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The Dream of Doctor Bantam
Jeanne Thornton's debut novel is a love story unlike any other, featuring Julie Thatch, a tough-as-nails, chainsmoking, wise-cracking 17-year-old Texan. Her idol, her older sister, jogs headlong into the lights of an approaching car, and dies. And Julie falls in love with a girl who both is and isn't an echo of her older sister, a long-limbed Francophone named Patrice—who is also a devotee of the Institute of Temporal Illusions, a Church of Scientology-like cult. In Julie Thatch you cannot help but see shades of Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander. Jeanne's former writing teacher at the University of Texas, Alexander Parsons (author of Leaving Disneyland and In the Shadows of the Sun) "The Dream of Doctor Bantam is one of those books you read every few years in which, page by page, you come to think of the characters as a part of your own dear, weird, and intransigent family. In Julie Thatch, Thornton has written a character as memorable and compelling as Holden Caufield or Oedipa Maas. She is alternately hilarious, maddening, and enchanting, a fearful and fearless smartass who enlivens every page of this fine novel." With illustrations by the author.
336 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2012
6 people are currently reading
654 people want to read
About the author
Jeanne Thornton
11 books277 followersJeanne Thornton is the author of Summer Fun (Soho 2021), The Black Emerald (Instar 2014), and The Dream of Doctor Bantam (OR 2012). She is the copublisher of Instar Books and the editor, with Tara Madison Avery, of the Ignatz Award-winning We're Still Here: An All-Trans Comics Anthology. Her fiction has appeared in n+1, WIRED, The Evergreen Review, and more. More information is at www.jeannethornton.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
July 23, 2012
GRANTED, I'M BIASED.
August 3, 2020
Wow, and hot damn! I suppose it's fitting that I came to this novel, Jeanne's debut, eight years late as it is full of time-related pseudo-philosophy -- but alas I am timebound, and it bothers me that I did not read this earlier. A wacky cult; a coffeeshop; a seventeen-year-old baby dyke grieving the loss of her older sister; Austin, TX in the early Oughts-- but this lazy indexing doesn't quite get at the novel's energies -- it's really Julie (aforementioned young queer) and her hardened charisma, an audacity both horrifying and thrilling, that steals the show -- as well as her tender, difficult love for Patrice, whose identity is shared with the cult. So funny, so dark; really hits you at that sad-laughter/hysterical tears place. The last section: brilliant.
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February 13, 2013I don't even know what to rate it...
I loved it, but I can't explain why. It was confusing, but made perfect sense. I hated all of the characters at points, but by the end I liked them all. It irritated me, but I was hooked and upset that it ended! I want to know where Julie went.
I loved it, but I can't explain why. It was confusing, but made perfect sense. I hated all of the characters at points, but by the end I liked them all. It irritated me, but I was hooked and upset that it ended! I want to know where Julie went.
July 4, 2018
Another author who thinks it's clever not to use speech marks. I can't imagine why anyone would think that incorrect punctuation would improve a book. Sounded like a good story but the lack of speech marks made it unreadable for me.
September 3, 2012
I won this book in the Giveaway. Let me just say I am SO thrilled to have the opportunity not only to read this book, but to own it also. This is definitely the kind of book that stays with you well after you have finished reading it. There are many things I'd love to say about this book, but I found that talking about this book is hard to do without giving away spoilers. A few things that i WILL say though...I found my heart breaking for Tabitha, as she was struggling to find "her place" in this world. I absolutely loved Julie's character. She was very raw and real, as well as a complete smartass. Now i usually fly through books but i found myself having to keep putting this book down, due to how VERY frustrating the Institute of Temporal Illusions (Church of Scientology-like Cult) and their member's were, as well as their influence over Patrice!!
April 29, 2014
I loved this fucking book.
November 7, 2013
Thornton's prose is luxurious and meditative; she is excellent at creating spaces, both internally and externally, and this grounds the reader with the characters in their physical and emotional environment. This alone makes the book a worthwhile read: it's very much a book that you inhabit, that makes you feel present and far away all at once.
