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Grouse County Trilogy #2
Hunts in Dreams
“Drury is a truly great writer.”—Esquire
“A beguiling novel . . . perceptive and captivating.”—The New York Times
“Startling and utterly original.”—Newsday
In this mesmerizing novel, Tom Drury once again journeys to the quiet Midwest to spend an action-packed October weekend in the lives of a precarious family whose members all want something without knowing how to get it: for Charles, an heirloom shotgun; for his wife, Joan, the imaginative life she once knew; for their young son, Micah, a knowledge of the scope and reliability of his world, aided by prowling the empty town at night; and for Joan’s daughter, Lyris, a stable foot from which to begin to grow up.
Sometimes together, sometimes crucially apart, father, mother, son, and daughter move through a series of vivid encounters that demonstrate how even the most provisional family can endure in its own particular way.
“A beguiling novel . . . perceptive and captivating.”—The New York Times
“Startling and utterly original.”—Newsday
In this mesmerizing novel, Tom Drury once again journeys to the quiet Midwest to spend an action-packed October weekend in the lives of a precarious family whose members all want something without knowing how to get it: for Charles, an heirloom shotgun; for his wife, Joan, the imaginative life she once knew; for their young son, Micah, a knowledge of the scope and reliability of his world, aided by prowling the empty town at night; and for Joan’s daughter, Lyris, a stable foot from which to begin to grow up.
Sometimes together, sometimes crucially apart, father, mother, son, and daughter move through a series of vivid encounters that demonstrate how even the most provisional family can endure in its own particular way.
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
19 people are currently reading
600 people want to read
About the author
Tom Drury
14 books135 followersTom Drury was born in 1956. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Drury has published short fiction and essays in The New Yorker, A Public Space, Ploughshares, Granta, The Mississippi Review, The New York Times Magazine, and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. His novels have been translated into German, Spanish, and French. "Path Lights," a story Drury published in The New Yorker, was made into a short film starring John Hawkes and Robin Weigert and directed by Zachary Sluser. The film debuted on David Lynch Foundation Television and played in film festivals around the world. In addition to Iowa, Drury has lived in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, and California. He currently lives in Brooklyn and is published by Grove Press.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
May 18, 2016
even better than The End of Vandalism, this book is much shorter, darker, less funny but way more hypnotic and sad, but ultimately incredibly moving. successfully reassures the reader that even the smallest moments in the most seemingly meaningless and mundane lives have the greatest meaning. LOVED this.
November 18, 2017
Splendido. Ormai sono follemente innamorato di Drury, della Grouse County e dei suoi personaggi. E si tratta di un amore profondo, perché sbocciato lentamente, giorno dopo giorno.
Quando finii La fine dei vandalismi mi ci volle qualche giorno per capire cosa avevo letto, per realizzare quanta potenza (semplicità? Può qualcosa di semplice essere enormemente potente?) e umanità vivessero tra le pagine di quel romanzo e quanto ne fui colpito (o invaso).
Quando un romanzo mi torna in mente a distanza di settimane o mesi dalla lettura, significa che è destinato a rimanere con me, nel mio cuore. E quindi cosa si può dire di A caccia nei sogni? Che è come ritornare a Casa, e che vi scalderà l’anima e non vi lascerà più.
Quando finii La fine dei vandalismi mi ci volle qualche giorno per capire cosa avevo letto, per realizzare quanta potenza (semplicità? Può qualcosa di semplice essere enormemente potente?) e umanità vivessero tra le pagine di quel romanzo e quanto ne fui colpito (o invaso).
Quando un romanzo mi torna in mente a distanza di settimane o mesi dalla lettura, significa che è destinato a rimanere con me, nel mio cuore. E quindi cosa si può dire di A caccia nei sogni? Che è come ritornare a Casa, e che vi scalderà l’anima e non vi lascerà più.
July 25, 2025
Leben im midwest. Allerlei Sachen passieren, alle bleiben gleich.
April 13, 2015
The setting of Hunts in Dreams is a small Midwestern town. Drury chooses to follow the lives of one nuclear family, an ordinary family, over the course of a single weekend. And...
Nothing happens. Or almost nothing happens. The father, a mother and two children get themselves into tiny dustups but nothing to write home about. They go about their business. At least two of them get involved in bad behavior but not the kind of activity that makes the nightly news. Just little things that slowly eat away at family life. They're the kind of family that goes unnoticed by neighbors until there's an announcement in the guise of moving vans or flashing police lights outside the home that the family has problems that cannot be fixed.
