This book is a convoluted account of a man living his nightmare in his waking life, and his need to remember and understand the strange elements he encounters. Eric is a man is plagued with a recurring nightmare that wakes him up in the middle of night. He wakes up fearful, but doesn’t remember the dream; all he is left with is a powerful urge to leave his house and go somewhere. The first two times this happens, Eric fights to urge to leave his house, but the third night, he gets into his car and drives. He comes to a farm house, where a woman tells him he is late; he should have been here two nights ago. She directs him to a corn field, and is told to stay on the path going through it. Eric encounters many strange creatures (cows that aren’t cows, a half-coyote-half-deer creature), and strange situations (a barn in one place going in, then is somewhere else when going out) – typical dream elements – and he is frightened by them. He decides that he needs to live through the nightmare in order to solve the mystery of it and stop it from repeating. He keeps in touch with his wife on his cell phone (except where there is no reception), and he engages in a lot of silly banter with her, maybe out of nervousness and fear for the situation he has found himself in. He encounters people along the way who give him guidance about where to go, what to look out for, who else to expect.

Anyone who enjoys reading something different, strange even, and who enjoys looking for meanings in the symbols.

the idea of being trapped in a nightmare that you can’t get out of until you see the whole thing through. This is a very creative theme for a book. I liked the elements of the dream that really made sense to me – the woman telling him he was late, the farmer telling him he can’t go backwards only forwards, when he tried to get out of the barn the way he went in, only to find the area was different.

the fact that Eric constantly mentioned that he hated cell phones, yet he depended on it to keep in touch with his wife. At times it was hard to overlook the juvenile conversations between Eric and Karen, the attempt at humor (referencing books, TV shows and movies), and the sarcasm Eric used with other characters along his journey. This diminished the seriousness of his situation and minimized the fear he was supposed to be feeling. For this reason (and the fact that many of the creatures he encountered posed no real threat - they were just strange or grotesque), it was hard to accept this book as a horror story.

Read it again and look for all the symbolism in the book. When Eric arrived at his destination and found what he was supposed to find, it was obvious that many things (if not all) he went through were symbolic of life, perhaps the spiritual life.

Like I could totally relate to this book and its theme. I love delving into dream elements and exploring what they mean. I also relate to the pull Eric feels to live the dream in his waking life in order to finally stop it from returning during his sleep – like solving a puzzle.

Used an interesting theme for the book, and dream elements that I could identify with. But he caused much confusion with the various creatures and characters, some trying to help him, some to hurt or kill him, some to give him clues to where he’s supposed to go, and others trying to throw him off the scent. But isn’t that what dreams and nightmares are all about anyway?

It’s a fun book to read, if you want something you won’t take to seriously. Also, if you like dreams and dream symbols, it would be a good book to read to find the hidden meanings between the lines.

There are so many characters and creatures in the dream, that most of them are not memorable.

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Created Oct 20, 2024 at 1:02am • Submit your own review...