Beautiful Dreamers

By Minrose Gwin

Tags: Gay, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

From Minrose Gwin, award-winning author of The Accidentals, comes Beautiful Dreamers, a story of a precocious teen and her mother, their gay best friend, and the con man who unravels their family.

It’s 1953 when Memory Feather and her mother, Virginia, are welcomed back home to the Mississippi Gulf Coast community of Belle Cote by Virginia’s childhood friend Mac McFadden, whose verve and energy buoy the recently divorced Virginia to embrace this new chapter. Memory (“Mem”) is unlike other girls: she is attuned to the voices of plants and animals and is missing two fingers on her twisted left hand. The three of them knit their lives together and become a close, though unconventional, family.

While Mac’s wealth, brains, and good humor have allowed him to carve out a niche in Belle Cote, his position as a gay man active in the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement exposes him to censure, harassment, and even brutality. When the unscrupulous and charismatic Tony Amato arrives in Belle Cote as Mac’s “guest,” he sets in motion a series of events that will shatter familial bonds and forever change Mem’s life. Now, an adult Mem recounts the story of the scars Tony left in her teenage years, confronting her culpability in the disastrous events of that final summer.

Sweeping, dramatic, and vividly rendered, Beautiful Dreamers is a novel of innocence and betrayal, love and intolerance, and the care and honesty we owe the families we choose.

“A too-bright, too-observant girl with a withered hand and her single mother, who dispenses as much magic as mayhem. The town homosexual, magnificent but beleaguered in the Mississippi of 1953. The beautiful hustler who comes into their lives.... Could this be a family? Yes, for a while, but families disappoint, and families betray, and wisdom comes at a price in the edenic coastal village of Belle Cote. Gwin one more time proves her mastery of the Delta landscape, human and geographic, in prose as rich as a New Orleans praline and a story that would have raised the eyebrows of Tennessee Williams.” —Wilton Barnhardt, author of Lookaway, Lookaway and Western Alliances

“Minrose Gwin’s Beautiful Dreamers was a dream from which I didn't want to wake, a novel set in the vivid world of 1950s Gulf Coast Mississippi, peopled with complex and charismatic characters who together redefine family. Gwin is a skillful, compassionate, wise storyteller, one who finds hope in the antidotes to violence and hate: family and love, truth and justice. I have been a fan of Minrose Gwin’s work for years, and Beautiful Dreamers is, hands down, my favorite: a book that I couldn’t put down and didn’t want to end.” —Lori Ostlund, author of After the Parade and The Bigness of the World

“Beautiful Dreamers by Minrose Gwin is an exquisite tapestry of rich emotions and life altering experiences by characters whose stories will captivate readers from the beginning of the novel until its phenomenal ending. Gwin's masterful storytelling transports us to 1950s Mississippi Gulf Coast, where the bonds of friendship and family are tested. Through the compelling characters of Memory Feather, Virginia, and Mac McFadden, Gwin weaves a narrative that is as poignant as it is powerful. The many challenges that are faced by these characters are portrayed with sensitivity and depth. Gwin's prose is nothing short of breathtaking, painting vivid portraits of love and resilience underneath the backdrop of the south during a tumultuous time in history. This book is truly one for the ages.” —Angela Jackson-Brown, author of Homeward

“Poignant, unsettling, wise. By turns hilarious and profound, this rich insightful novel explores the bravery of Deep Southerners who cannot bear cruelty, who will not tolerate prejudice. Gwin’s unforgettable characters navigate a brutal world ever-so-slowly bending toward justice, where billy clubs mercifully are no match for a majorette’s baton.” —John Howard, author of Men Like That and Truths Up His Sleeve

“With luscious prose, sharply drawn characters, and a dash of magical realism, Gwin’s atmospheric novel confronts both prejudice and the price we pay for protecting our loved ones.” —Bridget Thoreson, Booklist

“Beautiful Dreamers is a haunting historical novel whose memorable heroine further illuminates a troubled period in the South.” —Paula Martinac, Foreword Reviews

“Belle Cote and its Gulf of Mexico locale are richly evoked, as is New Orleans, and the author handles suspense deftly. Memory’s witty voice moves convincingly between a child’s innocence and a teenager’s dawning awareness—sometimes exhilarating, sometimes terrifying—of adulthood. [A] compelling story of love, betrayal, and identity.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Minrose Gwin has not composed a cozy, romantic glimpse into midcentury queer life; Beautiful Dreamers is an honest tale. It explores the long-term effects of bigotry and hatred through the prism of flawed, big-hearted characters who are trying to do the right thing.” —Leah Tyler, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Minrose Gwin’s bewitching novel, Beautiful Dreamers, covers a lot of ground: lost innocence and found strength, the gifts life takes away and the gifts it gives in return, the lies that hold you back and the lies you run toward. But most of all, it’s about a mother and a daughter and the connection that never lets you go. The adult Memory’s wonderful narrative voice, as she looks back on the events of her life in Belle Cote, includes Gwin’s exquisitely lyrical descriptions and perfectly apt metaphors.” —Tina Chambers, Chapter 16

“With Beautiful Dreamers, Minrose Gwin firmly establishes herself among the masters of Southern literature. I treasured the experience of reading this heartbreaking yet perfectly crafted tale, with sensitively wrought characters straight out of a Tennessee Williams play and a picturesque Mississippi setting to boot.” —Emily Liner, Friendly City Books, Southern Bookseller Review

“Gwin masterfully captures the limited perspective of a tween caught in a tumultuous time. Memory’s narration is not always reliable but full of the insight only children who have been forced to grow up young can muster. She wants for things to be better and doesn’t fully understand how bad things are. Lovers of literary fiction will enjoy the rich world building. Gwin’s Belle Cote feels almost tangible, and the characters, while not always likable, are full and lived in. They have complicated feelings and relationships, and the adults in Memory’s life don’t always live up to everything they want to be. In the end, things don’t all work out nicely. Memory is forced to do some growing up and becomes disillusioned by the world around her, but she’s still able to persist in beautifully dreaming.” —The Advocate