Tree of Dreams: A Spirit Woman's Vision of Transition and Change
Slipping back and forth between her writer's life as a white woman in  New York City and her mystical life amongst the native Indian women of northern  Canada, Lynn Andrews  weaves a wise woman's tale of aging. As the popular  bestselling author (Medicine  Woman) now faces her own midlife passage and wrestles with immortality,  she finds herself seeing visions of her old nemesis, the evil sorcerer Red Dog,  who has seemingly risen from the dead. What does this all mean? Andrews brings  her fears and questions to her elder teachers in Canada, whom she has informally  apprenticed with for many years. This is all vintage Andrews--complete with  visions, dreams, and lessons from the elders.Now that our political consciousness has been elevated, it is hard to wholly  embrace this white woman's interpretation of native teaching. At times it is  even hard to believe that all the encounters with the women in northern Canada  really occurred. The dialogue seems stilted, forced into recounting past events  from previous books, or contrived into teaching a lesson rather than relaying  actual conversations. Yet, there is no doubting that Andrews has some  interesting insights on aging, especially for her fans who appreciate and feel  at ease in her shape- and place-shifting format.--Gail Hudson