It's an interesting choice that the dust jacket of Tom Drury's novel has a fox in profile because this is a sly little book. It sneaks up on you. Foxes, unlike coyotes and wolves, are quiet, solitary creatures. They do not howl their accomplishments in packs like their distant cousins. A fox makes its way through the woods seemingly invisible to its surroundings.
Nothing happens. Or almost nothing happens. The father, a mother and two children get themselves into tiny dustups but nothing to write home about. They go about their business. At least two of them get involved in bad behavior but not the kind of activity that makes the nightly news. Just little things that slowly eat away at family life. They're the kind of family that goes unnoticed by neighbors until there's an announcement in the guise of moving vans or flashing police lights outside the home that the family has problems that cannot be fixed.
It's an interesting choice that the dust jacket of Tom Drury's novel has a fox in profile because this is a sly little book. It sneaks up on you. Foxes, unlike coyotes and wolves, are quiet, solitary creatures. They do not howl their accomplishments in packs like their distant cousins. A fox makes its way through the woods seemingly invisible to its surroundings.
May 28, 2020
A mente fredda, dopo aver finito questo libro, ho pensato che l'idea di base con cui ero partito era completamente sbagliata e fortunatamente è bello avere torto e ricredersi. Complice anche la conferma da parte di recensioni già esistenti qua su Goodreads.
Catturato dai vari commenti sulla quarta di copertina o introduzioni al romanzo, ho pensato di comprare "A caccia nei sogni" senza esitare un secondo. Poi, appunto, la scoperta: Secondo capitolo della trilogia di Grouse Country. Riuscirò a capire qualcosa, specie se i fatti del primo capitolo ("Fine dei Vandalismi") sono a me ignoti, soprattutto se ambientati 8 anni prima rispetto al libro che ho in mano?
Si. L'intero libro si svolge centrando tutto il peso su Charlie Darling e la sua famiglia, rispetto al primo capitolo che, da quello che ho letto, si basa sull'intera comunità e in questo caso la stessa passa in secondo piano.
Mi è piaciuto come l'intero svolgimento della storia è basato in soli quattro giorni e i capitoli sono focus dei rispettivi membri della famiglia e determinati avvenimenti che li circondano. Ho avuto la sensazione di far parte di quella famiglia stessa, il classico "ospite indesiderato" che osserva tutto da lontano ma che vive indirettamente le varie situazioni. Per quanto particolare, mi son sentito un componente dei Darling.
A rendere tutto più facile è la stessa Grouse Country. Luogo in cui le vite delle persone sono intrecciate le une alle altre, un po' come il mio piccolo paese dove sono nato e cresciuto. Mi ha dato l'idea di quei paesi americani dove le persone e i modi di fare un po' si assomigliano tra loro. Non mi stupisco se, con la fantasia, prendendo una strada a caso da quest'ambientazione si arriva a Little Wing, Wisconsin, dov'è ambientato "Shotgun Lovesongs" di Nickolas Butler.
A caricare l'enfasi per il mio giudizio definitivo è stato proprio un bel finale che mi ha coinvolto pagina dopo pagina. QUEL finale che merita proprio ogni singola lettera maiuscola e che tanto ricerco nei miei "amici" cartacei.
Potevo dare benissimo cinque stelle, meritate anche grazie al lavoro del traduttore Gianni Pannofino e della nota dello stesso a fine libro. Ma do la colpa al fatto di non aver letto il primo capitolo, magari davo una maggiore identità ad alcuni personaggi secondari e alle loro sfumature.
(Dalla quarta di copertina): "Questo libro è per chi viaggia di notte, in compagnia di una luna inclinata e luminosa, per chi ha trovato un baule in soffitta, pieno di cappelli, scarpe e vestiti, per chi si sente a suo agio con i fantasmi e le idee insolite, e per chi capisce sempre troppo tardi quali sono le persone che vuole avere vicino, e come fare per non perderle".
July 4, 2018
"«Charles ha dei fucili» disse Joan «Va a caccia».
«Va a caccia nei sogni»."
A caccia nei sogni è il secondo volume della Trilogia di Grouse County di Tom Drury.
Se per il primo volume, La Fine dei Vandalismi, ho voluto fare una recensione, in parte, comparata alla Trilogia di Holt di Kent Haruf, questa volta la farò, invece, tra i primi due volumi della serie.
