"The Crowd Dreams of Love" Receives Praise from Authors, Screenwriters and Academics

    SAN DIEGO, CA, February 27, 2009 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Crowd Dreams of Love by John Leone, published by Blithedale Books, is receiving widespread praise within the writing and creative communities as a timely and prophetic message of the power of individual and collective love, set against a background of a country in chaos caused by political and economic pressures and corruption.

A futurist novel in the tradition of Wells, Huxley or Orwell, The Crowd Dreams of Love is the story of a reclusive composer of modern music who is drawn inexorably into the tumult of his times by three women: Marie, an immigrant waitress with connections to the murky Underground; his student, the beautiful young pianist Eva; and his former love Caroline, now one of the most famous movie stars in the world- as famous for her political opinions as for her movie roles.

"Love makes sense of the dream of life," says Lawrence, our hero, and there is no more perfect example than himself, who went outside one day to find love, and got caught up in a revolution.

By simply following his heart, this most apolitical of all artists finds himself in an underground uprising, entangled with political maneuvering, pushed into the midst of a bloody revolution, faced with sudden celebrity, placed under the surveillance of the omnipresent Federal Police, and imprisoned in an ominous corporate concentration camp, where objectors designated "dissidents" are re-educated through dangerous drugs back into socially-acceptable roles.

The comic meditation on love and change is drawing praise as a timely warning of the shape of things to come. "An extraordinary book...a terrifying, thrilling portrait of what it means to be alive in our time. We are far closer to the world Lawrence falls into than we realize," said Andrew Schlesinger, author of VERITAS: Harvard and the American Experience.

"The crowd is dreaming louder and louder and pretty soon their dreams will spill over and drown the globe. In blood," says Benedict Fitzgerald, writer of the screenplay The Passion of the Christ for Mel Gibson.

Others cheered the tone and style. "Beautifully written, and hilarious comic lit. I picked it up at 8 last night and went to sleep reading at 3:30," wrote David Riggs, biographer of Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe, and Professor of English at Stanford University. Two fellow novelists agree. "Dr. Lawrence is a musician, and The Crowd Dreams of Love is structured like music, with subtle themes and variations. Effortlessly articulate, tonally and thematically wide-ranging but held together by a single voice," said William Mickelberry, The Wind Motel; Amos Turpin, They Only Come out at Night, adds "This is a turbulent ride with a very cool pilot...Dr. Lawrence takes an amazing and enlightening trip."

John Leone is a native of Southern California. He graduated Phillips Academy Andover and Harvard, and was a Stegner Fellow in Creative Writing at Stanford, and a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute. He has worked for many years as a musician, screenwriter and director in theatre and film, writing for Oliver Stone, Sean Penn, and many others. He is the author of six novels and a volume of poetry.

The Crowd Dreams of Love can be pre-ordered at http://www.crowddreamsoflove.com. It will be available at all major book retailers after April 1, 2009.

About Blithedale Books

Blithedale Books is an independent publishing company, backed by a group of academics, writers, poets, and artists aiming to bring original, undiscovered works of literary fiction to the public.

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