DREAM HOUSE ON GOLAN DRIVE
“[A] moving and compelling novel. Pace expertly depicts the restrictive and redemptive nature of family, culminating in a haunting final scene that melds the sacred and the profane.”
—Carys Bray, author of A Song for Issy Bradley
“[L]ovingly satirical.” –Salt Lake Tribune
“[T]his novel about a Mormon son struggling with his place in the family and in the larger world was at once compelling, deep and funny. Imagine Cheaper by the Dozen colliding with The Razor’s Edge.
“[Dream House], by delving into the heart of a devout family, was able to convey historical background, rules and rituals, and information about the organizational hierarchy, all within the context of an engrossing story… .I [now] have a sense of what it is to be a spiritual being in this setting, how it is to struggle, where the structure is binding and where it is freeing….[Pace] was able to create contexts in which the magical elements were both appropriate and believable.”
–Brenda Mills, Fiction Collective Two; Judge of the Utah Original Writing Competition (Novel)
“Mormon literature gets a welcome jolt of honest genuine salty blunt lyrical
narrative here; it’s a mark of maturity when a culture of any kind faces itself
squarely, with pain and humor and grace, and David Pace’s wry bruised novel is accessible, revelatory, and startling. I was deeply moved.”
—Brian Doyle, author of Mink River and The Plover.
“[A]n extraordinary novel, beautifully conceived and written… .[I]t’s transgressive, deliberately and productively. It’s also a novel of a rare and powerful transcendence. Both/and. Terrific. And troubling.”
—Eric Samuelsen, 15 Bytes
“David Pace’s novel is a wonder to behold. He takes the soul of a true believer from ‘the perfect Mormon family’ in the Provo foothills . . . and exposes him to the outside world, seen and unseen, including an encounter with one of the three immortal Nephites. As Riley struggles to hold onto his beliefs, it may seem like little enough for some readers, but for some of us it is hugely sufficient and satisfactory. This is a great contribution to Mormon literature and a marvelous achievement.”
—Phyllis Barber, author of How I Got Cultured: A Nevada Memoir and To the Mountain: One Mormon Woman’s Search for Spirit
“A superb depiction of Utah life in the 1970s and 1980s, complete with many of the now-discounted Mormon cultural practices. This might have been the story of my own Linda Wallheim’s first husband, Ben. In any case, the author’s characters came alive for me in beautiful and disturbing ways.”
—Mette Ivie Harrison, author of The Bishop’s Wife and His Right Hand
“Who better to tell the story of the coming of age of a bright and confused Riley Hartley—son of an LDS Church icon—than the ‘old jaded Nephite’ Zed (short for Zedekiah), one of three ancients allowed to wander the earth forever. Zed proves the perfect guardian angel and storyteller, a cynical wise man whose ‘eternal, ineffectual musings’ draw us into unexpected places—a heart of darkness, in fact. Chekhov said an author needs to correctly identify a problem and then solve it, but only the first, he said, is obligatory. In my opinion, Pace has met his obligation. In the grip of an Abrahamic moment, Riley finds no solace or consolation. The metaphysics of the novel may be religious, but the answer is not found in any catechism.”
—Darrell Spencer, author of A Woman Packing a Pistol, Our Secret’s Out, and Bring Your Legs with You
“Interesting, provocative, and complex, Dream House explores paradox and humanity among a quintessential Mormon family. Pace shies away from nothing, demonstrating a near comprehensive understanding of the comedy, light, and darkness at the heart of a lifestyle underrepresented in American literature. A deft and clever chronicle.”
–Braden Hepner, author of Pale Harvest, winner of the 15 Bytes Book Award