Dream State
Eric Puchner
Having been enchanted, with the last two novels I read, by something unconventional about their approach, I was immediately struck by the conventionality of Dream State’s opening. It describes a house in Salish, Montana and I confess I thought ‘ah, here we go, back to the norm, setting the scene, just as a novel traditionally should’. This is no criticism. I don’t want every novel to read to be quirky or experimental. Sometimes I just want a narrative in which I can immerse myself, and Dream State was certainly that.
It took a while for me to warm to it, though. At the start of the novel, we encounter Cece who, staying in the aforementioned house, is preparing for her wedding to Charlie (to whose family the property belongs). Charlie hasn’t arrived yet, but he asks his best friend, Garrett, to drop by and keep Cece company. Cece dislikes him intensely which means, as anyone who’s watched a rom com knows, it’s only a matter of time before she falls in love with him.
Much to my relief, Cece’s change of heart isn’t the novel’s sole story; rather, it’s where it begins. The story it actually tells is about what happens afterwards – it’s about the implications that Cece’s decision has for her, for Garrett, for Charlie and for their children. It is a nuanced and subtle portrait of the complex emotions that betrayal evokes. I was fascinated by its characters and invested enough in them that its ending made me cry.
It also turned out that I wasn’t entirely correct about the opening – it wasn’t just ‘setting the scene’. Salish is not merely the novel’s location; rather, it is central to its message. Puchner recounts the changing climate of Montana and the impact this has on its inhabitants. Thus, the novel paints a vivid picture of the ways in which the climate emergency is not some far-off catastrophe but a very real and very present phenomenon that is already having a profound effect on the way people live.
This is, then, in many ways, a serious novel. However, it also has its lighter moments. One of my favourites was the paragraph narrated from the point of view of the cat that belongs to Garrett’s father. It made me smile, as did many other moments in the novel. Despite its often less-than-cheerful themes, this was, to my delight, a hopeful and heart-warming novel.
Leave a comment