Society of Reluctant Dreamers

No cover — Jose Eduardo Agualusa, Daniel Hahn: Society of Reluctant Dreamers (2020, Steerforth Press)

300 pages

English language

Published March 19, 2020 by Steerforth Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-939810-48-9
OCLC Number:: 1129394322

(2 reviews)

While swimming in the clear blue waters of the Rainbow Hotel, Daniel Benchimol finds a waterproof camera, floating seemingly lost in the sea. He goes on to discover that the camera belongs to Moira, a Mozambican artist famous for a series of photos depicting her own dreams. On seeing the images, Daniel realises that Moira is also the mysterious woman whom he has been dreaming about repeatedly. The two meet, and Daniel becomes involved in a unusual dream experiment with a Brazilian neuroscientist, who's working with Moira on a machine to film and photograph people’s dreams.

Meanwhile, Daniel’s daughter Karinguiri, one of Angola’s young dreamers, is arrested along with six friends for staging a protest during a presidential press conference in Luanda. The group go on hunger strike, attracting worldwide press attention, showing the power of young people when they raise their voices against the regime.

The Society of Reluctant …

While swimming in the clear blue waters of the Rainbow Hotel, Daniel Benchimol finds a waterproof camera, floating seemingly lost in the sea. He goes on to discover that the camera belongs to Moira, a Mozambican artist famous for a series of photos depicting her own dreams. On seeing the images, Daniel realises that Moira is also the mysterious woman whom he has been dreaming about repeatedly. The two meet, and Daniel becomes involved in a unusual dream experiment with a Brazilian neuroscientist, who's working with Moira on a machine to film and photograph people’s dreams.

Meanwhile, Daniel’s daughter Karinguiri, one of Angola’s young dreamers, is arrested along with six friends for staging a protest during a presidential press conference in Luanda. The group go on hunger strike, attracting worldwide press attention, showing the power of young people when they raise their voices against the regime.

The Society of Reluctant Dreamers is a surreal, vivid novel about the slipperiness of truth and reality, art versus dictatorship, courage versus fear, change and the old order, amidst the politics of Angola's tumultuous past, present and future.

2 editions

Stephanie Jane reviewed Society of Reluctant Dreamers by Daniel Hahn

Beautifully bewildering

4 stars

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.

Adrián Astur Álvarez reviewed Society of Reluctant Dreamers by Daniel Hahn

Review of 'Society of Reluctant Dreamers' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

There are few novels able to employ dream logic as effectively as this little gem from Archipielago Books. Agualusa blends layers of metaphor and genre into an effective dream of personal and political struggle.

There were a few moments I felt a little lost result this. Not that I didn't understand what was happening but the plot events become loosely connected in the center of the story and while the translation flows, the novel asks the reader to go on without traditional guidance. In less capable hands this could lead to disastrous results: a lumbering plot, difficulty picking the novel up, or worst of all, an abandoned read. Agualusa avoids all of that with a strong protagonist, well drawn characters, and a sense of magic in his cohesive, dream-like fluidity of narrative.

There is more to discuss. A lot more, particularly in the United States in 2020. I would highly …

There are few novels able to employ dream logic as effectively as this little gem from Archipielago Books. Agualusa blends layers of metaphor and genre into an effective dream of personal and political struggle.

There were a few moments I felt a little lost result this. Not that I didn't understand what was happening but the plot events become loosely connected in the center of the story and while the translation flows, the novel asks the reader to go on without traditional guidance. In less capable hands this could lead to disastrous results: a lumbering plot, difficulty picking the novel up, or worst of all, an abandoned read. Agualusa avoids all of that with a strong protagonist, well drawn characters, and a sense of magic in his cohesive, dream-like fluidity of narrative.

There is more to discuss. A lot more, particularly in the United States in 2020. I would highly recommend reading this with a friend or a book group so you can tease out some of the meaning.