I did not expect to like Dreamers of the Day; from the sleeve it sounded too historical and political for me. But what a talented writer. Mary Doria Russell made this story so alive, I could hardly put it down. Agnes' personal story laid over the cultural portrait of the early 1900s was completely engaging and it kept getting better through the events of the decades. It was thorough and intelligent. I love this book!
Page 21: Well, I cannot make poetry of our great trial, as Mr. Owen did of combat, but permit me to act the school teacher and explain to you the workings of the lungs.
Page 48: There we discovered that some confidence trick of climate and current had delivered us into a full and bracing spring.
Page 55: In contrast to the mute and shrouded hordes of Cairo's women, the city's men yelled constantly.
Page 125: Of them, I recall only the passage from sun glare to near blindness in the shadowed stony chill inside and the disorientation I felt until my eyes adjusted enough to discern exotic artwork in sputtering candlelight.
Page 165: The Israelites fleeing Pharaoh required forty years for that which our train accomplished in a matter of hours.
Page 176: And there at last was the Mount of Olives, glorified by the lingering brilliance of a golden sunset, its own purple shadows veiling hills that rose and retreated, height upon blue height.
Page 211: Add water, and the soil is so fertile that you could plant a pencil and harvest a book.
Page 244: Observing human history has turned out to be a terrible exercise in monotony.
Love it. Merry Christmas!