Admittedly, Julie drove me nuts as a person - she is often cruel, even with her best of intentions. But Julie is, in many ways, the Nick Carraway to Patrice's Gatsby. The book essentially follows Julie's experience with Patrice's struggle - how to reconcile and survive in a world that suffocates you with its misery. Julie simply refuses to reconcile; she forces the world to keep turning on her own terms. Patrice, meanwhile, must find her own form of strength as a person shaped by crippling anxiety and neglect. Her struggle to do so, and Julie's struggle to help her, propels the story forward.
I found Patrice's closure particularly satisfying - complex in a way that left me ruminating (but not brooding) for a few hours afterward. Both the book and the contemplation induced by it felt like time well spent.
Admittedly, Julie drove me nuts as a person - she is often cruel, even with her best of intentions. But Julie is, in many ways, the Nick Carraway to Patrice's Gatsby. The book essentially follows Julie's experience with Patrice's struggle - how to reconcile and survive in a world that suffocates you with its misery. Julie simply refuses to reconcile; she forces the world to keep turning on her own terms. Patrice, meanwhile, must find her own form of strength as a person shaped by crippling anxiety and neglect. Her struggle to do so, and Julie's struggle to help her, propels the story forward.
I found Patrice's closure particularly satisfying - complex in a way that left me ruminating (but not brooding) for a few hours afterward. Both the book and the contemplation induced by it felt like time well spent.
November 22, 2012
This is one of the most engaging novels I have read in a long time. The backdrop of the book is almost surrealist, but the characters nevertheless have the weight of real people. It manages to be a book about queer identities without boring the reader with a lengthy explanation of queer identities. And the subject matter is not overly earnest - the characters are allowed to be both obnoxious and likeable at the same time, and invite the reader to imagine who they will become as they age.
[SLIGHTLY SPOILERY STUFF BELOW]
My only major criticism is that I felt like more could have been done to explore the various weirdnesses of the cult. I kept expecting the book to dive in there, but at some point near the end I realized it wasn't going to happen. I didn't ding the rating for that, because I'm not actually sure it's a flaw, just a mismatch between my expectations and what I was actually reading. It's possible that on a second read-through, when I no longer have that specific expectation, I wouldn't find it jarring.
[SLIGHTLY SPOILERY STUFF BELOW]
My only major criticism is that I felt like more could have been done to explore the various weirdnesses of the cult. I kept expecting the book to dive in there, but at some point near the end I realized it wasn't going to happen. I didn't ding the rating for that, because I'm not actually sure it's a flaw, just a mismatch between my expectations and what I was actually reading. It's possible that on a second read-through, when I no longer have that specific expectation, I wouldn't find it jarring.
January 13, 2013
Oh my goodness, I loved this book so much-it is the most real thing that I have ever read. Don't be expecting some pretty little fairy tale here, this book is about a relationship that is all too real and all too relevant in our society. Please, read this!
October 17, 2012
"julie closed her eyes and trailed her arm out the open window and let the wind bend her fingers back, dipped her arm like a dolphin’s nose through the headwind, like she was a mermaid, swimming in a dream."
September 10, 2016
Eileen Myles says, " It's all punk heart, messily thudding."
So duh of course I want it.
So duh of course I want it.
December 26, 2014
A wonderfully sad read. A coming of age story that intertwines the helplessness of caring for someone who needs what you can't give, time travel, and loss. Really loved this book.
February 3, 2026
really amazing take on lesbian “i can fix her”-ism. good time in my life to read this
February 10, 2015
The thing I liked best about this novel is the remarkable number of ways that it approaches time. On one level it operates the way it would in any other story -- there is pre-history (Julie with her sister and Pamela’s past) and a present (Julie with Pamela), and even a small glimpse of the future. But then there is the unwritten future of this story that was on my mind throughout; I was constantly tempted me to wonder about the future these characters. And then there was the way which the story captured a very specific time of the early 2000s and the very specific time one’s life of being on the cusp of adulthood. And of course there is Dr. Bantam’s own unbound ideas about timeboundness and the time based cult he founded. The author’s command of small but salient detail makes all of the approaches to time evocative.
I’m still not sure whether Julie has her shit together in some fundamental way or if she’s in a lot of trouble once the story the ends. And just like Julie, I don’t think you can subject any part of this novel, to easy analysis. Maybe she really is the most competent person in the book and she’ll be taking care of everyone, or maybe Robbie was the hero all along and was right in thinking that she’ll start to despise coffee shops and wish she had finished high school. I had a lot of fun wondering about these things and wondering whether these people were better off having known each other.
On a personal level this book evoked a lot of memories for me, memories of living in a place that’s not horrifically expensive and where christmas lights could be a permanent fixture in someone’s apartment and you can have friends who work part time and sell pamphlets on the street and somehow they aren’t entirely fucked. For anyone who is five or six years into life in New York this book is highly recommended. All the more interesting that it evoked this response in me and New York somehow shows up in a little though big way in the end.
Full Disclosure: I slept over this author’s apartment once and was terrorized by her cat over the course of the night.
I’m still not sure whether Julie has her shit together in some fundamental way or if she’s in a lot of trouble once the story the ends. And just like Julie, I don’t think you can subject any part of this novel, to easy analysis. Maybe she really is the most competent person in the book and she’ll be taking care of everyone, or maybe Robbie was the hero all along and was right in thinking that she’ll start to despise coffee shops and wish she had finished high school. I had a lot of fun wondering about these things and wondering whether these people were better off having known each other.
On a personal level this book evoked a lot of memories for me, memories of living in a place that’s not horrifically expensive and where christmas lights could be a permanent fixture in someone’s apartment and you can have friends who work part time and sell pamphlets on the street and somehow they aren’t entirely fucked. For anyone who is five or six years into life in New York this book is highly recommended. All the more interesting that it evoked this response in me and New York somehow shows up in a little though big way in the end.
Full Disclosure: I slept over this author’s apartment once and was terrorized by her cat over the course of the night.
January 9, 2013
Two things immediately drew me to The Dream of Doctor Bantam: badass cover art and a glowing blurb from Eileen Myles. Can I mention that she was my professor in college again without being obnoxious?
Jeanne Thornton tells the story of Julie, a seventeen year old with largely absent parents navigating life after her sister, Tabitha, committed suicide by running as fast as she could into an oncoming car. Her primary hangout is Retrograde, a coffee shop next door to a facility rumored to be a cult. Julie becomes involved with one of the cult members, who believe that most people are ‘timebound’, in a pejorative sense, and their doctrine is to live their lives outside the restrictions and limitations of time.
I liked the book a lot but I have to say that it made me feel old because I was super stressed out by Julie’s choices. Chain smoking, lack of parental supervision, drinking, dropping out of high school, coming and going from her house as she pleases—I kept wanting to reach through the pages and shake her mother into action. The internal and external chaos in the book was an excellent representation of teenage confusion. Julie is desperately trying to solve for who she is and throwing every possibility at the wall to see what sticks. I think at seventeen most of us could have related to that.
Jeanne Thornton tells the story of Julie, a seventeen year old with largely absent parents navigating life after her sister, Tabitha, committed suicide by running as fast as she could into an oncoming car. Her primary hangout is Retrograde, a coffee shop next door to a facility rumored to be a cult. Julie becomes involved with one of the cult members, who believe that most people are ‘timebound’, in a pejorative sense, and their doctrine is to live their lives outside the restrictions and limitations of time.
I liked the book a lot but I have to say that it made me feel old because I was super stressed out by Julie’s choices. Chain smoking, lack of parental supervision, drinking, dropping out of high school, coming and going from her house as she pleases—I kept wanting to reach through the pages and shake her mother into action. The internal and external chaos in the book was an excellent representation of teenage confusion. Julie is desperately trying to solve for who she is and throwing every possibility at the wall to see what sticks. I think at seventeen most of us could have related to that.
