stamp of infinity.”

—Lily Poritz Miller

“Echoing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby with Brooke, the narrator, shedding some light on the strange happenings in Newport, Rhode Island, Pickett’s Dream gives a stunning vision of Newport society and its haphazard obedience to conventional standards of morality. Beautifully written to express the vacuity at the heart of this pained group of people, the novel captures perfectly the dilemmas of its major figure”

About The Author

Christopher Carlisle is an Episcopal priest and former chaplain at the University of Massachusetts, where he created an innovative sanctuary of learning, worship, and the arts. He then took to the streets, founding several outdoor “cathedrals” which brought together the homed and homeless in the original tradition of Jesus. When his 94-year-old mentor was asked if these communities were “what the church was meant to be,” the married Catholic priest and mystic replied, “It is, when it’s snowing.”

Christopher Carlisle

Episcopal Priest | College Chaplain | Author

Pickett's Dream Book Trailer

Reviews

What people are saying about Pickett's Dream...

Echoing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s the Great Gatsby, Pickett’s Dream gives a stunning vision of Newport, Rhode Island society. Beautifully written to express the vacuity at the heart of this pained group of people, the novel captures perfectly the dilemmas of its major figures.

Staines is a leading Canadian literary critic, university professor, writer, and editor, was awarded the Order of Ontario for helping to establish Canada’s highest award for fiction, the Giller Prize, and the Order of Canada, “for his contributions as a champion of Canadian literature and mentor to young writers.”

The rhythm and eloquence in the writing will invite the reader to retrace the story many times – to linger over the insights, the flashes of humor, and to savor the majestic beauty of the language. In our highly commercialized era, where expediency is a virtue, this creation of exquisite imagery and quiet reflection has had a lengthy journey to come into the light; yet it bears the stamp of infinity.

Poritz Miller is a writer and former Senior Editor of McClelland & Stewart, worked with some of the most gifted writers in Canada, including Leonard Cohen, Sylvia Fraser, Alistair MacLeod, Farley Mowat, Michael Ondaatje, Mordecai Richler and Gabrielle Roy.