A chi non ha letto il primo libro consiglio di leggerlo e di procedere con la lettura di questa recensione solo successivamente perché, nonostante A caccia nei sogni sia perfettamente comprensibile anche come lettura sé stante, penso che essa possa avere maggior valore se fatta seguendo l'ordine cronologico delle opere.
A caccia nei sogni è ambientato circa 8 anni dopo le vicende del primo volume. L'ambientazione è sempre Grouse County ma, al contrario di quanto succede in La Fine dei Vandalismi, i luoghi descritti sono molti meno.
Nonostante l'ambientazione continui ad avere un ruolo importante, viene descritta in misura minore e occupa meno spazio rispetto alle descrizioni del volume precedente.
Anche la struttura cambia. I pochi capitoli (16 in totale) vengono suddivisi in persone.
Ognuno di loro, infatti, presenta come titolo il nome di uno dei protagonisti, aiutandoci a capire il punto di vista che prevarrà al suo interno.
Dico prevarrà perché, in realtà, troveremo anche punti di vista di personaggi secondari che, però, saranno sempre legati a ciò che succede al personaggio principale del capitolo.
Sono frequenti anche i flashback che, a volte, non vengono introdotti prima di essere scritti.
Il resto della recensione al link http://www.leggoquandovoglio.it/libro...
«Va a caccia nei sogni»."
A caccia nei sogni è il secondo volume della Trilogia di Grouse County di Tom Drury.
Se per il primo volume, La Fine dei Vandalismi, ho voluto fare una recensione, in parte, comparata alla Trilogia di Holt di Kent Haruf, questa volta la farò, invece, tra i primi due volumi della serie.
A chi non ha letto il primo libro consiglio di leggerlo e di procedere con la lettura di questa recensione solo successivamente perché, nonostante A caccia nei sogni sia perfettamente comprensibile anche come lettura sé stante, penso che essa possa avere maggior valore se fatta seguendo l'ordine cronologico delle opere.
A caccia nei sogni è ambientato circa 8 anni dopo le vicende del primo volume. L'ambientazione è sempre Grouse County ma, al contrario di quanto succede in La Fine dei Vandalismi, i luoghi descritti sono molti meno.
Nonostante l'ambientazione continui ad avere un ruolo importante, viene descritta in misura minore e occupa meno spazio rispetto alle descrizioni del volume precedente.
Anche la struttura cambia. I pochi capitoli (16 in totale) vengono suddivisi in persone.
Ognuno di loro, infatti, presenta come titolo il nome di uno dei protagonisti, aiutandoci a capire il punto di vista che prevarrà al suo interno.
Dico prevarrà perché, in realtà, troveremo anche punti di vista di personaggi secondari che, però, saranno sempre legati a ciò che succede al personaggio principale del capitolo.
Sono frequenti anche i flashback che, a volte, non vengono introdotti prima di essere scritti.
Il resto della recensione al link http://www.leggoquandovoglio.it/libro...
July 2, 2015
A moving, sad portrait of an American provincial town.
The book is set around the boredom, the monotony in American provincial towns in the Midwest and centers around a torn family. The book tells about four days in October and tells the story of four members of the family, Charles, his wife Joan, their son Micah and Lyris which was only recently brought back by an organisation to her mother after being released to adoption after her birth.
The language is easy, the words often set in parataxis, nevertheless, Drury suceeds in catching a picture of the American society which stamps itself to the reader. One travels with the family by grain-fields, weapon stores and woods, the American scenery clearly stands out before the eye.
The history of the family in itself is rather discouraging. The members try to flee from her real life, go for her problems, besides, often from the way, get involved too fast in something.
At the end one sits there, lays down the book and feels unfulfilled, sad just like the characters in the book itself.
Though and easy-read, the story definitely stucks with you.
The book is set around the boredom, the monotony in American provincial towns in the Midwest and centers around a torn family. The book tells about four days in October and tells the story of four members of the family, Charles, his wife Joan, their son Micah and Lyris which was only recently brought back by an organisation to her mother after being released to adoption after her birth.
The language is easy, the words often set in parataxis, nevertheless, Drury suceeds in catching a picture of the American society which stamps itself to the reader. One travels with the family by grain-fields, weapon stores and woods, the American scenery clearly stands out before the eye.
The history of the family in itself is rather discouraging. The members try to flee from her real life, go for her problems, besides, often from the way, get involved too fast in something.
At the end one sits there, lays down the book and feels unfulfilled, sad just like the characters in the book itself.
