THE LATHE OF HEAVEN BY URSULA K. LE GUIN (BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION )

Hello dear readers! Today I'll share my review for The Lathe of Heaven, a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. I've read this novel only a couple of days ago and it's still very fresh in my mind. Would it come as a surprise to you if I said that I absolutely loved it? To regular readers of my blog, I'm sure it wouldn't. Le Guin is one of those writers I always come back to.  I've read, reviewed and enjoyed many of Le Guin's book, so when I spotted his one in a local library I didn't think twice. 

Once I picked The Lathe of Heaven up, I had a hard time putting it down. I found the story quite easy to read and follow, but simultaneously very engaging and interesting. I warmed up the protagonist immediately. The original and inspiring story kept my interest through the novel. The Lathe of Heaven is a novel that has aged well and kept it relevance. 

 Published in 1971, this science fiction novel was nominated for Hugo and Nebula award. The Lathe of Heaven won the Locus award and was adapted twice. Ursula K. Le Guin was personality involved in the first of the two adaptations. I haven't seen either, but I think you can guess which one I would like to see.

Set in the future (already the past for us), the novel focuses on life of  its passive but well meaning protagonist George Orr (highly possible and probable reference to George Orwell).  George gets himself into a minor trouble with authorities for borrowing someone's pharmaceutical card to get a prescription medicine. George needs medication to stop dreaming. Why is so afraid of dreaming? Actually, there is a good reason. George believes that his dreams come true!

What does Le Guin's page have to say about his novel? I'll quote it:

  "In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George’s dreams for his own purposes.

The Lathe of Heaven is an eerily prescient novel from award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin that masterfully addresses the dangers of power and humanity’s self-destructiveness, questioning the nature of reality itself. It is a classic of the science fiction genre. "

THE TITLE OF THE BOOK EXPLAINED - The title is from the writings of Chuang Tzu (Zhuang Zhou) — specifically a passage from Book XXIII, paragraph 7, quoted as an epigraph to Chapter 3 of the novel:

To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven. (知止乎其所不能知，至矣。若有不即是者，天鈞敗之。)

Other epigraphs from Chuang Tzu appear throughout the novel. Le Guin chose the title because she loved the quotation. However, it seems that quote is a mis-translation of Chuang Tzu's Chinese text. In an interview with Bill Moyers for the 2000 DVD release of the 1980 adaptation, Le Guin clarified the issue:

...it's a terrible mis-translation apparently, I didn't know that at the time. There were no lathes in China at the time that was said. Joseph Needham wrote me and said "It's a lovely translation, but it's wrong".^[3] 

Source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lathe_of_Heaven

THE LATHE OF HEAVEN, 
A NOVEL BY URSULA K. LE GUIN

THE OPENING OF THE NOVEL- INTRODUCING A PASSIVE PROTAGONIST LIVING IN A DEPRESSIVE FUTURE 

The book opens in Portland, Oregon in what seems a bleak future. It's year 2002 and the future isn't too promising. Oregon has a population of 3 million,  global warming is  a real thing and malnutrition is  a problem. We find out about these things in passing. The culture feels like seventies culture (when the novel was written). The focus of this novel is where it should be- on its protagonist George Orr.

Who is George? Our protagonist seems like harmless person but he has a sleep problem. Draftsman by profession, he seems like the kind of person who keeps to himself. Soon into the novel we learn more things about George Orr. George has been borrowing a pharmaceutical card from somebody so that he can get a higher dosage of medications to help with his sleeping problem. When he is caught, George has a talk with doctor who seems quite understanding of the situation. George is informed that since George was only using the medication for himself and not selling it to others or anything of the kind, he won't be punished severely.  He just has to name the person who borrowed him the card and attend voluntary therapy. George refuses to tell from whom he borrowed the pharmaceutical card, potentially risking problems with he law. 

