1 | | Asure way of making | | | | |
| | people’s eyes glaze over is | | | |
| | to announce: ‘I had the | | | |
| | most extraordinary dream last | | | |
| | night’. Yet to the dreamer these | | | |
| | nocturnal excursions are extra- | | | |
| | ordinary. They both suggest a life | | | |
| | beyond the commonplace and | | | |
| | reveal imaginative powers many | | | |
| | people would be unable to access | | | |
| | when awake. Writers might be | | | |
| | thought to have a particularly | | | |
| | interesting library of dreams and, | | | |
| | more importantly, ought to be able | | | |
| | to recount them with skill. | | | |
2 | | Nicholas Royle had the clever | | | | would be particularly good at | | | | mankind together’ provides Royle |
| | idea of inviting over 200 writers to | | | | dreams, but this proves not always | | | | with an apt epigraph. It is |
| | send him accounts of their dreams. | | | | to be the case. | | | | reassuring to learn, for example, |
| | No one was paid and all royalties | | 3 | | In the wonderful introduction to | | | | that even famous people dream of |
| | go to Amnesty International, an | | | | Behold, this Dreamer!, his classic | | | | famous people. Robert Browning, |
| | organisation which spends much of | | | | 1939 anthology of dreams and | | | | Paul McCartney, Eric Cantona, |
| | its time attempting to alleviate | | | | related subjects, Walter de la Mare | | | | Tony Curtis, Anthony Burgess (with |
| | waking nightmares. ‘In a bid to | | | | warned that ‘waking recollection’ | | | | boyfriend), Picasso and Dvorák |
| | retain the atmosphere of the dream,’ | | | | of a night’s travels into unknown | | | | (duetting) and Salvador Dali all put |
| | he writes, ‘I have allowed those | | | | realms ‘is difficult to translate into | | | | in an appearance. Michael Carson |
| | dreams scribbled down in haste to | | | | those obstinate and artificial | | | | and Bernard MacLaverty dream of |
| | remain… as a result, there will be | | | | symbols, words’. Some of Royle’s | | | | royalty, while D.J. Taylor dreams of |
| | infelicities of language, there will | | | | contributors (Nicholas Freeling, | | | | A.S. Byatt, who is unable to return |
| | be syntactical shortcuts, there will | | | | Giles Gordon) try too hard, some | | | | the compliment, dreaming instead |
| | be liberties taken which these | | | | hardly at all. Fortunately, others | | | | of Iris Murdoch. (By way of |
| | writers would not dream of taking | | | | have overcome the difficulty | | | | compensation, Taylor appears in the |
| | in fiction.’ The problem with many | | | | triumphantly. Desmond Hogan’s | | | | dreams of the editor). |
| | contributions, however, is not that | | | | recurring dream of Nazi persecution | | 5 | | Contributors relive unfortunate |
| | they have been dashed off but that | | | | and ghostly children has been made | | | | episodes from their past. Louis de |
| | they lack style.With some notable | | | | into a beautifully shaped short | | | | Bernières returns to Sandhurst; |
| | exceptions, there is not a great deal | | | | story; Liza Cody’s vision of a | | | | Jonathan Coe is still playing |
| | here that is interesting as writing. | | | | hospital where the uniquely warm | | | | keyboards with The Peer Group. |
| | This might not matter if all the | | | | blood of Sephardic Jews is drained | | | | Suspiciously few admit to any |
| | contributors were celebrated | | | | into a central-heating system in | | | | sexual episodes - not even Fiona |
| | figures: even the hastily scribbled | | | | order to coddle the premature twins | | | | Pitt-Kethley. |
| | dreams of Doris Lessing,Will Self, | | | | of the Empress of China is very | | 6 | | ‘Dreams, alas, resemble far too |
| | Christine Brooke-Rose, Michael | | | | well recounted and authentically | | | | frequently a tale told by an idiot’, |
| | Ondaatje, William Wharton and | | | | bizarre; Patrick McGrath’s four | | | | wrote de la Mare, ‘signifying even |
| | Hilary Mantel would be | | | | sentences about falling into the | | | | less than the literature he may |
| | worthwhile. There are many more | | | | carcass of a chicken the size of a | | | | reserve for his noonday.’ While The |
| | well-known writers here, but an | | | | house is alone worth the cover | | | | Tiger Garden reveals less of the |
| | equal, if not greater, number of | | | | price. | | | | creative processes than its publisher |
| | names unfamiliar outside genre | | 4 | | Jack Kerouac’s observation that | | | | claims, it is nevertheless an oddly |
| | fiction. One would think that | | | | ‘the fact that everybody in the | | | | beguiling, and beguilingly odd, |
| | writers of SF, fantasy and horror | | | | world dreams every night ties all | | | | collection. |
| | | | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | ‘The Independent’, |
| | | | | | | | | | December 7, 1996 |