Read: Connie Willis - Lincoln's Dreams

I had read this book a few years ago, and since it deals with events of the Civil War, it seemed like a good time to re-read it, as I tour Washington's many historical sites.

I'd forgotten how similar this book is in structure to her later novel, 'Passage'. It has the same uncanny feeling, with the central theme of the dreams as messages echoed in many of the other events and characters - different kinds of messages being interrupted, or going astray, or being difficult to interpret. It's a powerful layering of imagery - she hardly needs much of a plot to make for compelling reading, which is good - the book doesn't really end with much resolution of events, although it does bring up a revelation that casts a different light on the narrator's role.

'Passage' was very similar, having the characters misadventures in navigating through the hospital's labyrinth and the sinking of the Titanic echo the central story of near-death imagery as messages from the brain. 'Passage' was more successful in having warm, compelling characters and relationships, which allowed it to have an even more daringly unresolved ending.

There's nothing like a great novel to make the details of history come alive and have meaning - I'll be thinking of Tom Tita, Lee's cat that was left behind trapped in his house's attic, as I tour Arlington cemetery.