A college freshman stumbles back to her dorm room and falls asleep. She sleeps all morning and into the next evening. Her roommate, Mei, tries to wake her without success; paramedics can't rouse her, nor the doctors at the hospital. Then another girl falls asleep, and then another.
The college is put on lockdown quarantining the students. Panic sets in as the once sleepy town descends into chaos. Those that are infected are experiencing a higher-than-normal level of brain activity and are intensely dreaming, but what are they dreaming about?
Thompson Walker uses third person perspective and divides the book into small, digestible chapters. This is not particularly effective, in fact there is a disconnect—it is as if the narrator is completely detached. Because of this format, the characters are not fully developed and I didn't feel an affinity towards any of them—I wanted to, especially Mei.
Written in luminous, hypnotic prose, The Dreamers is a beautiful, sweeping novel yet I was left feeling frustrated because nothing actually happens. That, coupled with the fact that there are several loose ends, left me thinking about this book long after I finished it. I'm rather perplexed to be honest, and not in a good thought-provoking way, but questioning what I just actually read.
KAREN THOMPSON WALKER is a graduate of UCLA and the Columbia MFA program. A former book editor, she wrote The Age of Miracles in the mornings before work. Born and raised in San Diego, California, she now lives in Brooklyn with her husband.
No comments:
Post a Comment