Stephanie Jane recenzis Society of Reluctant Dreamers de Daniel Hahn
Beautifully bewildering
4 steloj
The Society of Reluctant Dreamers in a beautifully bewildering novel in which I found it frequently difficult to be entirely sure what was real, what was imagined, and what was dreamed. Agualusa explores the psychological damage caused by war, colonialism and oppression on characters who, at first glance, seem very different, but who find themselves linked by the surrealist device of finding themselves involuntarily featuring in each other's dreams. I felt that The Society of Reluctant Dreamers had more in common with the magical realism genre of novels and I loved Agualusa's richly detailed prose style. Dreams might be shown in the sense of dreaming whilst asleep, or daydreaming while awake, or having aspirational dreams for the future.
I was interested in discussions of identity throughout this story. At one point characters talk about whether embracing a new country's culture does actually change one's national identity which is a question …
The Society of Reluctant Dreamers in a beautifully bewildering novel in which I found it frequently difficult to be entirely sure what was real, what was imagined, and what was dreamed. Agualusa explores the psychological damage caused by war, colonialism and oppression on characters who, at first glance, seem very different, but who find themselves linked by the surrealist device of finding themselves involuntarily featuring in each other's dreams. I felt that The Society of Reluctant Dreamers had more in common with the magical realism genre of novels and I loved Agualusa's richly detailed prose style. Dreams might be shown in the sense of dreaming whilst asleep, or daydreaming while awake, or having aspirational dreams for the future.
I was interested in discussions of identity throughout this story. At one point characters talk about whether embracing a new country's culture does actually change one's national identity which is a question I frequently encounter in my WorldReads project. Language is another factor of identity and it was interesting to see how, despite Angola's eventual independence from Portuguese domination, the effects of European colonialism still linger through the official use of the Portuguese language, links with other formerly Portuguese colonies such as Brazil and Mozambique being stronger for Angolans than links to, say, English or French-speaking nations. Agualusa also explores how much one's past influences one's present and future life. Can people truly atone for their past actions, and to what extent can children escape the effects of decisions made by their parents' generations.
The Society of Reluctant Dreamers is an impressive onion of a book! I enjoyed reading it initially at one level and, now, the more I think back over the story the more concepts I find myself wrangling with. Agualusa has a real depth to his writing, yet I didn't feel myself getting bogged down in Deep Truths as I read. I think The Society of Reluctant Dreamers can be appreciated as an insightful novel of human behaviours and connections with Angola's violent past providing a particularly unique base from which to contemplate and understand this tale.