Dreams Underfoot is a collection of short stories that all take place in Newford, a small, imaginary city that seems to have elements of both east and west coast cities. It seems to have some of the history and general spookiness of an eastern town, along with the hip, urban attitude--and earthquakes--of a west coast city, and the cross section of people, neighborhoods, and urban blight one would expect in many US cities.* It also has magic.
Charles de Lint would have us believe that all cities have magic, and Newford just happens to be where this collection of stories is focused. The implication, at first appears to be that Newford is special, and that is why the stories are set there. Rather, we come to understand after reading a few of these stories, that Newford is not special, and that magic things exist and occur in all cities, so why not choose a city at random and tell those stories; and Newford is as good a representation as any.
Christy Riddell is a fictional writer who lives in Newford and appears in person or by name in a few of the stories. Riddell is also an author of short-form urban mythology, and many of the characters who appear in de Lint's stories are friends, relatives and acquaintances of Riddell's. So the Riddell character seems like an odd mash-up of self-insertion and story-in-story (think The Princess Bride) that I thought was a little odd, but perhaps that sense of being a little off-kilter is exactly what de Lint is looking for in his readers, priming them for the belief--or at least a suspension of disbelief--required to fully absorb his magical stories.
On the
other hand, maybe that’s giving him too much credit, I’m not sure. I can
tell you that his Urban Faerie stories are quite popular,
and its seems as though he’s published quite a few since this
Newford installment from 1993. [I count 26 Newford books in the series from 1990 to 2022!]
The stories are fun and escapist, each with a touch of delight, heartbreak, or horror. Sometimes all three. Wrestling mythology into the modern age is what originally drew me to this (if I had to guess) as I’ve done a little bit of that myself from time to time. If you enjoy that kind of thing, then de Lint may be worth a look.
* Yes, de Lint is Canadian, but the east coast, west coast thing still holds I think. But sure, Canada.
