Criticism > Short Story Criticism > Bradfield, Scott - Donna Seaman (review date 1 November 1990)

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Donna Seaman (review date 1 November 1990)

SOURCE: Seaman, Donna. Review of Dream of the Wolf, by Scott Bradfield. Booklist 87 (1 November 1990): 500.

[In the following review, Seaman praises Dream of the Wolf for its fascinating prose and eerie, unsettling narratives.]

Bradfield's first novel, The History of Luminous Motion, is an eerie and preternatural tale of a seven-year-old boy who kills people. Murder occupies Bradfield again in this unsettling collection of short stories [Dream of the Wolf]. In “The Darling,” a woman calmly kills the men in her life, while in “Sweet Ladies, Good Night, Good Night,” a man kills a rival. These are premediated murders, committed in a blandly psychotic manner. Bradfield's characters are hypnotized by their inner conflicts between primitive, animalistic forces and the resilient desire for the normal things in life—love and money. Bradfield's metaphysic is a mix of...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Judy Cooke (review date 22 September 1988)
   2. Roz Kaveney (review date 14 October 1988)
   3. Robert Sandall (review date 11 December 1988)
   4. Anthony Gardner (review date March 1989)
   5. Mark R. Kelly (review date September 1989)
   6. Kirkus Reviews (review date 15 September 1990)
   7. Sybil Steinberg (review date 28 September 1990)
   8. Donna Seaman (review date 1 November 1990)
   9. Dorothy Golden (review date 1 November 1990)
   10. Carolyn See (review date 19 November 1990)
   11. Michael Upchurch (review date 13 January 1991)
   12. Paul West (review date 24 February 1991)
   13. Elizabeth Young (review date 29 January 1993)
   14. Robert Irwin (review date 12 February 1993)
   15. Kathy O'Shaughnessy (review date 6 April 1993)
   16. Eva Salzman (review date 15 May 1993)
   17. Kirkus Reviews (review date 15 February 1996)
   18. Publishers Weekly (review date 19 February 1996)
   19. Donna Seaman (review date 15 March 1996)
   20. Adam Mazmanian (review date 15 March 1996)
   21. Eileen Pollack (review date 30 June 1996)
   22. Scott Bradfield (essay date June 1998)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright