Beautiful story. Such a wonderful protagonist. A man of perfect equanimity dreaming the world. A love story, a thought experiment, who we are, how we fit and are shaped by the world. Wonderful read.

Future speculative fiction, can't really call it sci-Fi or fantasy. Very enjoyable - highly reminiscent of Philip K. Dick, but more focused, and also a little of Vonnegut. One of those books where one thing is outlandishly unrealistic, but the implications of it (rather than the reasons for it) are explored. Imaginative, humane.
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3.5 stars

The concept of a person dreaming new realities was interesting and it was fun to see what specific realities Le Guin came up with.

However, there was a lot of profanity, including many misuses of God, Christ, etc.

Also, there were several sexual references, including one to child abuse, that were unnecessary and uncomfortable to read. ( )

Not one of my favorites of Le Guin. Another review here describes it as a rehearsal for The Dispossessed, written three years later; maybe having read that first spoiled Lathe for me a little. ( )

I liked a lot about this book. The characters are very good, Orr is easy to be kind of annoyed with, but I did not feel like being annoyed with him, so I didn't. These simple complexities are almost all of what I loved about this story. Le Guin's writing is also beautiful and it unexpectedly hooked me very early in the book. There is a kind of melancholy to it without shouting SAD in your face. I also loved how Le Guin easily mixed a lot of complex ideas together without it feeling forced.
My only problem with the writing was the few paragraphs where Le Guin felt like writing some profound and theatrical sentences. Instead of profound they came accross as pretentious and not very meaningful. It is probably mainly a personal preference but I felt that the deceptively simple story did not need explicit sections to remind me how profound the ideas are with which she is playing. ( )