- Hardcover: 368 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus (2 April 2020)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1526600552
- ISBN-13: 978-1526600554
Synopsis
1960. The world is dancing on the edge of revolution, and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra, where a circle of poets, painters and musicians live tangled lives, ruled by the writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled king and queen of bohemia. Forming within this circle is a triangle: its points the magnetic, destructive writer Axel Jensen, his dazzling wife Marianne Ihlen, and a young Canadian poet named Leonard Cohen.
Into their midst arrives teenage Erica, with little more than a bundle of blank notebooks and her grief for her mother. Settling on the periphery of this circle, she watches, entranced and disquieted, as a paradise unravels.
Review
A Theatre for Dreamers is summer in a book, that took me to the heat and beauty of the Greek Island of Hydra. Set in 1960, Erica, her boyfriend Jimmy and brother Bobby set off for the Island of Hydra, for literaty and artistic inspiration and for Erica to find Charmain Clift. Charmain was friends with Erica’s mother, who recently died, and she wants to find out more about her. Hydra is awash with literary and artistic talent, as well as Charmain, there is her husband George Johnston, Axel Jensen and a young Leonard Cohen. Over the course of the summer relationships are tested, a love triangle emerges and on the side lines Erica watches with intrigue as her ideals are shattered.
A Theatre for Dreamers is beautiful in repsect of Polly Samson’s writing, setting and plot. Erica is only seventeen when she looses her mother and goes to Hydra in search of author Charmain Clift. She has left a sheltered life, caring for her mother until her death and being ruled by a strict and cold father. Her mother left her money so she could follow her dreams, and make something of her life, and Hydra offers that to her. Hydra is everything her life in London is not; colourful, bright, and even though there is no running water or electricity she embraces her new found freedom. At seventeen Erica is young, naive and idealistic, seeing only the best in everyone and everything, but over the course of the summer the rose tinted glasses cloud over, and her ideals are shattered.
It is Charman who takes on the mother role with Erica, teaching her how to cook, and giving her advice, especially about not putting her life on hold for a man. This is a bit ironic as Charmain has stopped writing so she can help her tempremantal husband George write his first novel. Charmain is like the queen of the islands artisitc community. She holds court every morning at the cafe where the writers gather, including Leonard Cohen, and at the bars and parties in the evening. It as a cosmopolitan community, that reminded me of the literary salons in Paris in the seventeenth century, with the writers giving readings, discussing literary greats and philosophising about their writing.
Polly Samson writes in vivid technicolour, capturing the light, the colours, sights, sounds and smells of the Island, its rituals and beauty. The same intensity and detail are in her writing of the characters as well; the angry and passionate Axel Jensen, his beautiful and demur wife Marianne, the tortured George Johnston, and the relaxed and laid back Leonard Cohen. All the nuances and emotions of these characters made me feel like I knew and understood them. Feminism and the female as a Muse were a thread that run throughout the story. Charmain feels she has had to put her writng on hold to be a wife, mother and help her husband write his book. Marianne is husband Axel’s muse, and devotes her life to making it easy for hime to write, cooking for him, taking food to him, caring for him whilst he is continually having affairs. Charmain wants more than this for Erica, advising her of living her own life and not running around after her boyfriend which is what she is doing in her relationship with Jimmy; up at the crack of dawn to get food and water, making it easy for him to write. The 1960’s was the decade that first saw women be given more opportunities, and being liberated for the social and cultural constraints of previous decades, so it was fascinating to read of a world on the cusp of this revolution.
A Theatre for Dreamers is an enchanting and evocative read, that took me to the beautiful Island of Hydra. It is an ode to a more simplistic life, a life of art and literature, a place of debate and philosphical discussion, a cosmopolitan community. Polly Samson captures the continually changing atmosphere of the Island, the passion of those who live there and the sense of community. This is a glorious read, sensual in the writing and immersive in the storyline, the perfect summer read.
I would like to thank Bloomsbury and Anne Cater for my copy of this book in return for an honest review.
