For the final week, I chose to read The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa. I can't believe this is my final blog post. It was a good novel to end off the term with. It was an enjoyable read, but at times I caught myself questioning what was real, imagined and what was being dreamed. It was interesting to see how dreams were illustrated in the sense of dreaming while asleep or daydreaming or having inspiring dreams about the future.
As the title suggests, this book is about dreams and dreamers. Set in Angola, with the hope that the younger generation can bring in a better future after the country's brutal past. The protagonist, Daniel Benchimol, is an Angolan journalist who has just gone through a divorce and is struggling to make sense of his place in changing society while dealing with his daughter's imprisonment as the result of protesting. I liked how Daniel was not always the centre of the novel, and we got to see each character grow and see what their dreams were about. There was a similarity with everyone's dreams. They all dreamed about change or progression. For example, Daniel's daughter acts out her dream for a better Angola. Their hope and strength came from their dreams. Their dreams were different from each other, but they were all a way of escaping reality and how they were forced to experience the changing times. Moira desires to dream her art to life. While Daniel's desire is to make sense of Hossi's dreamlessness.