A stranger (a employer in a place where George collapsed) informs the doctor that the card was his, even if that evidently wasn't the case. The doctor accepts his explanation as he is in a hurry to get to his patients. Children from he lower class are suffering from protein deficiency. The doctor feels powerless because nobody is sending him any help or supplies. The only thing that the doctor can do is to give vitamin C o the kids (and he's certain that won't help), Details like his help to fill in information about this 'future' world. It is a world where malnutrition is a problem. It seems that the global warming has significantly reduced the quality of life. 

What is George so afraid of? Well, it's 'effective' dreams. The kind of dreams that turn true.  A power nobody should have. It's worth noting that his fear is described very convincingly and consistently. Anyhow, the doctor informs George that he will be sent to therapy for his addiction to medication. George is sent to therapy sessions with an ambition psychologist William Haber. The psychologist actually specializes in sleep research so he seems interested in George's case.

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE SECOND CHARACTER- DOCTOR     HABER

The second important character is the psychologist Haber. He appears a complete opposite of George: ambitious, proactive, dynamic, confident, domineering and extroverted. William Haber seems to be very interested in George's case. It seems that initially Haber has his patient's best interests at heart or a least that is what he projects. Nevertheless, as a reader I immediately felt here was something condescending about the way doctor Haber treated George. It seems like doctor Haber genuinely wants to help but he is more focused on the goal than on the means. Reading about their session I felt like Haber didn't see George as a real person.  There are some really good questions raised as the novel progresses. How much professional distance is too much distance?  Where does science end and humanity beginnings? Are we using medicine  and science responsibly? Do we continue to see and respect humans beings as what they are- human beings? 

There is  a quote from this book that comes to my mind in reference to these questions: “You have to help another person. But it's not right to play God with masses of people.” 

George perhaps starts to see some hope as he opens up to doctor Haber. Albeit young, George is a broken man. The weight he wears is indeed heavy. Besides, George has no choice. He has to allow doctor Haber to treat him. So, George opens up and we find out where everything started. It was with a dream. At the time, George was about seventeen and living with his parents. His aunt moved in following her divorce. George didn't appreciate his mother's sister teasing him, walking around naked and so on. One night George  dreamed his first 'effective' dream. When he woke up, his aunt was gone. George finds up that his aunt was killed in a plane accidents weeks ago. He is he only one that realizes this. He dreamed his aunt into her death and there's nothing he can do about it. George realizes that his dreams can come true- and what is even worse, he cannot control them. Gorge cannot choose whether to dream effective dreams or not. They happen on their own, without any intention on his part. Following an effective dream, George is the only person that remembers the world as it was. Everyone else just accepts this new reality.

Naturally, the psychologist doesn't believe any of this. As George narrates, Haber makes the kind of observations one would expect from a therapist. Some of these observations are quite intelligent as Haber is certainly a clever man. There are other things George notices about him. Haber doesn't have a back door to his office but it's unlikely that patients would run one into another. Haber can afford to keep a few patients as he is primarily focused on research. As George makes observations about the psychologist, so the psychologist makes them about his patient. Thus their relationship begins.  

WE AS READERS LEARN A LOT ABOUT SLEEP FROM  A SCIENTIFIC POINT OF VIEW

While George and Haber talk, we learn more about the science of sleep. Ursula was the type of writer that did  a lot of research. If Ursula had some science in her novels, the science had to be right. As readers of this novel, we can actually learn something about the science of sleep. Personally, I found that part of the book quite fascinating. 

IT'S NOT ALL JUST SCIENCE- TAOISM COMES INTO PLAY

“But in fact, isn't that man's very purpose on earth--to do things, change things, run things, make a better world?"
"No!"
"What is his purpose, then?"
"I don't know. Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, and every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part.” 

This novels also introduces different theological and philosophical aspects. Ursula's interest in Taoism is reveled. There are quite a few quotes from classical Eastern books. The scientific narrative is often replaced with philosophical one. Moreover, at times, this novels is remarkably poetic. There are some deep messages that can be taken from this novel.

