Dreaming of Dead People

Drawing on medieval poetry and modernist style, a nuanced and raw exploration of the rich inner life and sexual awakening of a solitary woman

In the ‘middle of life’ Lavinia reviews her frustrations, her solitariness, the grief and the rapture, her seeming companions in a pageant presided over, as it were, by the masks of Owl, for winter, and Cuckoo, for erotic love. Dreaming of Dead People, first published in the 1970s, remains as surprising, frank, mordantly funny and raw as ever.

In the ‘middle of life’ – although this is only thirty-six – and with the unsparing eye of a portraitist, Lavinia reviews her frustrations and her solitariness, the grief and the rapture: these are her seeming companions in a pageant presided over, as it were, by the medieval masks of Owl, signifying winter, and Cuckoo, for erotic love. In attendance are dreams of rustic places and once-dear animals. But it is no ordinary procession, for her childhood comes last. The idiosyncratic Dreaming of Dead People was first published in 1979, yet remains as surprising as ever: it is frank, mordantly funny, true to itself and raw.

‘By turns shimmering and disquieting, Belben's exceptional voice deserves a resurgence.’ Irenosen Okojie

‘If the world includes Rosalind Belben and her words it cannot be considered an altogether regrettable place to be.’ Harry Mathews

‘A beautiful work . . . it says a great deal about the world we live in . . . more life-like and more alive than most fiction.’ Michael Hamburger on Is Beauty Good