Lucid Dreaming: a Novel

LaSilva Bentley grew up in a crowd. The youngest of five children born on her father?s ancestral Montana ranch and overshadowed by her eldest twin sisters and her brothers, LaSilva seeks the companionship of her grandfather, his horses, and the forest to avoid the frenetic competition among her siblings for their parents? attention. The family splinters as the children move into their adult lives, and LaSilva will spend years seeking to piece together her artist mother?s mysterious past and clues to the unreasoning anger of her father. His sister, LaSilva?s Aunt Bliss?who escaped the ranch at a young age to become a wealthy, eccentric, cosmic Californian?is LaSilva?s lifelong mentor and patron. While still in her twenties LaSilva begins having vivid dreams. She sees haunting images lifted randomly from various centuries across America, odd windows into historic lives of ordinary people. She begins painting the dreams, understanding little of them, but knowing the importance of documenting them on canvas. She senses they relate somehow to her family and shows them to Bliss, who coaches her in the interpretation of dreams to further LaSilva?s search for the pieces to the family puzzle. She remains close to her mother and over time reconnects with her siblings. But even in his elder years, her father cannot seem to accept her or the bohemian life she has chosen to lead. She observes reflections of her dreams in the lives of her family members, and by the time of her mother?s late-life illness LaSilva has spent three decades gathering the metaphorical puzzle pieces that form The Big Picture of the family bloodline. But it isn?t until her parents pass on that the final pieces fall into place.