2008-09-21 A great biographer does not a good novelist make

I've read most of Torey's memoirs and loved them all, so when I heard she'd written a novel, I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, Overheard in a Dream was a big disappointment.

What I like most about the autobiographical books isn't just the gripping and fascinating subject matter, but the way Torey paints a vivid picture of the characters and settings. You feel as though you've really been there and met these people.

By contrast, I felt this novel was poorly written. The plot was promising, but the characters were wooden and the descriptions were uninspired. As another reviewer commented, there was a lot of telling and not much showing. Rather than entering into the characters' world, I felt I was just being given the "facts" of what happened.

I would say Torey has a great talent for depicting real people, real settings, real details and real emotions. Her ability to take her own experiences and transform them into good books is second to none. However, when it comes to fiction, she doesn't seem to have the imagination to flesh out the details and make her creations live.

This may be something she can improve on, but for now I'll stick with the non-fiction.