Dream Within a Dream
By: Patricia MacLachlan / Narrated By: Jesse Vilinsky
Length: 2 hrs and 14 mins
Hmmm… Who might be the audience for this one? Maaaaybe really young kids?
I say that as an aggrieved adult who was looking forward to a good kids lit book, hoping from the (Dratted) Publisher’s Summary that maybe Dream Within a Dream was going to be somewhat akin to the AWEsome Caterpillar Summer.
Alas, it was not…
Louisa (Short for Louisiana as her scientific birdwatching parents were on a cataloguing trip in the South when she was born) is visiting her grandparents Jake and Boots along with her younger brother Theo.
And that’s all that happens… I’m kinda sorta joking. I’m kinda sorta not. It’s oooonly 2+ hours long, so there’s only so much you can get in that amount of time.
Let’s see. What all happens: Jake has macular degeneration and is slowly losing his vision. So we do actually get a tad of tension there, and we do get some philosophical musings on what it’s like to face such a sentence and maintain not only one’s sanity but a sense of wonder about the world and gratitude for what one had all along the way up to that point. Boots knows everything, fills in the blanks before people can finish their sentences. Theo is only eight, but he philosophizes like a verrrrry grown grownup. The character George is introduced and, even tho’ Louisa is not quite twelve-years old? It’s love at first sight (And the whole time I was thinking: Dude! She’s eleven!)
Theo loves it on the island with their grandparents. George helps set all his books that he brought for the summer into bookshelves so that Theo might have his very own Library. Jake cooks a lot of poached eggs and toast, and he’s teaching young George how to drive his muuuuuch loved car. A storm hits the island. Louisa and Theo’s parents come for a very fleeting visit and to bring some news. And Louisa, who opens the book by saying that she haaaates Change, finds this to be a summer complete with changes all over the place. George’s parents, who are desperately in love, are introduced. Jake and Boots are desperately in love. Louisa and George have zippo problems… and are desperately in love (Dude! She’s eleven!).
That Louisa is white and George is Black comes off as author Patricia MacLachlan going for diversity but nothing else as race is a total non-issue for anybody. That Louisa/Theo’s folks are completely absentee parents is hinted at, but it’s not really a problem until we get to the last 20 minutes of the audiobook when they show up with their grand plans. But even that’s not really a problem because Old Soul Theo manages to say just the right thing and the Heavens break through and all is put right in the children’s world. In, like, the last few minutes.
To say there’s not much of a story is not much of a statement (Tho’ obviously I’m crafting PLENTY of statements to tell you such a thing). To say there’s little tension, few difficulties? UNDERstatement, yessss.
So ho-hum. Ya add Jesse Vilinsky’s suitable and adequate, but not stellar, narration, and you have a sweet little book with very nice characters (Tho’ woefully not well fleshed-out) who think nice thoughts and do nice things. They dance cheek to cheek without music; they say all the right things; they make all the right choices at just the points in time when they should.
All in all okay, but if you want a Summer of Change, of learning how to be a person, a kid, all while juggling a not-so-fair hand that Life maybe dealt you, dooooo try Caterpillar Summer instead.
As it is? Dream Within a Dream is probably suitable for only kids/people who don’t want to read about ANY sort of stress or tension that comes with being alive. A happy pappy book.
And not even two dogs in it were enough to make me prick up my ears or wag my tail…
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