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May 7, 2015An operatic, intensely surprising, and deliciously weird ode to dealing with grief in all the wrong ways, Thornton’s debut novel follows wise-ass Julie Thatch, a seventeen-year-old girl determined not to acknowledge how devastated she is by her older sister’s suicide. Instead, she falls head over heels for Patrice, the deeply troubled devotee of a Scientology-esque cult. Thornton tackles her themes head-on with an ear finely tuned to the morbidly funny, and what could easily turn into a maudlin or heavy-handed wallow is instead a sharp, witty gem of a novel that refuses easy answers or tidy arcs. — Sarah McCarry
from The Best Books We Read In April: http://bookriot.com/2015/05/01/riot-r...
from The Best Books We Read In April: http://bookriot.com/2015/05/01/riot-r...
October 18, 2015
I will admit that I am not writing this review immediately after I read it. A few months have past. With that being said, the first adjective that came to my mind when I started this review was gritty. This book is about a teenage girl's struggle after her sister's death. Having suffered the death of a sibling myself, I struggled with this book in some respects - not because of any issues I had with the story itself but because of the emotions that it brought up for me. That is part of the reason that this book got a three star rating from me. Overall, I did find there was something missing for me in the experience of this book. However, it is a book that keeps you thinking and a second reading of this book would undoubtedly give me more insight.
April 14, 2013
"There are few things more exciting than when a book has a truly lasting effect on you, leaving you feeling unsettled or overjoyed. Jeanne Thornton‘s début novel The Dream of Doctor Bantam is a book that does just that.
Set in a dystopian society uncomfortably similar to our own, 17-year-old Julie Thatch is struggling to cope with with the death of her sister and role model Tabitha, her depressed and loveless mother and her own sexuality." (Excerpt from full review at For Books' Sake.)
Set in a dystopian society uncomfortably similar to our own, 17-year-old Julie Thatch is struggling to cope with with the death of her sister and role model Tabitha, her depressed and loveless mother and her own sexuality." (Excerpt from full review at For Books' Sake.)
March 16, 2013
Enjoyable read. The main character was really well-fleshed out and I really liked seeing her journey, finding myself cringing as she made bad decisions.
But with the exception of maybe Ira, I wasn't invested in the other characters. Especially Patrice. She fell completely flat for me, which is a problem since the romance element seemed so important to the novel as a whole.
But with the exception of maybe Ira, I wasn't invested in the other characters. Especially Patrice. She fell completely flat for me, which is a problem since the romance element seemed so important to the novel as a whole.
May 14, 2021
I really loved this book. Vivid and agonizingly real characters developed with restrained intensity, who'll live with me for a while. It's a classic coming of age story that made everything feel new, and surprised me often.
February 4, 2021
Loved this book, it’s really good at seducing you into a toxic relationship at the same pace Julie is.
June 11, 2023
jeanne thornton does it again for the first time..
April 6, 2024
This has been on my list forever, in time bound thinking, but as I started reading, I certainly found that time does not exist. Easily one of my top reads in recent history. After I finished it, I tossed on the audiobook for good measure.
November 18, 2023
I wish I'd read this when it came out, when I was 17/18, I think I would have found it revolutionary. Mindbending. And honestly, I think I would have found a lot of comfort in it.
March 9, 2026
Initial 2023 Read:
I still need to give this a proper review, especially as it is the book I have most thought about and is by far my most beloved thing I've read all year.
I genuinely find it hard to express just how or why I adore this book so much being a sad, broken Queer disaster who loves nothing more than reading beautiful, ugly, wonderful books about her people.
***
I've given it some time, but I am struggling to write a review for this book because I loved it so very much, but can't exactly out my finger on why. I have been thinking about it so often since and, honestly, I can't wait to read it again. It's just so nihilistic and bleak, but hopeful and real and raw and grimy and hopeless and ugly and beautiful. I just can't get my thoughts together enough to do it justice. I don't think I've ever lived a book so much that I actually found it difficult to talk about.