Though and easy-read, the story definitely stucks with you.
December 27, 2017
Il secondo capitolo della trilogia di Grouse County è ancor più bello de
La fine dei vandalismi
, forse per la sensazione di maggiore intimità che trasmette, dal momento che il lettore viene incluso nella storia di una famiglia e non più di una intera comunità. Non è comunque necessario aver letto il capitolo precedente: A caccia nei sogni offre l'opportunità di entrare nel racconto del Midwest in medias res e di gustare pienamente la prosa dell'autore in un romanzo che si regge benissimo in piedi da solo.
http://athenaenoctua2013.blogspot.it/...
http://athenaenoctua2013.blogspot.it/...
October 20, 2017
Like a series of stills in front of my eyes.. the landscapes that I knew of before, the personal stories that I heard of...like a flemish painting - its abundance of personalities and their surroundings, let you just for an instant enter their lives, that exist apart from yours, parallelly unparallel in a totally another unvierse.
Where did I read or see about a man with an airplane propeller before? And until now I've never heard of a Hilliard ensemble, singing "Mass for four voices" by Thomas Tallis.
"The voices faded to silence and then began again. He pictured the singers climbing a steep rock, on top of which waited some fate that they were afraid of but that they had to face or they would never feel right". (Just listened to "Absterge Domini", airy and uplifting)
And all this descriptions of dreams, makes me want to record my dreams more.
"She went out to the kitchen and brought back a tray bearing a bottle, a pitcher, two glasses, and some rocks. She gave him one of the rocks to look at."
"One of the most oppressive times for Micah was when Joan or Charles ordered him to help find something. Sometimes by moaning and kicking and looking where they had already looked he could get himself dismissed from the assignment. Until then, it was like purgatory, or a prison sentence of no fixed term. He would picture them all growing older - Joan stooped and fragile, Charles with a long gray beard, himself a tall and handsome young man - while doomed to the eternal hunt for the savings deposit book or the corkscrew or the little key that would fit onto the inset stems of the radiators if only someone could find it. An what about Lyris? What would she be in the years to come? A scientist, an aviator - something beyond their expectations."
Drury has a wonderful gift of capturing human's uncontrollable train of thoughts, one leading to another, for most of us a stream fo unconscious conscience, like a waterfall overthrowing itself....
And Drury's painter-like ability to finish his narrative, as if with a paintbrush he applies the last strokes to the lives of the characters and the surroundings. The end. The curtain went down.
"This happens, that happens, and here we are."
"He looked around the yard. The goat was carrying the lid of the garbage can like a retriever with a Frisbee. All right, forget the goat as an example. He gestured toward the barn".
"Micah slept, Lyris slept, Charles lay drinking on the davenport. He did not feel like going up. That's how he and Joan used to say it- "Do you feel like going up?" As if they slept in clouds.
Where did I read or see about a man with an airplane propeller before? And until now I've never heard of a Hilliard ensemble, singing "Mass for four voices" by Thomas Tallis.
"The voices faded to silence and then began again. He pictured the singers climbing a steep rock, on top of which waited some fate that they were afraid of but that they had to face or they would never feel right". (Just listened to "Absterge Domini", airy and uplifting)
And all this descriptions of dreams, makes me want to record my dreams more.
"She went out to the kitchen and brought back a tray bearing a bottle, a pitcher, two glasses, and some rocks. She gave him one of the rocks to look at."
"One of the most oppressive times for Micah was when Joan or Charles ordered him to help find something. Sometimes by moaning and kicking and looking where they had already looked he could get himself dismissed from the assignment. Until then, it was like purgatory, or a prison sentence of no fixed term. He would picture them all growing older - Joan stooped and fragile, Charles with a long gray beard, himself a tall and handsome young man - while doomed to the eternal hunt for the savings deposit book or the corkscrew or the little key that would fit onto the inset stems of the radiators if only someone could find it. An what about Lyris? What would she be in the years to come? A scientist, an aviator - something beyond their expectations."
Drury has a wonderful gift of capturing human's uncontrollable train of thoughts, one leading to another, for most of us a stream fo unconscious conscience, like a waterfall overthrowing itself....
And Drury's painter-like ability to finish his narrative, as if with a paintbrush he applies the last strokes to the lives of the characters and the surroundings. The end. The curtain went down.
"This happens, that happens, and here we are."
"He looked around the yard. The goat was carrying the lid of the garbage can like a retriever with a Frisbee. All right, forget the goat as an example. He gestured toward the barn".
