Saturday 31 December 2011

How the Dead Dream

Finished December 30
How the Dead Dream by Lydia Millet
Admittedly I don't know if I would have picked this up if I hadn't got it as part of my Indiespensible subscription. And it has been on my shelf for quite a while (it was the first Indiespensible pick back in 2008) so I finally decided to put the ones I haven't read yet in a pile with the oldest at the top and begin reading.
Here the main character is T and we follow him from his childhood through his life. He is a loner, the kind of guy who stands back from his life and watches. He struck me as being a man slightly on the autistic scale in the way he doesn't respond emotionally sometimes, like he doesn't recognize what others are feeling. He does make breakthroughs though and these make him more empathetic and he recognizes that he viewpoint has sometimes been flawed. Animals are his weakness, from his own dog, to endangered species.
He has trouble connecting with other people and while he tries not to hurt people's feelings, he doesn't always know how to do that. He went from being a child and man who seemed removed to being a man who saw injustice and the need to change. A very interesting read.

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