Tree of Dreams: A Spirit Woman's Vision of Transition and Change

Slipping back and forth between her writer's life as a white woman in New York City and her mystical life amongst the native Indian women of northern Canada, Lynn Andrews weaves a wise woman's tale of aging. As the popular bestselling author (Medicine Woman) now faces her own midlife passage and wrestles with immortality, she finds herself seeing visions of her old nemesis, the evil sorcerer Red Dog, who has seemingly risen from the dead. What does this all mean? Andrews brings her fears and questions to her elder teachers in Canada, whom she has informally apprenticed with for many years. This is all vintage Andrews--complete with visions, dreams, and lessons from the elders. Now that our political consciousness has been elevated, it is hard to wholly embrace this white woman's interpretation of native teaching. At times it is even hard to believe that all the encounters with the women in northern Canada really occurred. The dialogue seems stilted, forced into recounting past events from previous books, or contrived into teaching a lesson rather than relaying actual conversations. Yet, there is no doubting that Andrews has some interesting insights on aging, especially for her fans who appreciate and feel at ease in her shape- and place-shifting format. --Gail Hudson