Thursday, February 15, 2018

Deprivation; or, Benedetto furioso: an Oneiromancy


Alex Jeffers
Completed 2/15/2018, reviewed 2/15/2018
4 stars

Oneiromancy – n.  The interpretation of dreams to fortell the future.

This is one of those novels I needed and read at just the right time.  Not so much a classic fantasy as it is about a man who lives in a fantasy world.  Still it was nominated for a Lammy in the SF/Fantasy/Horror category.  Ben is a young man fresh out of college, in his first job, commuting fifty miles one way every day.  It ruins his sleeping pattern, affording him only a few hours of sleep a night.  When he does sleep he has vivid dreams that perhaps keep him trapped in his daily life.  It’s hard to tell the difference between his dreams and reality, the dreams sometimes being better than real life.

The prose of this book was seriously wonderful.  Reading it was a pleasure.  The imagery rolled from paragraph to paragraph.  The writing had a stream of conscious quality, signifying how Ben interacted with his world and the people in it, with seemless flashbacks to his past and dreams.  It captured someone who lives in their head very well.

The main dream fantasy is that Ben has found Dario, a young Italian prince, squatting in a South Boston warehouse with his brother and sister.  Ben falls in love with the young prince and the prince loves him.  He brings the orphaned family home to live with him, to take care of the them.  However, the little family rebels when Ben meets real men, and goes on real dates.  This fantasy is really drawn well, so much so that for quite a while, it’s difficult to tell the difference between fantasy and reality. 

Unfortunately, it soon becomes evident that it is just a fantasy, a dream.  As the book progresses, this particular dream of Dario becomes less prominent.  I found this to be sad.  I liked the fantasy, I liked how it was interfering with Ben’s life.  I think it would have been better if the Dario fantasy was maintained more strongly throughout the book.  Instead, we only get a few more glimpses of the fantasy.  Other dreams occur as well, but none are as riveting as the first.

I really liked Ben, the main character.  I could relate to his feeling isolated and not really wanting to get involved with anyone.  I found myself sympathizing with him as life and reality begin to unravel.  I also could relate to his opportunistic approach to life:  not really doing much to change one’s circumstances unless the opportunities pop up in front of you, and even then, hesitating.

I give the book four out of five stars.  I took one star off for my complaint of the near abandonment of the Dario fantasy.  Otherwise, I have to say I really loved this book.  Even though the rest of Alex Jeffers works are literary and not genre fiction, I’d read more of him.

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