“Those whom heaven helps we call the sons of heaven. They do not learn this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not reason it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven. —Chuang Tse: XXIII”

THE SHOCKING REALITY- WILLIAM HABER WITNESSES THE WORLD CHANGING

During their first session, Haber hypnotizes George quite the ordinary way. Haber does it so that he could observe George's sleep with the help of a machine. The psychologist suggests to George to dream of a horse. George has an effective dream. A picture of a mountain in Haber's office is replaced by a picture of a horse. Haber is initially confused but he feigns confidence. He assures George that nothing is changed as he struggles to accept the reality himself. The reality is that George can change reality with his dreams. George suspects that Haber knows but doesn't want to admit it to George and himself. That seems to be the case. Haber hurries to make another appointment with George who agrees but basically has no choice. Left on his own, Haber remembers that he indeed had a picture of mountain in his office. Haber is fascinated by he possibilities of this revaluation. 

THE TEMPTATION IS JUST TOO MUCH- WHEN THE PSYCHOLOGIST WANTS TO CONTROL THE DREAMS

Haber continues to hypnotize and treat George. Does George benefit from these treatments? Not really. If anything, George feels more tired. Does Haber benefit from them? In some ways he does, in some he doesn't. In order to continue treating George, Haber has to divide his personality into two: one part that doesn't believe George and one that does. In order to retain his authority as a psychologist, William treats George s someone with delusions. At the same time, William needs George to continue his research. I could be said that it is ethical test this scientist fails. What is worse, Haber starts to control George's dreams for his own benefits.  Under his instructions, George dreams Williams into more and more important positions.  Slowly but surely, Haber turns into an antagonist. He starts using George to alter reality. Seemingly these changes aren't for the worse, but who can tell? Occasionally, William even does something for George, for example  suggests him to dream a cabin. However, George isn't happy with these changes. He might have mentioned how a cabin would be nice if he could afford it, but George doesn't want a better job or a cabin. George just wants for the dreams to stop! However, his therapist has other plans. Moreover, William has legal power over George. Haber can send George to jail or have him committed. George has no choice but to collaborate. 

BOY MEETS GIRL- GEORGE LOOKING FOR HELP FROM HEATHER

Finally, George decides to look for help. He goes to see a lawyer and a funny things happens. As soon as George meets Heather he immediately takes a liking to her. Moreover, Heather likes him too. It's no described as love at first sight or anything like that, but the possibility of love is clearly hinted between these two people that cannot be more different one from another. 

Heather is energetic and loud, whereas George is phlegmatic and silen. George is unnoticeable, Heather is dressed in vibrant colour. Heather is biracial, her father being of African descent, a fact that plays a role in her identity and shall be discussed later in the novel.

 Presently, there are more urgent maters at hand. George explains to Heather what is going on. George suspects that doctor Haber is using him. Heather is skeptical but she wants to help George. 

“...no lawyer would dream of bringing a patient's complaint against William Haber. He was an important man, an extremely important man. He was the director of HURAD, the vital center of the World Planning Center, the place where the great decisions were made.” 

HEATHER ATTENDS SESSION AND WITNESSES GEORGE CHANGING THE WORLD AS HE DREAMS

Doctor William allows Heather to witness George's therapy seasons. Thanks to George's effective dreams, William has grown more powerful. However, being the strong woman that she is, Heather find a way. As Heather witnesses the sessions, George dreams an effective dream and she can see the world changing. Finding herself in a state of shock, Heather struggles o make sense of hings. William uses his psychologist tricks to manipulate her into believing his version of events, but this only takes him so fr. Heather initially fails to accept this new reality, but given some time, she finds her inner strength. Heather really is as George saw her  from the start- a strong woman.

