Overheard in a Dream [Paperback]

I have enjoyed all of Torey Hayden's previous books but found this book really difficult to read. The focus on the mother's fantasy world and the chapters dedicated to re-telling a story about this imaginary world and mythical characters made it feel like a Science Fiction novel. I was not impressed at all and wouldn't recommend it.

I bought this book not realising it was a novel and it was only as I started I realised, I hadn't read the cover!! I love Torey's previous books so was a bit concerned as I started to read this that I wouldn't like it as much. How wrong was I, it completely overwhelmed me and I had to keep reading. I took breaks every now and then as there was a lot to take in, but I just couldn't stop reading. I have finished it now and it was amazing, I definitely would buy any further novels she writes. It really should have been on 'Richard and Judy's' list.

Part of the problem going into this book was that I bought into the hype. I was intrigued at the prospect of a book being "too novel", according to the publishers, for what they perceived to be the average English speaker. Having appreciated a few of the insights Hayden offered in some of her nonfiction works, I figured she would bring that to bear through well-developed characters, vivid writing, and other staples of good novels. Because of the long wait for English publication, however, maybe subconsciously I expected it to be not only entertaining, but something I would keep on my shelf and return to. I mean, there must be some unheard-of creative jewel in there somewhere to make us wait that long, right?

Not exactly. The setup is certainly intriguing -- the son of the famous author Laura Deighton ends up in a psychiatrist's office presenting autistic-like symptoms and communicating increasingly cryptic things via a stuffed cat. Despite the fact that you have no idea what he's talking about until the last third of the novel, Conor is actually the most well-rounded character in this book, which -- considering that you know him only by his monosyllabic utterances -- doesn't bode well for the portrayal of the other characters. However, the boy's words taken alone are eerie, and along with psychiatrist James you might find yourself rooting for Conor as you try to make sense of them.

Unfortunately, this book really isn't about Conor. Conor himself takes up maybe a fourth of the book. The other (very thick) three fourths of the book are taken up by Laura's sessions with James, which alternate with whole chapters in italics -- Laura's story about a being called Torgon. Here there is most certainly more telling than showing. Some of this is understandable -- she's in the shrink's office, after all -- but all the same I feel it might have been handled better differently. When Laura talks to James, even though her words are in quotes, it is not believable human speech. I know Laura is a writer, but even writers have to speak like us poor normal folks sometimes. An occasional sentence fragment or "Um" or a more relaxed vocabulary wouldn't have hurt. She's already forcing him and us to read her writing (more on that in a moment), and now she's making him listen to an audio book too.

Considering she narrates her life like VC Andrews, this isn't a good thing. I could go into litcrit mode and say that the pretentious narration might be a reflection of Laura's arrogance, but I don't think so -- it just comes across as pretentious writing for lack of better dialogue. I may have been able to swallow it better if the quotation marks had been left off, and it were simply understood that we were in Laura's point of view then -- like a flashback or something. Then I wouldn't have to suspend my disbelief that people used so many adverbs and stage directions -- let alone verbatim dialogue -- in real life, out-loud conversation. Phrases like "I retorted indignantly" or "he smiled warmly" look weak and redundant even in writing, but they feel especially out of place in what is supposed to be speech.

The stories of Torgon intersect quite obviously with the story of Laura. I cannot tell you how tempted I was to skip those sections. Laura even warns James when she gives him the papers that they aren't very good, because she wrote them when she was a teenager. Believe me, Laura wasn't kidding. I hate to say it, but the chapters that are supposed to be so pivotal made the whole book a drudgery. The chapters read like bad teenage fan fiction. It's the only form of writing I can use to describe the quality of stilted dialogue, melodrama, and faux-medieval characters. They have no personality. These parts bogged down the parts I actually mustered some interest in, such as the villain.

Much of the conflict was interesting in itself. Unfortunately, it was so glossed over. The other children were only given cursory treatment, so that the ending lacked impact. All of the characters were cardboard, even the imaginary ones. I read the book because I wanted to find out what happened to Conor, but believe me it was very annoying hard going. Worse was James' gushing over the character development in Laura's books, and Laura telling him "My books are quality literature." (?!) The book is at least entertaining if you can slog through it, but I don't have space on my bookshelf for something I don't want to come back to.