 The Daydreamer (1994)
McEwan, author of the recent critic's darling Atonement, continues to amaze me with his ability to turn even the most mundane scenario into something strange, wonderful, sometimes humorous, often macabre. In Black Dogs, an innocent countryside hike becomes a nightmare around which the rest of the novel turns. In The Child in Time, a visit to a grocery store and a momentary distraction result in a surreal journey of the hero to forgive himself for somehow misplacing his beloved child.
Far less horrible, but no less fascinating, is The Daydreamer, a thin but resonant collection of short stories connected by the main character, an imaginative 11 year-old named Peter. In the introduction, we learn that Peter is constantly in trouble for daydreaming, and finally discovers that by writing down his daydreams, he can reduce the amount of trouble he gets into and maybe avoid a trip to the loony bin. If only I'd had the same revelation prior to murdering my sister in that Halloween mask.
The rest of the book consists of about five stories involving Peter getting into a series of bizarre situations, most due to his extreme boredom. It's never clear if Peter is writing the stories, or the narrator who wrote the introduction, but it doesn't really matter.
The stories are all equally wonderful, and offer deep insights into the mind and matter of a perceptive child. Without giving anything away, Peter transforms himself and the world around him, and learns something about human nature in the process. And even though the stories are often similar in tone and action, potentially even predictable in how they unfold, their purpose and resolution never fail to surprise.
If, by the book's final, revelatory, hopeful line, your face isn't plastered with a wistful smile, then you've probably been reading The Firm.
Review by Crimedog |