“He liked the way she began her fierce, scornful sentences so often with a weak, conciliatory 'well.' She cut the ground out from under them before they ever got going, let them hang unsupported in the void. She had courage, great courage.”  The Lathe of Heaven

LOVE STORY THAT IS PERHAPS THE MOST TOUCHING PART OF THIS BOOK

This is the beginning of love story that is actually quite touching and real. You could say that this love feels like the most 'real' thing in this dreamy novel. Both Heather and George are strong in heir own way. With time, Heather starts to understand that George is very brave in his own way. There is more than one way to be brave. George is strong in the way he accepts things without anger or resentment. At first, George seems terribly passive. As time passes by, the readers sees that it is more patience than passivity. When all is taken into account, George is a moral man with a good heart. Both Heather and George are very human. They have their insecurities and weakness, bu they both recognize the good in one another. What is more, they are both strong enough to love what is good in one another. That's true courage. Perhaps that is even what true love is  really about. 

“That's not me. That's my subconscious, see, he's talking to. It is kind of like a dog of a monkey, for his purposes. It's not rational, but it can be trained to perform”   The Lathe of Heaven

THINGS GETTING COMPLICATED AS THE PSYCHOLOGIST GETS MORE AND MORE GREEDY

“Then this world will be like heaven, and men will be like gods!"
"We are, we are already," Orr said, but the other paid no heed.”

Williams gets more and more greedy and George more and more exhausted. Does it matter that William believes he acts for the greater good? He makes George dream effective dreams all the time now. Every dream changes the word and creates a new often dystopian reality. Williams grown more and more powerful until he practically rules the world. Often William gets frustrated with George because his dreams never turn out exactly how he wanted. As a scientist William clearly must understand that dreams cannot be controlled. George becomes the voice of reason, but William seems to be too drunk on power to listen.

“I can't let you use my dreams anymore."
"Use' them?"
"Use them."
"Call it what you like," Haber said. He had straightened up and towered over Orr, who was still sitting down. He was gray, large, broad curly bearded, deep-chested, frowning. Your god is a jealous God. "I'm sorry, George, but you're not in a position to say that.”  

GEORGE FEELS USED AND TRIES TO REBEL BUT CANNOT FREE HIMSELF FROM WILLIAM AND CONTINUES CREATING DYSTOPIAN WORLDS

George feels used and for a good reason. Williams has no desire no treat him and instead imagines George as cure for mankind. Under his influence and power, George keeps creating dystopian worlds that often horrify him. William, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be worried. 

Williams tries to make George dream a world where hunger is no longer a burning issue. The result of his hypnosis induced dream? A large part of the population is gone. They have been killed by the plague. George is horrified by this overnight genocide but William is unmoved. Isn't it better this way? Now, malnutrition and global warming are no longer a problem. 

“No wonder you're depressed. You haven't fully accepted the use of controlled violence for the good of the community.”

William tries to make George dream a world where there is no war. George's effective dream lands aliens on the Mon. The third world war is prevented by the invasion of aliens. Again, George is afraid of his powers but William has no intention of stopping. 

“We need health. We simply have no room for the incurables, the gene-damaged who degrade the species; we have no time for wasted, useless suffering.”

Williams has George dream a word where there are no illnesses. Simple solution: everyone who is sick is euthanized. No cancer genes are passed on.  The cruelty of this horrifies George, but as always William rationalizes. George becomes the weapon of his psychologist ambition. William refuses to admit that he doesn't know what he is doing. He probably can't even admit it to himself. 

“Orr escaped, pushing head-down through the crowd, before Marin administered euthanasia with the hypodermic gun worn by all adult citizens who had earned their Civic Responsibility Certificate. He himself wore one. It was a legal obligation.”

DAMSEL SAVES THE KNIGHT IN DISTRESS AND A LOVE IS BORN

Unable to escape the psychologist's torture treatments, George escapes  the cabin. There he tries to avoid sleeping at all coast. He is horrified of the effective dreams he might have. When Heather finds him in the cabin, he is exhausted almost to the point of death. He has managed o avoid effective dreams by dozing off in a seating positions but awaking before he could get any REM sleep. Heather has an idea. She is going to hypnotize George herself and stop he invasion of aliens that is about to take place. More importantly, she will hypnotize George into making William a better man and more honest man. George explains to her that is not that simple, but he knows he cannot hold on forever without deep sleep, so he agrees. It might be the best chance they get. 