"Micah slept, Lyris slept, Charles lay drinking on the davenport. He did not feel like going up. That's how he and Joan used to say it- "Do you feel like going up?" As if they slept in clouds.
November 21, 2016
“Like a dog, he hunts in dreams, and thou art staring at the wall,
Where the dying night-lamp flickers, and the shadows rise and fall.”
The title of this book comes from a poem by Tennyson – I think of my cats as they sleep- at times their features flicker of twitch or a leg moves and they appear to be dreaming. My cat Rafi would be dreaming of hunting; he takes occasional pleasure in catching some poor creature and toying with it. It is not his finest feature. Hunting in dreams may be the cat/dog equivalent of having a flying dream – greatly pleasurable.
The verse is applied to Charles Darling (‘Tiny’ Darling from the novel which precedes this one – The End of Vandalism’). The two books are connected but it’s not essential to read both. When we meet Charles in this book, he has ditched his nickname and acquired a wife, a son and a step-daughter. I read that Drury has said himself that the image of hunting in dreams means something to him that it didn’t to Tennyson — a striving toward something better. That certainly fits with my reading of the book; there is a sense in the quotidian life of the book that the characters are looking for joy, for meaning, to be happy. One reviewer described it thus: “A gorgeous, inexplicably sad and funny novel about screwups trying to do better.” But the people are just ordinary – they are not screw-ups. Drury depicts them with love and humour; an aspect of his writing that I love. (Spoilers ahead)
The book is set in Iowa (once described to me by an American as being an acronym for Idiots Out wandering Anywhere). The action takes place over four days and focuses on Darling and his family. There are small and big events which I do not wish to give away, all delivered in a low key way although there was one point in the novel where I was scared for a character and tense enough to need to skip some pages to find out what happened.
A reviewer says of the locale and time period that the location is “one we think we recognise: a flat land, with gravel roads, scattered farmhouses, and the occasional lake. Water towers. Ditches. Barns. This is unremarkable territory, which has been well mapped in American fiction of the last 150 years. And yet. There is something a little off-kilter. Drury has talked of drawing on his childhood memories – he grew up in Iowa – while setting these stories in the present day. So there is a kind of dislocation; a 1950s or 60s sensibility dropped into a 90s social landscape. “Family agriculture seemed to be over,” the narrator notes, “and had not been replaced by any other compelling idea.” These people seem adrift, uncertain of their place in the world while at the same time all too certain of their own identity. This is realism, then, but a realism jolted a little bit sideways.” (https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...) The dislocated economy of contemporary America has been much in the news post the US elections; there is little sense that people in this novel are struggling economically or that they feel “left out” but this is a local novel, a story of people and relationships rather than the bigger picture (which was there a little in The End of Vandalism).
In both books, women run away from their families. Drury did a better job with Louise Darling who was one of the central characters of the earlier novel; here Joan (Charles’ wife) is not fully present or realized – maybe in a way that is how her family experiences her but I wanted more of and about her. Ditto the step-daughter. It’s a slighter book than its predecessor.
In some ways the novel resembles real life. Untidy ends remain. Little is resolved but the end is quite satisfying.
Where the dying night-lamp flickers, and the shadows rise and fall.”
The title of this book comes from a poem by Tennyson – I think of my cats as they sleep- at times their features flicker of twitch or a leg moves and they appear to be dreaming. My cat Rafi would be dreaming of hunting; he takes occasional pleasure in catching some poor creature and toying with it. It is not his finest feature. Hunting in dreams may be the cat/dog equivalent of having a flying dream – greatly pleasurable.
The verse is applied to Charles Darling (‘Tiny’ Darling from the novel which precedes this one – The End of Vandalism’). The two books are connected but it’s not essential to read both. When we meet Charles in this book, he has ditched his nickname and acquired a wife, a son and a step-daughter. I read that Drury has said himself that the image of hunting in dreams means something to him that it didn’t to Tennyson — a striving toward something better. That certainly fits with my reading of the book; there is a sense in the quotidian life of the book that the characters are looking for joy, for meaning, to be happy. One reviewer described it thus: “A gorgeous, inexplicably sad and funny novel about screwups trying to do better.” But the people are just ordinary – they are not screw-ups. Drury depicts them with love and humour; an aspect of his writing that I love. (Spoilers ahead)
The book is set in Iowa (once described to me by an American as being an acronym for Idiots Out wandering Anywhere). The action takes place over four days and focuses on Darling and his family. There are small and big events which I do not wish to give away, all delivered in a low key way although there was one point in the novel where I was scared for a character and tense enough to need to skip some pages to find out what happened.
