In her first remarkable book -- self-described as a "sibling love story" -- Peabody and Emmy-award winning documentary filmmaker Larkin McPhee recounts the illness and death of her beloved younger brother Charles McPhee from ALS at the age of 49. But this is not just a book about death; it is a book about life and the life-force that was Charles. McPhee paints an indelible portrait of her charismatic, brilliant younger brother, a "golden boy" by all accounts, and in ways that literally shimmer off the page. A free spirit who followed his own path in a more traditional academic family, Charles devised his own curriculum at Princeton to study dreamwork, ultimately leading to several published books and a career as the "Dream Doctor" on a nationally syndicated radio show where callers would relay their dreams and Charles would analyze them right on the spot. One day, a caller noticed that he was slurring his words and asked if he'd been drinking -- and thus began the painful journey that led to his diagnosis of Lou Gehrig's disease, aka ALS.

McPhee is an elegant writer, and in a seamless, dexterous structure, she nimbly weaves stories between past and present to create a luminous portrait of a man who in his essence embodied joyfulness, who looked only for goodness in people, and who in his life's work (however cut short) gave clarity and comfort to thousands seeking understanding about their own dreams and how they connected to their waking lives. We learn about Charles' adventurous spirit, his work in Antartica, his love of the planet, his brilliance at deciphering dreams, and how throughout his too-short life -- and even in his death -- he significantly influenced his older sister. McPhee credits Charles not only for inspiring her to realize her own dreams but also for being a kind of spiritual guide, and as we learn more about him the reader too falls under his spell.

While McPhee shows us the gradual, terrible ravages this pitiless disease exerts on her brother during his five year struggle, she also shows how Charles never gave up his agency and autonomy, and how he even timed his final hours so as to give his wife Petra and small daughters the least pain. When I finished this book (also interspersed with some wonderful family photos) I sat quietly, letting Charles wash over me; by the end, he was as vivid and present to me as a beloved family member.

For a great achievement of this memoir is one attained by only the very best memoirs about people we have lost: it symbolically un-does death, leaving the reader with a transcendent word picture that stays with them for a long, long time.

I'LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS is a powerful, unforgettable read: yes, it is an important contribution to our understanding of the devastating disease that is ALS, but it is also an exquisite portrait of sibling love and an elegy for a beautiful young man gone too soon.

Quite simply, it is a dream of a book.

(Thank you to Koehler Books for an Advanced Readers Copy).