About the Book
AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK AND AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
'The kind of book you don't want to put down' Oprah Winfrey
'A rare pleasure' Ron Charles, Washington Post
'I haven't been this dazzled by a novel in a long time' Lit Hub
'A reader can't help falling in head first' Boston Globe
'Gorgeous... It's being hailed by some as the next great American novel' BBC.com
'Already one of the year's best' People
'A totally involving and moving literary page-turner' Clare Chambers
'I loved Dream State. I did not stop reading it for three days straight' Jessie Burton
'Filled to the brim with life . . . a wonder' Andrew Sean Greer
Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her in-laws' beautiful lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a cardiac anaesthesiologist with a brilliant future.
When Charlie asks Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, Cece can't imagine anyone less appropriate for the task. After all, Garrett, a depressed baggage handler at the local airport, doesn't believe in marriage. But as she spends time with him and his gruff mask slips, she grows increasingly uncertain about her future, leading to an impulsive decision that will alter the three friends' lives forever - the events of that summer reverberating across fifty years and spanning generations.
About the Author :
Eric Puchner is the author of the novel Model Home, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award and winner of a California Book Award, and two collections of short stories. He has received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and is an associate professor in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. He lives in Baltimore with his family.
Review :
A family history that feels monumental . . . The book's effect is hypnotically telescopic, a vision of people we come to know across decades. Puchner's manipulation of time is among his novel's most magical elements . . . We book reviewers don't get to say much about endings, but Puchner's final chapter is one of the most touching and satisfying I've read in years. I see you teetering there between choosing to read Dream State or not. Jump in
A fresh spin on the [marriage] plot . . . A thoughtful meditation on the seismic impact of small decisions on human and earthly conditions. It couldn't be more timely
Fresh, wise, funny, and compassionate . . . Cinematic from the outset, Dream State opens (just as if a circular lens were unscrewing) upon a beloved old family homestead, site of a doomed wedding - descriptions so warm and attentive, a reader can't help falling in head first . . . Dream State is a wonderful feast, and feat
Reports of the death of the Great American Novel have been vastly overstated . . . a decade-spanning epic that's already getting publishers excited is Eric Puchner's Dream State. It's set in Montana and traces how the events of one summer shape the lives of three friends and their children, who are vying to escape from their parents' legacies
Masterfully built
A brilliant, sprawling epic as funny as it is devastating, Dream State unspools the aftermath of that summer over many years. I haven't been this dazzled by a novel in a long time
A gorgeous, gripping epic that chronicles 50 years of change in friendships, families and the surrounding landscape. It's being hailed by some as the next great American novel
I loved Dream State - I did not stop reading it for three days straight. Puchner's depiction of passing time, of friendship and family, of the mistakes we make and the complicated joys that life brings, is astounding. This is a story of layers and richness rarely seen, and I urge you to read it.
A totally involving and moving literary page-turner about the lifelong reverberations from an act of betrayal
A moving, psychologically acute, formally surprising family saga . . . Sprawling and elegant-a novel that feels both old-fashioned and bracingly inventive
With interwoven perspectives, Puchner's layered saga is a deeply felt exploration of relationships and self-identity, and the imperfections hidden by the heart's pull
The book wonders about the what-ifs in life - what if I married a different person, what if I took that job path, what if guys just talked to each other instead of just letting things sit quietly between them?
A book of tears, laughter, longing, regrets and filled to the brim with life. Dream State is a wonder of character and craft
Dream State is a masterpiece. A glittering, evocative achievement
Dream State is a gorgeous exploration of time, grief, love, and the way that the commitments we make turn us into the people we become . . . brilliant
Dream State delivers everything I want in a novel: a love triangle, a moving friendship story, a delicious setting (including some of the best skiing scenes I've ever read in my life) and rumination about how we search for meaning in our lives . . . an absolute masterpiece
Dream State explores several monumental themes - love, family, identity, human transience, climate change - but always with a scrupulous attention to the fate of individuals, and always with a powerful sense of intimate connection . . . a remarkable achievement
Eric Puchner has populated his engrossing and deeply affecting novel with characters so complicated and sympathetic that we want - we need - to know how their lives will turn out, and what will happen to the glorious and fragile landscape they inhabit
Dream State is a delight. Every scene, every character, every sentence, is infused with Eric Puchner's intelligence and wit. An exquisitely rendered novel about the vagaries of fate, and friendship, and love
Funny and wild, here is some of the most beautiful writing that I have ever read
Lush, immersive, devastating, and stunningly alive, Dream State did the thing the very best novels do: pulled me relentlessly into its characters, its setting, concerns, losses, and triumphs, only to let me loose again with a sharper, clearer vision of the world outside