A reviewer says of the locale and time period that the location is “one we think we recognise: a flat land, with gravel roads, scattered farmhouses, and the occasional lake. Water towers. Ditches. Barns. This is unremarkable territory, which has been well mapped in American fiction of the last 150 years. And yet. There is something a little off-kilter. Drury has talked of drawing on his childhood memories – he grew up in Iowa – while setting these stories in the present day. So there is a kind of dislocation; a 1950s or 60s sensibility dropped into a 90s social landscape. “Family agriculture seemed to be over,” the narrator notes, “and had not been replaced by any other compelling idea.” These people seem adrift, uncertain of their place in the world while at the same time all too certain of their own identity. This is realism, then, but a realism jolted a little bit sideways.” (https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...) The dislocated economy of contemporary America has been much in the news post the US elections; there is little sense that people in this novel are struggling economically or that they feel “left out” but this is a local novel, a story of people and relationships rather than the bigger picture (which was there a little in The End of Vandalism).
In both books, women run away from their families. Drury did a better job with Louise Darling who was one of the central characters of the earlier novel; here Joan (Charles’ wife) is not fully present or realized – maybe in a way that is how her family experiences her but I wanted more of and about her. Ditto the step-daughter. It’s a slighter book than its predecessor.
In some ways the novel resembles real life. Untidy ends remain. Little is resolved but the end is quite satisfying.
November 16, 2013
Personally I'm a little... stunned, I think.
This book was nothing like I expected. That being said, I'm not exactly sure what I expected.
It took me forever to read this book because I've been so busy. Every time I did read it, I felt like I was stuck in some kind of dreamlike trance. Weird? Yeah, I think so. Probably more me than the book though. Although the book had a lot of dreamlike qualities in my opinion. Which suits the title and theme very well.
I feel really bad looking at its two stars, but it was okay. I don't feel any strong attachment to it. I wasn't able to connect to any of the characters for whatever reason. I was rather shocked by them so perhaps that's it.
Oddly enough, I really enjoyed the last ten pages. I felt like I was finally escaping that trance I mentioned earlier. The ending was pretty great. The irony was something I appreciated a lot.
I was a bit confused by some parts of the book, but I feel like if I read it again, I'd get it a bit better.
Sadly that probably won't be a while because I have so many other books I need to go through.
But I will definitely be revisiting this one.
I will add that the title does get explained over the course of the book. And then the whole dream-like thing doesn't feel as weird.
I don't have a specific recommendation for this, sorry.
Note: I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.
This book was nothing like I expected. That being said, I'm not exactly sure what I expected.
It took me forever to read this book because I've been so busy. Every time I did read it, I felt like I was stuck in some kind of dreamlike trance. Weird? Yeah, I think so. Probably more me than the book though. Although the book had a lot of dreamlike qualities in my opinion. Which suits the title and theme very well.
I feel really bad looking at its two stars, but it was okay. I don't feel any strong attachment to it. I wasn't able to connect to any of the characters for whatever reason. I was rather shocked by them so perhaps that's it.
Oddly enough, I really enjoyed the last ten pages. I felt like I was finally escaping that trance I mentioned earlier. The ending was pretty great. The irony was something I appreciated a lot.
I was a bit confused by some parts of the book, but I feel like if I read it again, I'd get it a bit better.
Sadly that probably won't be a while because I have so many other books I need to go through.
But I will definitely be revisiting this one.
I will add that the title does get explained over the course of the book. And then the whole dream-like thing doesn't feel as weird.
I don't have a specific recommendation for this, sorry.
Note: I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.
November 6, 2013
I've found another interesting author. Hunts in Dreams, though short in pages, contains very dense writing that maintains a lightness and humor throughout the book. It felt a little like Tom Robbins with zany replaced with pithy. It also focused on small town midwest which I come from and enjoy reading about. The characters seemed very real. At one point he says "Charles would fix something in such a way that it would need fixing again soon." I feel like I've known Charles all my life based on that one quote. Another line that just struck me as oddly pithy was describing an art history class: "This was not the first time the teacher had mentioned the use of unsold paintings as insulation." Lines like that show up a lot, mixed in with the story, and the term I kept thinking of as I read this was off-kilter. It works for me.
Won in Goodreads First Reads program.