“He’s found a great way to run the world without taking any responsibility for it. Well. Make him less power-hungry. Dream that he’s a really good man. Dream that he’s trying to cure you, not use you!” “But I can’t choose my dreams. Nobody can.” The Lathe Of Heaven

THE DREAM DOES NOT MAKE HERBERT A BETTER MAN BUT IT CONNECTS THE TWO LOVERS

When George wakes up,  a dystopian catastrophe is avoided but he is not free of William. The psychologist has become more honest but not a better man for it. William now openly admits that he's using George but he doesn't plan to stop anytime soon. 

“I freely admit that I don't know about eighty-five percent of the time, what the hell I'm doing with this screwball brain of yours, and you don't either, but we're doing it--so, can we get on with it?”

What is good in all of these is the love between Heather and George. A love that has been born in desperate circumstances. 

“She went to the door and stood half inside, half outside for a while, listening to the creek shouting and hollering eternal praise! eternal praise! It was incredible that it had kept up that tremendous noise for hundreds of years before she was even born, and would go on doing it until the mountains moved. And the strangest thing about it, now very late at night in the absolute silence of the woods, was a distant note in it, far away upstream it seemed, like the voices of children singing—very sweet, very strange. She got shivery; she shut the door on the voices of the unborn children singing in the water, and turned to the small warm room and the sleeping man.” 

“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new. When it was made, they lay in each other’s arms, holding love, asleep. In her sleep Heather heard the roaring of a creek full of the voices of unborn children singing.”

GEORGE CONFESSES THAT THE WORLD HAS ALREADY ENDED

“A person who believes, as she did, that things fit: that there is a whole of which one is a part, and that in being a part one is whole; such a person has no desire whatever, at any time, to play God. Only those who have denied their being yearn to play at it.” 

There is a curious moment in the novel when George confesses to Heather hat the world has already ended but that he dreamed it back to life. He confesses it to Heather (if I recall well)) in what feels like a moment of vulnerable honesty. 

“Do you—” He stuttered several times. “Do you remember anything about April, four years ago—in ninety-eight?” “April? No, nothing special.” “That’s when the world ended,” Orr said. A muscular spasm disfigured his face, and he gulped as if for air. “Nobody else remembers,” he said.”

This invokes all kind of interesting questions. Was the world always meant to end? Who is George really? What gives him such power? Is it his patience of the monk? His understanding that limited by our limitations we cannot really dream a better world? His wisdom? Her wisdom? 

“He never spoke with any bitterness at all, no matter how awful the things he said. Are there really people without resentment, without hate, she wondered. People who never go cross-grained to the universe? Who recognize evil, and resist evil, and yet are utterly unaffected by it? Of course there are. Countless, the living and the dead. Those who have returned in pure compassion to the wheel, those who follow the way that cannot be followed without knowing they follow it, the sharecropper's wife in Alabama and the lama in Tibet and the entomologist in Peru and the millworker in Odessa and the greengrocer in London and the goatherd in Nigeria and the old, old man sharpening a stick by a dry streambed somewhere in Australia, and all the others. There is not one of us who has not known them. There are enough of them, enough to keep us going. Perhaps.”

WILLIAMS  PLANS TO MAKE A MACHINE THAT WILL ENABLE HIM TO DREAM  EFFECTIVE DREAMS

Things move from bad to worse when William decides to make a machine that will enable him to dream the kind of dreams that enable him to change the world. George sees right through him. As passive as he seemed at first, George reveals himself to be quite an independent thinker. He sees the danger in his, he understand that Williams hunger for power has gotten out of hand. 

“Why are you fighting me--now? Why now, George? When you've contributed so much, and we're so near the goal?”

“Because the longer you go on the worse it gets. And now, instead of preventing me from having effective dreams, you're going to start having them yourself. I don't like making the rest of the world live in my dreams, but I certainly don't want to live in yours.”

