Alexander McCall Smith - Dream Angus

Like a fairytale for adults, a light, rose-tinted book that almost passes you by

Book Review by Nick Mitchell | 13 Oct 2006
In the latest instalment of Canongate's celebrated 'Myths' series, Alexander McCall Smith resurrects and updates the legend of Angus (or Aengus), the Celtic God of love, youth and beauty. As the author tells us in simple and lucid prose, Angus was the son of Dagda, the supreme Celtic God, and Boann, a water spirit. In his role as God of love, Angus became a giver of dreams to all who came near him. McCall Smith, embellishing the fable with his own narrative touches, goes on to relate Angus's youth and his own search for love. This is all very romantic, but perhaps too straightforward and too light for the modern reader, so McCall Smith intersperses Angus's story with five short tales of present-day characters whose dreams have a direct influence on their fate. These include a Canadian woman whose therapist uses her dreams to heal the pain of a broken relationship and a honeymooning couple in the Scottish isles who are visited by Angus in their slumbers. 'Dream Angus' reads like a fairytale for adults, a light, rose-tinted book that almost passes you by. It's well-written and smartly contemporary, but lacks the edge or daring of other modern mythological resurrections. [Nick Mitchell]
Publication Date: October 5, Price: £12.99 (hardback). http://www.canongate.net/myths