I will re-read it once I put a tiny dent in my TBR and see how I do then.
...
This book has absolutely shattered me in the best worst, worst best way.
I can't remember a book made me just lose it sobbing this much.
This is probably my favourite book of all time.
I'll hopefully have more words once I have put myself back together.
2026 Re-Read:
I re-read/ listened to this again as my suggestion for put local Queer book club and I am not ready for how marmite this is going to be.
When I read this in 2023 it hooked me and absolutely shattered my world.
Returning to it a few years on I still absolutely adore it and the final chapter still utterly eviscerates me. In my opinion it's one of the most exquisitely beautiful, tragic, and heartbreaking passages ever penned.
I am a traumatised and fucked up grrrly and this truly is a book for the traumatised and fucked up grrrlies. It's just saw raw and ugly and real, and then so unbelievably beautiful in that.
I'm truly obsessed and seriously thinking about getting the smoking lips from the cover as a tattoo
I still need to give this a proper review, especially as it is the book I have most thought about and is by far my most beloved thing I've read all year.
I genuinely find it hard to express just how or why I adore this book so much being a sad, broken Queer disaster who loves nothing more than reading beautiful, ugly, wonderful books about her people.
***
I've given it some time, but I am struggling to write a review for this book because I loved it so very much, but can't exactly out my finger on why. I have been thinking about it so often since and, honestly, I can't wait to read it again. It's just so nihilistic and bleak, but hopeful and real and raw and grimy and hopeless and ugly and beautiful. I just can't get my thoughts together enough to do it justice. I don't think I've ever lived a book so much that I actually found it difficult to talk about.
I will re-read it once I put a tiny dent in my TBR and see how I do then.
...
This book has absolutely shattered me in the best worst, worst best way.
I can't remember a book made me just lose it sobbing this much.
This is probably my favourite book of all time.
I'll hopefully have more words once I have put myself back together.
2026 Re-Read:
I re-read/ listened to this again as my suggestion for put local Queer book club and I am not ready for how marmite this is going to be.
When I read this in 2023 it hooked me and absolutely shattered my world.
Returning to it a few years on I still absolutely adore it and the final chapter still utterly eviscerates me. In my opinion it's one of the most exquisitely beautiful, tragic, and heartbreaking passages ever penned.
I am a traumatised and fucked up grrrly and this truly is a book for the traumatised and fucked up grrrlies. It's just saw raw and ugly and real, and then so unbelievably beautiful in that.
I'm truly obsessed and seriously thinking about getting the smoking lips from the cover as a tattoo
Read
June 10, 2014http://www.full-stop.net/2013/04/29/r...
Review by Catie Disabato
In Los Angeles, around the area where Sunset Boulevard and Fountain Avenue converge, there is a huge building, the size of a city block and royal blue. This building is the main Scientology Center; the small road leading to the parking garage is called L. Ron Hubbard Way. Late last year, Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie The Master drew attention for being kinda-sorta about Scientology. But The Master was mostly about what the day-to-day business of being a cult looks like. I went into the theater expecting to be scared, but The Master basically just looked pretty.
This was my context when I picked up Jeanne Thornton’s The Dream of Doctor Bantam. When most people read the word cult on the back of a paperback, they either think of the Illuminati or Scientology, and Thornton’s given a few interviews saying she was inspired by the latter. I assume other readers will bring some similar associations to Doctor Bantam, plus or minus Lawrence Wright’s recent treatments.
But I recommend leaving the Scientology context behind when reading Doctor Bantam. It would be a shame for readers to decide what the book will be like before they even crack the spine. The book doesn’t really function as an examination of life in one cult or another. Instead, it’s about what it is to be the kind of person susceptible to joining a cult — and how close we all are to being that kind of person. It’s also about what it is to be the kind of person who falls in love with someone in a cult, and how close we may be to becoming that kind of person, too.
Read the rest here: http://www.full-stop.net/2013/04/29/r...