THE ALIENS ARRIVE AND GEORGE ESTABLISHES A CONNECTION TO THEM

Alien invasion started rather bloody but it turns out that it was all a misunderstanding. Aliens are not violent at all, they were only trying to communicate. George is the one who establishes contact with aliens. Moreover, it seems that he has a special connection with them. Is that odd considering that he was the one who dreamed them?

“Saying that, he was suddenly himself again, despite his lunatic hair and eyes: a man whose personal dignity went so deep as to be nearly invisible...
It was more than dignity. Integrity? Wholeness? Like a block of wood not carved.
The infinite possibility, the unlimited and unqualified wholeness of being of the uncommitted, the non-acting, the uncarved: the being who, being nothing but himself, is everything.”

GEORGE LOSES HIS LOVE BUT FINDS HER AGAIN WITH THE HELP OF ALIENS

William continues to try to better this world. He makes George dream a world where there is no racism. George wakes up in a world where everyone has grey skin. Heather is gone. She never existed. Her skin colour was a big part of her identity, of who she was.

“She could not have been born gray. Her color, her color of brown, was an essential part of her, not an accident. Her anger, timidity, brashness, gentleness, all were elements of her mixed being, her mixed nature, dark and clear right through, like Baltic amber. She could not exist in the gray people's world. She had not been born.”

 There are other worlds that George dreams where Heather is dead. Once a grey version of Heather is killed. Undoubtedly, doctor Williams sees Heather as a treat because she really wants to help George and therefore cannot be bought or pressured into submission. The love between George and Heather is true. 

“Look what you almost did, that one night when you ran off with that woman lawyer--"
"She's dead," Orr said.
"Good. She was a destructive influence on you. Irresponsible. You have no social conscience, no altruism. You're a moral jellyfish. I have to instill social responsibility in you hypnotically, every time.”

Speaking with aliens, George makes an interesting discovery. It seems that for them effective dreams are  reality. Not only do the liens know about the dreams, they might be  foundation of their civilization. At any rate, aliens are happy to share a phrase that helps George dream an effective dream he wants. He repeats the magical word and dreams Heather back into life. With time George seems to find more peace, but Williams sinks into madness. 

“And, quiet as a thief in the night, a sense of well-being came into him, a certainty that things were all right, and that he was in the middle of things. Self is universe. He would not be allowed to be isolated, to be stranded. He was back where he belonged. He felt an equanimity, a perfect certainty as to where he was and where everything else was. This feeling did not come to him as blissful or mystical, but simply as normal. It was the way he generally had felt, except in times of crisis, of agony; it was the mood of his childhood and all the best and profoundest hours of boyhood and maturity; it was his natural mode of being. These last years he had lost it, gradually but almost entirely, scarcely realizing that he had lost it.”

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN- THE FIGHT BETWEEN WILLIAM AND GEORGE

Will William dream an effective dream of his own? Everything in the novel leads to hat. He made he equipment for it. Williams character development has been consistent. He is a man drunk on power. IIf benevolent George dreams such dystopian worlds what kind of world with George dream? What will happen then? Will George manage to stop him? Will George and Heather manage to find one another as one dystopia takes place of another? To find the answer to those questions, you will have to read the book. 

CONCLUSION

This is an excellent science fiction novel. There's more to it than meets the eye. Highly recommended!

MY STORY OF DISCOVERING URSULA K. LE GUIN'S WRITING? HOW I BECAME A DEVOTED READER? 

 I vividly remember my first encounter with Ursula K. Le Guin. It was on the 23rd of February, 2023 (as my blog archive kindly reminds me). I was mind blown by that book so it's no wonder that I mentioned it on blog even though I wasn't posting reviews at the time

My blog reminded me of the date (one of the benefits of having a blog) but I don't need to strain my mind to remember The Left Hand of Darkness. I distinctly remember reading that novel in my old room. The room was cold and it added to the atmosphere of the novel. I really felt immersed in the world of Le Guin's creation. One of these days, I'll have to write a long review for it. 

