Customer Reviews

A Dream Apart

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"A Dream Apart" is a very impressive book. The author must have had a very clear vision of what he wanted to create when he sat down to begin writing this novel. There are two main stories threading themselves throughout this book, as told by the main character, Elliot Bergeron. One thread follows Elliot experiencing his current life and could very much be described as a fairly tragic, though light-hearted and humorous love story.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

We meet Elliot while he is in university training to be a teacher and follow him as he meets his girlfriend who becomes his wife. Intertwined throughout this story, Elliot starts having very real dreams about his future. I know, sounds kind of sci-fi but it isn't in any way. On the contrary, Elliot's dreams are fairly mundane but begin resonating with him as he realizes that his wife does not ever appear in any of the dreams. He realizes that at some point his wife must die but he does not know when or where this will happen. The most appealing parts of this book come when Elliot's future dreams begin coming true as time passes in Elliot's current / past life. As Elliot becomes increasingly paranoid about his wife's impending death, as well as intensely curious about his future life, the author manipulates our experience and we begin to find ourselves questioning which of Elliot's worlds is the reality. The author is seamless in his transitions between Elliot's two roles; one as an insecure (albeit witty) beginning teacher experiencing the reality of life post-university, the other as a thirty-something, adequate teacher mourning the death of his wife.

Each chapter jumps back and forth between these two plots, always making you want to read 'just one more chapter...'. Throughout it all, the author maintains some very quick wit in the conversations that take place between characters, making what could be a very confusing and tragic story an incredibly enjoyable and worthwhile read. Highly recommended.