DREAMS OF FALLING by Karen White combines
elements of traditional women’s fiction, mystery and historical fiction for a
satisfying, absorbing beach or airplane read. The setting is the Lowcountry of South Carolina and
the time period shifts from contemporary times (2010) back across two generations of
intertwined families. Initially, it is the middle generation – Ivy – whose
accidental injury brings together her daughter Larkin and the friends of Ivy’s
mother, Margaret, who herself died in in the early 1950s due to a fire at the family’s
plantation. That tragedy left friends Ceecee and Bitty to raise Ivy. DREAMS
OF FALLING moves back and forth between decades and between narrators
as Larkin seeks to discover more about her family’s past. At
times, it was hard to believe that she had never asked these questions, but
there are numerous secrets and betrayals (intended or otherwise) to uncover. Ivy,
in a coma, cannot communicate with other characters, but muses to readers, “Love,
I have found, is a treacherous companion. When you do something out of love, it
usually backfires. People need to know that.”
Like White’s other titles (The Night the Lights Went Out
or The Sound of Glass), this novel is full of observations about motivation
and relationships: “There’s something about mothers and daughters, I think,
that makes us always want to hold close at the same time we try to push each other
away.” DREAMS OF FALLING is a story of small town life in the
South which allows for growth in its characters; saying, “It’s because
everything that’s beautiful and worthwhile on this earth starts out as a pile
of mess. Think of butterflies. It’s the struggle to get past the messy part
that makes us who we are.”