Review by Catie Disabato
In Los Angeles, around the area where Sunset Boulevard and Fountain Avenue converge, there is a huge building, the size of a city block and royal blue. This building is the main Scientology Center; the small road leading to the parking garage is called L. Ron Hubbard Way. Late last year, Paul Thomas Anderson’s movie The Master drew attention for being kinda-sorta about Scientology. But The Master was mostly about what the day-to-day business of being a cult looks like. I went into the theater expecting to be scared, but The Master basically just looked pretty.
This was my context when I picked up Jeanne Thornton’s The Dream of Doctor Bantam. When most people read the word cult on the back of a paperback, they either think of the Illuminati or Scientology, and Thornton’s given a few interviews saying she was inspired by the latter. I assume other readers will bring some similar associations to Doctor Bantam, plus or minus Lawrence Wright’s recent treatments.
But I recommend leaving the Scientology context behind when reading Doctor Bantam. It would be a shame for readers to decide what the book will be like before they even crack the spine. The book doesn’t really function as an examination of life in one cult or another. Instead, it’s about what it is to be the kind of person susceptible to joining a cult — and how close we all are to being that kind of person. It’s also about what it is to be the kind of person who falls in love with someone in a cult, and how close we may be to becoming that kind of person, too.
Read the rest here: http://www.full-stop.net/2013/04/29/r...
February 25, 2016
I struggled a lot with what to rate this. I kind of hate it, but I also think it's maybe sort of perfect?
First off, I disliked every character, even to the very end. But that falls especially hard on the main character, Julie. I'd say I loved to hate them all, but that's not entirely true. The book is too painful to truly love it. I did, however, grow to care about the main characters more than felt comfortable. I felt genuinely sad for every bit of pain given and received. That especially goes for the pain shared between Julie and Patrice.
The book is generally devastating. It's brilliant in how well it completely ruined me. It's been a long time since any story (whether book, movie, tv show, etc) gave me such a visceral response. I'm still reeling and feel like there's a terrible hollow in my chest. So, even in that, I love/hate this book. At the end of it all, though, I'd almost give it five stars, but for something I've yet left out.
There's a lot of unaddressed issues with the characters' actions and language. Like, I'm all for characters sucking, but, to me, actions need to be addressed directly (if subtlely). Characters casually dropping "wh***" and the egregious lack of consent throughout the book were big problems for me.
It's a mark of how powerful this is that I kept reading through it all and am still giving it 4/5
First off, I disliked every character, even to the very end. But that falls especially hard on the main character, Julie. I'd say I loved to hate them all, but that's not entirely true. The book is too painful to truly love it. I did, however, grow to care about the main characters more than felt comfortable. I felt genuinely sad for every bit of pain given and received. That especially goes for the pain shared between Julie and Patrice.
The book is generally devastating. It's brilliant in how well it completely ruined me. It's been a long time since any story (whether book, movie, tv show, etc) gave me such a visceral response. I'm still reeling and feel like there's a terrible hollow in my chest. So, even in that, I love/hate this book. At the end of it all, though, I'd almost give it five stars, but for something I've yet left out.
There's a lot of unaddressed issues with the characters' actions and language. Like, I'm all for characters sucking, but, to me, actions need to be addressed directly (if subtlely). Characters casually dropping "wh***" and the egregious lack of consent throughout the book were big problems for me.
It's a mark of how powerful this is that I kept reading through it all and am still giving it 4/5
December 9, 2012
I received this as part of LibraryThing Early Reviewers. The best way I've thought to describe this book is as a diamond cut gem, all sharp edges but still beautiful to look upon. It's definitely a vibe on its own and I absolutely loved the ride. The characters are not your typical lit cookie cutter types that say all the right things. I enjoyed everyone being flawed, real life is flawed. I enjoyed the quirky things thought and said (in part because who doesn't sometimes have thoughts like those - I just rarely see them on the page). Looking forward to more from this author!
October 15, 2013
I've been waiting for this book to come out for over two years now, and I seriously can't wait until it's released. I've already ordered my copy from O/R Books, and you should too: http://www.orbooks.com/catalog/doctor...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews