Rosalind Belben’s novel *Is Beauty Good*, recently reissued by the independent publisher And Other Stories, offers a distinctive exploration of dreams and consciousness that challenges conventional narrative forms. Originally released in the late 1980s, this work follows her earlier novel *Dreaming of Dead People* and carries forward themes related to the elusive boundaries between sleeping, waking, and dreaming.

The novel is structured into three sections—The Insatiable Wheel, Peacock Island, and The Great White Worm—and consists of 30 short, often unconventional vignettes that vary in length from a single page to nine. Each segment presents a fragmented narrative or an impressionistic vignette bearing unique titles such as “Peeing for Cynthia,” “Deaf Eggs,” and “Hands.” While some stories echo earlier characters and settings, the book’s cohesion emerges mainly through recurring motifs: a preoccupation with environmental loss, human frailty, and a critical examination of the concept of beauty.

Belben’s work is defined by a sustained engagement with liminal states, vividly capturing the mental and emotional spaces that hover between dream, sleep, and wakefulness. One illustrative chapter, “Exile,” is narrated in the first person by a solitary, possibly elderly woman whose memories blur with the surrounding landscape. The narrative voice drifts through an uncertain terrain, evoking sensations of loss, fatigue, and a yearning for escape into natural surroundings. This chapter—with its references to childhood nightmares and vivid imagery of flora and fauna—reflects the novel’s broader interest in the fragile intersections of perception and reality.

Stylistically, *Is Beauty Good* challenges readers through its experimental approach. Belben frequently bends language and narrative expectations, sometimes omitting letters or ending chapters abruptly mid-sentence, creating a disorienting effect that mirrors the book’s preoccupation with the instability of experience. This defiance of standard narrative conventions earns the novel comparisons to free-form jazz, with its improvisational, unpredictable rhythms and tones.

Thematically, the work addresses profound subjects including death, suffering, desolation, and mental illness, alongside depictions of animals such as dogs, horses, and ducks, weaving these elements into a broader meditation on human existence and natural world erosion. While the novel’s strangeness may not appeal to all readers, it has been recognized for its singular voice and the uncompromising nature of its vision.

*Is Beauty Good* underscores Belben’s enduring literary commitment to exploring complex, often unsettling inner landscapes. Through this reissue, new audiences are invited to engage with her distinctive form of storytelling, one that resists easy interpretation but offers rich rewards for those open to its hypnotic and multifaceted narrative journey.