I REVIEWED A NUMBER OF URSULA K. LE GUIN WORKS (CHECK OUT LINKS BELOW)

1. A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA  (A NOVEL) 

Today considered a classic of both fantasy and children's literature, A Wizard of Earthsea could also be describes as a young adult and 'coming of age' novel. First published in 1969, it is a story of a boy who gets invited to attend a magic school, accepts the invitation, fights his own demons and learns a lot about himself in the process. Does it sound familiar? Well, you have to remember that it was written and published decades before Harry Potter, so if anyone took the plot idea from anyone, it was certainly not Ursula. In fact, all those writers who wrote about magic schools after this book was published, were probably taking inspiration from Urusula L. Guin. It could be said that Ursula Le Guin is one of the first, if not the first  to develop this concept of  magic school.

2. THE DISPOSSESSED 

This Utopian science fiction novel is one of the most critically acclaimed and best known Le Guin's works. Published in 1974, this novel won the Hugo, Nebula and Logus Awards for best novel in 1975. The Dispossessed is a part of Le Guin's Hainish Cycle, but (like the other books in the Hanish Cycle) it can be read independently from other books. 

3. THE WORD FOR WORLD IS A FOREST  (A NOVELLA)

This novella is an absolute masterpiece! Poetically written, profoundly serious and wonderfully imaginative, The Word for World is a Forest is an exceptional book. The story Le Guin created is a incredibly tragic and sad one, but it rings absolutely true in its sadness and tragedy. Wisdom is something I have come to expect in Ursula K.Le Guin's writing but this novella seems to be especially abundant in it. Wisdom is a big word, yet I cannot use another, for Le Guin's writing truly strikes me as wise.

4. THE TELLING (A NOVEL)

 Set in Hainish Universe, The Telling is the eighth book in this series but like other Le Guin novels, it can be read independently from the others. The novel is set on planet Aka but its female protagonist Sutty is an Ekumen visitor from our own planet (Earth/Terra). Sutty's Ekumen mentor/diplomat is from another planet as well (the two of them are only representatives of the Ekumen planets on Aka). Sometimes the two of them have problems communicating (because of linguistic and cultural differences) but it is clearly they are on the same side. Nevertheless, Sutty is left on her own most of the time. Sutty, the Anglo-Indian protagonist that acts as an observer for Ekumen is faced with a hard task of exploring this planet while not compromising budding diplomatic relationships. That puts her in a rather difficult position sometimes. 

DIFFERENT WAYS TO STYLE A PETER PAN COLLAR BLOUSE

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE ? RECOMMENDED READING

URSULA K. LE GUIN REMEMBERED BY HER SON (THE GUARDIAN ARTICLE)

URSULA K. LE GUIN (NY TIMES ARTICLE)         BRITANNICA

URSULA K. LE GUIN SITE

Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (1929-2018) was a celebrated author whose body of work includes 23 novels, 12 volumes of short stories, 11 volumes of poetry, 13 children’s books, five essay collections, and four works of translation. The breadth and imagination of her work earned her six Nebula Awards, seven Hugo Awards, and SFWA’s Grand Master, along with the PEN/Malamud and many other awards. In 2014 she was awarded the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and in 2016 joined the short list of authors to be published in their lifetimes by the Library of America.

“I walk on the ground and the ground’s walked on by me, I breathe the air and change it, I am entirely interconnected with the world.”

“And, quiet as a thief in the night, a sense of well-being came into him, a certainty that things were all right, and that he was in the middle of things. Self is universe. He would not be allowed to be isolated, to be stranded. He was back where he belonged. He felt an equanimity, a perfect certainty as to where he was and where everything else was. This feeling did not come to him as blissful or mystical, but simply as normal. It was the way he generally had felt, except in times of crisis, of agony; it was the mood of his childhood and all the best and profoundest hours of boyhood and maturity; it was his natural mode of being. These last years he had lost it, gradually but almost entirely, scarcely realizing that he had lost it.”

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