Gail Godwin's "Dream Children," because of its particular emphasis and breadth of suggestive associations, is sharply distinguished from much of her other short fiction and from many of the stories in the genre of "lost child" fantasy literature. One commentator on Godwin's writing, Mary Ann Wilson, remarks that Godwin from the start has continued to concentrate on females: their self-definition problems in marriage, their families, the "regions and cultures" with which they identify, and their chosen work. (All of these clearly bespeak social concerns in the larger sense.) On the other hand, many "lost child" or "what if there had been a child" stories have emphasized only one feature or at most very few features of the broad range of possible experiences and events that such a situation might engender. Here, the literary/musical connections, to be discussed below, give "Dream Children" its special importance.

The...