Review: The Dreamers

I have always loved reading about intangible things: reincarnation, fate, dreams… so of course Karen Thompson Walker’s The Dreamers caught my eye.

In the novel, a picturesque Californian town becomes a news sensation when the perplexing case of one girl who can’t be woken turns into an epidemic of sleeping citizens. At first the “sickness” is confined to a single dormitory floor at the local college, but the dreams (and the students) defy containment. One by one, the young and the old drop off to sleep and are essentially lost to the living.

“But isn’t every sleep a kind of isolation? When else are we so alone?”

The narration hops between a large cast of characters, some of whom become stuck in the sleeping sickness and some of whom never do. Thompson Walker does a superb job of keeping the reader invested enough in each character’s situation for every facet of the story to remain interesting even as it becomes obvious that the focus of the book lies in the sickness itself and the community it sweeps through, rather than any of the individuals who experience it. Though some readers will likely feel a disconnect with the narration because of the quick switches, this tactic leaves room for beautiful and disturbing commentary about dreams and epidemics. My only disappointment with the characters is that some of them seem more like ideas of characters than like actual characters; each fits a “type” that leaves them very two-dimensional.

By far the most compelling aspect of the novel for me, it was the alarming (non)reaction to the sleeping sickness that propelled me through these 300 pages. As more and more people fall irretrievably into this mysterious sleep, the sickness devolves into a game of “everyone for themselves.” Some barricade their families in their homes, others fight for dwindling supplies at the local stores, and everyone wants to skip town, unrealistically denying the fact that they may already be carrying the disease. Legality takes precedence over safety, and increasingly cautious “protocols” are viewed as inconvenient formalities that come too little and too late. Meanwhile, the narration shows the many ways that the sickness ravages the careless population.

“But whoever shares her lipstick that day, whoever borrows her eyeliner, whoever kisses her cheek that night or dances too close or clinks her flute of champagne, whoever touches her hand to admire the ring, whoever catches the bouquet at the end of the night- all of them, every one, is exposed.”

The prose itself is dreamy and evocative, and the level of research evident throughout brings the premise to frightening life. Of course no one can choose to stop sleeping, no matter the danger it might bring. I don’t believe it’s possible to close your eyes at night without at least a little misgiving while reading this book, so close does this story seem our real world.

But for all of its dark beauty, the downfall of the novel is that it doesn’t seem to be making much of a point beyond convincing the reader that dreams remain an unknown. Much about the sickness and the consequences the dreamers face in the aftermath remains unanswered at the end of the book. The Dreamers never lost my attention or interest, but instead of following any of the questions it presents to a solid conclusion, the plot fizzles out after a convenient change upturns the status quo.

“Not everything that happens in a life can be digested. Some events stay forever whole. Some images never leave the mind.”

And that, essentially, is how I felt upon closing this book. I will be thinking about some of the suggestions and implications of this novel for a long time, though I also think that the story ended somewhat incomplete.

My reaction: 4 out of 5 stars. The Dreamers was gorgeous to read, though the ending didn’t quite deliver as much as I’d hoped. Nevertheless, I do feel that the scare the novel invokes about our potential modern response to a new epidemic does leave the reader with fodder for contemplation. I did think Karen Thompson Walker did a much better job with this premise than Stephen and Owen King managed with Sleeping Beauties, though I found the Kings’ characters more compelling. I think Ling Ma’s Severance with its satirical zombies is a more fitting comparison in tone for The Dreamers, and I highly recommend both.

 

The Literary Elephant