Review: The Dreamseller by Augusto Cury. This short novella is thought provoking and makes me realize my life has its faults but I appreciate who I have and what I have. The story is a combination of social interpretation with a mix of basic philosophy with an open-minded measure of irrational humor. I thought for a short story it was fast paced but and right to the point. The story is about a young college graduate, Julio Lambert who thinks he has been dealt a bad hand in life and is standing on a top ledge of a twenty-story building saying he is going to jump. Police, fire departments and other supporters stand on the ground while a support team is on the twentieth floor trying to talk to him. He doesn’t want to talk to anyone. He claims his life is over and all his dreams have been shattered. Within moments a grubby looking guy makes his way through the crowd on the ground and manipulates the officer, who is securing the building to allow him to go through into the building and up to the twentieth floor. Once there he makes the support people believe they sent for him and he crawls out onto the ledge with the jumper. The mysterious man sits on the ledge takes his lunch out of his coat pocket and begins to eat. Now, Julio can’t believe what this guy is doing and tells him to go away because he is going to jump. The man finishes his lunch and then stands up and starts socializing with Julio. A philosophical dialogue starts and the strange man invites Julio to become a dreamseller. As the man keeps talking Julio begins a conversation with this guy and starts to believe what this guy, a dream seller himself, is saying. The dreamseller points out the madness in modern society and all the negativity that life hands people and in the meantime Julio is thinking to himself, ’What is this guy want…does he want him to jump or what…..” Then the dreamseller takes the conversation into heavy preachy territory, and the story takes a slight twist in the end and the dreamseller teaches Julio the importance of his life and his dreams and how to sell dreams to others…. ( )

This book is likened to Paulo Coelho's 'The Alchemist' and James Redfield's 'The Celestine Prophecy'. This is what drew my attention in the first place, but after having read it, it doesn't even compare; the aforementioned two are more about the workings of an inner transformation. This book seems to have more of a 'messianic' theme, with the dreamseller approaching each underdog and downtrodden character and reawakens them to their worth and purpose -- stirring in them the remembrance of the dreams and ideals of their youth, or before they became jaded in life.

And then these 'disciples' follow the dreamseller and go about reinvigorating (proselytizing) others who have abandoned their hopes and dreams. The inner struggles of the followers are never really addressed. Conveniently, the dreamseller's cryptic messages allow them to figure things out by themselves, or sometimes not. Being that this novel is written by a psychiatrist/psychoanalyst, I cannot help but think that the 'cure' is in vagaries, and that the character ('patient') has to awaken himself. To me that's what makes the story seem lacking in flow and connectivity.

There is a sequel to this, so being that I have written a rather unflattering review -- perhaps, the fullness of the ENTIRE story unfolds in the subsequent work, so I will read it too. ( )