Won in Goodreads First Reads program.
August 17, 2015
If you've read my other reviews of Drury, you know I'm biased. There's something about his writing that just WORKS for me, and I know that won't be the case for everyone. Even more, as I've mentioned in the past, Drury writes with such a distances that I'm sure many readers will find aggravating. I love it, though. Even more, I envy it.
I really can't say too much about this one, outside of the norm for Drury. It's funny--bothy silly and dark humored. It's heartbreaking and lovely. And it deals with the complexity of an individual when they're surrounded by the simplicity of dealing with everyday life.
I wouldn't make this your first Drury, but if you enjoy whatever else of his you read first--I suggest THE END OF VANDALISM--this is will keep your Drury love cruising.
I really can't say too much about this one, outside of the norm for Drury. It's funny--bothy silly and dark humored. It's heartbreaking and lovely. And it deals with the complexity of an individual when they're surrounded by the simplicity of dealing with everyday life.
I wouldn't make this your first Drury, but if you enjoy whatever else of his you read first--I suggest THE END OF VANDALISM--this is will keep your Drury love cruising.
October 21, 2016
This was something of a disappointment after Drury's "The End of Vandalism", which I greatly enjoyed. This was a difficult book to get into, despite its short length. Very little happens, but then again I had got used to that when reading "...Vandalism". The difference here is that the characters, some of whom are familiar from the earlier book, seem quite different and often the dialogue is inconsequential and sometimes downright bizarre. There are still moments of great charm and Drury's skill at identifying the absurdities of small town life remains to the fore, but the earlier book had an abundance of warmth, much of which is absent here.
November 30, 2013
I read this almost immediately after End of Vandalism. I rarely read 2 books in a row by the same author or even of the same type, so I was clearly taken by Drury's writing and characters. Hunts in Dreams didn't charm me quite as much. Odd little book, for sure. I'll take a break before moving on to Pacific, the third in the trilogy, but I will definitely come back.
September 9, 2017
Second novel in the trilogy about life in small town America. Less compulsive than the first book End to Vandalism but still a good sense of place.
May 1, 2018
Drury is a rare breed of author that has a distinctive voice, yet for some reason is grossly unknown. His prose is direct, his dialogue is deadpan, and his books are phenomenal.
April 26, 2019
Sprazzi di poesia qua e là, per insegnare che per dire la vita bisogna usare poche parole sapienti, e non tante confuse.
November 26, 2019
A kaleidoscopic book that’s every bit as peculiar as the people in the small town it captures. Both dreamlike and funny.
May 14, 2023
Libro (2o) che fa parte della trilogia di Grouse County ma che può essere letto come libro a sé.
Grouse County è una ragnatela di cittadine sparse in un immaginario Midwest, dove le vite sono intrecciate da legami di amicizia, affetto o semplice conoscenza. Per dirla ancora più semplice una non-storia di cui difficilmente avrei potuto immaginare di voler leggere qualcosa, come se i protagonisti di queste vicende quotidiana fossero stati osservati nella loro (e nostra) banalità routinaria quotidiana.
Una famiglia allargata con una ragazza riaffidata alla madre (che l'aveva data in adozione neonata) che la accetta di buon grado. Sarà la madre a fuggire a questo punto, per sfuggire alla routine e rimpiangendo la gioventù di attrice. Un padre che cerca di riprendersi un fucile che una vedova non gli vuole vendere ma che poi, trovatolo in salotto in piena notte, glielo regalerà offrendogli un caffè. Il bambino che sceglie come pet una capra. Personaggi di contorno che troviamo la notte a cacciare volpi. Noia quotidiana a go-go. C'è anche il quasi-matto del paese con il suo metal detector e che medita vendetta per perseguire una sua "logica" di innocenza dopo essere stato (giustamente) dal padre acquisito della ragazza.
Avrei potuto anche riassumere il tutto con un commento come WTF!?
Grouse County è una ragnatela di cittadine sparse in un immaginario Midwest, dove le vite sono intrecciate da legami di amicizia, affetto o semplice conoscenza. Per dirla ancora più semplice una non-storia di cui difficilmente avrei potuto immaginare di voler leggere qualcosa, come se i protagonisti di queste vicende quotidiana fossero stati osservati nella loro (e nostra) banalità routinaria quotidiana.
Una famiglia allargata con una ragazza riaffidata alla madre (che l'aveva data in adozione neonata) che la accetta di buon grado. Sarà la madre a fuggire a questo punto, per sfuggire alla routine e rimpiangendo la gioventù di attrice. Un padre che cerca di riprendersi un fucile che una vedova non gli vuole vendere ma che poi, trovatolo in salotto in piena notte, glielo regalerà offrendogli un caffè. Il bambino che sceglie come pet una capra. Personaggi di contorno che troviamo la notte a cacciare volpi. Noia quotidiana a go-go. C'è anche il quasi-matto del paese con il suo metal detector e che medita vendetta per perseguire una sua "logica" di innocenza dopo essere stato (giustamente) dal padre acquisito della ragazza.
Avrei potuto anche riassumere il tutto con un commento come WTF!?
December 16, 2018
When I read reviews stating "almost nothing happens" and "very little happens", I wonder if there are two vastly different editions of Hunts in Dreams, because in mine a teenager abandoned as an infant is reunited with her birth mother and new-to-her stepfather, the stepfather breaks into an elderly woman's house to steal a shotgun that once belonged to his father, the mother attends an out-of-town conference and has a one-night stand with a doctor and decides to leave her family until the following spring, the teenager evades a possible sexual assault by leaping off a bridge and escaping on foot through the woods at night, her stepfather confronts the assailant and is stabbed in ensuing fight, and the assailant is later foiled in an attempt to firebomb the family's property.
Which leads me to say that the other reviewers' statements may be true but incomplete. In a Tom Drury novel nothing happens in the way a reader has come to expect from other works of fiction. Some may find that to be a failing, but I find it refreshing, at least when presented in Drury's idiosyncratic, quirky way.
Which leads me to say that the other reviewers' statements may be true but incomplete. In a Tom Drury novel nothing happens in the way a reader has come to expect from other works of fiction. Some may find that to be a failing, but I find it refreshing, at least when presented in Drury's idiosyncratic, quirky way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 9, 2024
i am extremely susceptible to tom drury's shit. i honestly should always be reading tom drury but he has some of the external (and internal tbh) markings of New Yorker fiction and in my internal rulebook, all fiction they publish in the New Yorker is annoying and bad. i know on a rational level that this is not true but i just want to be contrary so i deprive myself (a story of my life)
the prose equivalent of grant wood paintings, but only if you know that grant wood paintings are actually hilarious cartoons
the prose equivalent of grant wood paintings, but only if you know that grant wood paintings are actually hilarious cartoons
January 1, 2024
I've read Drury's other books "The End of Vandalism" and "The Driftless Area" His style is unmistakable. "Hunts in Dreams" is similar to those other books. The setting is the Midwest and the characters are ordinary people, but there's a strange detached dreamlike quality to everything. The primary characters in "Hunts in Dreams" are a family; a husband, a wife, a daughter, and a son. The chapters alternate between characters. Each of these characters wants something. In some cases, it might be something simple and tangible like a rifle, but in this case, the character doesn't understand why they want it. Other characters may want something vague and intangible in which case they don't clearly perceive what they want.
January 2, 2019
Discombobulated book, hard to follow. But it did make me find the Poem Locksley Hall
BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON to read what it meant. Might have liked the book better if I could have followed it better.
BY ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON to read what it meant. Might have liked the book better if I could have followed it better.
May 18, 2019
I read this within a week of finishing The End of Vandalism, which i loved, and this didn't measure up...perhaps an unfair comparison. This lacked the humor and warmth of its predecessor, and, weighing in at 198 pages, was less able to sympathetically develop the characters.
July 17, 2022
Featuring many of the same people from End of Vandalism, I really like how this book established more continuity for the character development.
I did like End of Vandalism more, but am glad I read this and I recommend it.
I did like End of Vandalism more, but am glad I read this and I recommend it.
September 16, 2022
Protagonista è la famiglia Darling e il tutto si svolge nell'arco di pochi giorni circa 9 anni dopo gli eventi narrati in "La fine dei vandalismi". Succede poco ma non si può fare a meno di continuare a leggere e ci si affeziona a questi personaggi. Bello.
August 4, 2017
Una raccolta di sfigati nella piccola città. Mi piacciono i dialoghi e le descrizioni precise. Personaggi un po' abbozzati.
August 11, 2018
Liest sich irgendwie sehr nüchtern und ruhig, aber ehe man sichs versieht ist man drin und hat das ganze Buch nur so weggelesen.
April 17, 2019
Enjoyable, dryly humorous novel about dysfunctional families. Who could want more than that?
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