Very Different Worlds Collide

Dream Sequence does a nice job of rotating both fan obsession with celebrities and celebrity obsession with bigger celebrity over an open fire of droll wit. In the novel, which was long-listed for the Giller Prize, we begin with Kristin, visit her scant seconds in the live of the novel, and then settle in with Henry for a longer bout of desire, neurosis, and insecurity, until Kristin, who we have expected all along, reappears on the scene to find the object of her obsession.

In Philadelphia, Kristin doesn’t have much in her life, except for her love of Henry, an actor she has watched raptly on a PBS style show about the British upper crust. She writes letters of endearment to Henry, who for some reason never answers them, especially when he knows her. Yes, she bumped into him while on a vacation. From that one brief touch, she has worked up a fantasy that they are in love, or that once they renew their acquaintanceship love will ensue. To that end, later in the novel, she takes off for London, Henry’s home.

Is Henry worthy of such rabid desire and affection? Adam Foulds paints a pretty detailed picture of Henry, and he turns out to be human. Insecurity racks him. He’s a television actor. He’s in a period piece. He’s a stereotype. He may never be anything more. Unless, that is, he lands a role in Miguel García’s new film. García’s a composite of director-auteurs you may be familiar with, those of the fat and slovenly school. Henry frets over auditioning for him. Then frets over preparing for the role. Then anguishes over getting physically prepared for the role. Then goes off on a film festival junket in Doha, where he relaxes, somewhat, after taking up with Virginia, one of the women hired to guide guests from event to event. A rogue of sorts, the Virginia thing surprises by turning into a real thing for him and her, or at least as real as anything can get for the guy.

After our long time with Henry, with him on the verge of getting all he wishes, Kristin lands in London. She sees him in Hamlet. She sees his father’s tortured musical centered on the Browning-Barrett love letters, and bumps into to Henry.

Now, you might think you have guessed the ending, but you’re probably very wrong. Sure, things go awry, but how and why, and just how amiss they go, well, that’s for readers of the novel to discover for themselves. And, and yes, Henry does do something in character for him, but dastardly none-the-less, at least if you develop any regard for Kristin. ( )

Very Different Worlds Collide

Dream Sequence does a nice job of rotating both fan obsession with celebrities and celebrity obsession with bigger celebrity over an open fire of droll wit. In the novel, which was long-listed for the Giller Prize, we begin with Kristin, visit her scant seconds in the live of the novel, and then settle in with Henry for a longer bout of desire, neurosis, and insecurity, until Kristin, who we have expected all along, reappears on the scene to find the object of her obsession.

In Philadelphia, Kristin doesn’t have much in her life, except for her love of Henry, an actor she has watched raptly on a PBS style show about the British upper crust. She writes letters of endearment to Henry, who for some reason never answers them, especially when he knows her. Yes, she bumped into him while on a vacation. From that one brief touch, she has worked up a fantasy that they are in love, or that once they renew their acquaintanceship love will ensue. To that end, later in the novel, she takes off for London, Henry’s home.

Is Henry worthy of such rabid desire and affection? Adam Foulds paints a pretty detailed picture of Henry, and he turns out to be human. Insecurity racks him. He’s a television actor. He’s in a period piece. He’s a stereotype. He may never be anything more. Unless, that is, he lands a role in Miguel García’s new film. García’s a composite of director-auteurs you may be familiar with, those of the fat and slovenly school. Henry frets over auditioning for him. Then frets over preparing for the role. Then anguishes over getting physically prepared for the role. Then goes off on a film festival junket in Doha, where he relaxes, somewhat, after taking up with Virginia, one of the women hired to guide guests from event to event. A rogue of sorts, the Virginia thing surprises by turning into a real thing for him and her, or at least as real as anything can get for the guy.

After our long time with Henry, with him on the verge of getting all he wishes, Kristin lands in London. She sees him in Hamlet. She sees his father’s tortured musical centered on the Browning-Barrett love letters, and bumps into to Henry.

Now, you might think you have guessed the ending, but you’re probably very wrong. Sure, things go awry, but how and why, and just how amiss they go, well, that’s for readers of the novel to discover for themselves. And, and yes, Henry does do something in character for him, but dastardly none-the-less, at least if you develop any regard for Kristin. ( )

I gave this book 2 stars instead of 1 star because I actually finished it. This is the story of two unlikable people who meet each other, one famous, the other not. He is a self-centered actor with a huge ego and she is just plain nuts. I kept reading to see if something would actually happen that was interesting. No. Never did. At the end, I didn't really care what happened with their relationship. Glad I was able to breeze through it. ( )

‘Henry. Henry was everywhere and nowhere, shaping everything. He was the key signature in which the music of her life was played.’

Adam Foulds’ new novel is a short (coming in at a little over 200 pages) meditation on the nature of celebrity-obsession. Henry Banks is an actor on the way up: having spent years in a successful TV period drama The Grange (I think we all know what this is an allusion to!), given the lead in a new movie by famed director Miguel Garcia, star of a west End run of Hamlet…. He has it all, and is dashingly good-looking to boot. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Kristin is newly divorced, alone, left clinging on to a Superman toy left by one of her stepsons so she wouldn’t feel lonely (again, Foulds has a delicate touch, as this subtly references later when Henry is up for a role in a Marvel superhero franchise). Kristin obsessively recalls a chance meeting with Henry in an airport the year before, and resolves to go to London to meet him again, convinced it is their destiny to be together.

Foulds sets the scene with deft touches: both characters are introduced as they set out one morning, their routines and habits subtly mirroring each other, post arriving, things to do. Their houses suggest their characters too: Kristin’s is ornately decorated, full of colour, while Henry’s Dockside apartment is all bare floors and white walls. The book switches between the 2 main characters as we get inside their heads: Henry is anxious, self-obsessed, insecure, fond of parties, drugs and one-night stands, while Kristin is unemployed, filling her days with yoga and dreaming of Henry. As the two stories start to come together the sense of the inevitable hangs over the book. Without giving away any spoilers, let’s just say it ends with an understated sense of drama and melancholy.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and Foulds is a wonderful writer, able to capture a mood or a description with a poet’s compactness. I found the book hovering somewhere between a tragedy and a satire; the mood is often comic (Henry’s parents are a hoot, and his father’s put downs made me laugh out loud at times). Although we are in well-trodden territory there was enough to keep the book fresh and moving along: the fish-out-of-water set piece where Henry attends a film premiere in Qatar; the ‘zoo’ of the celebrity circuit, where normality is some hyper-extension of what us mere mortals experience; the mild-mannered stalker who seemingly has no idea of just how creepy they are… Some of Foulds’ descriptions are wonderful, especially of London itself: ‘London’s surplus of faces, of human versions, every permutation, all preoccupied, unconscious, milling towards something’.

Perhaps the characters were a little too shallow (did we really learn that much about Kristin?) but I found this an interesting take on the stalker theme, with Henry being almost as self-obsessed as Kristin. The sense of fate and destiny, of playing a role, are also crucial – as is the play Hamlet which, for those familiar with it, takes on an extra level of meaning as the novel ends…. Overall, this was a pleasure to read, and Foulds’ control of the English language is a joy to behold. I definitely recommend this.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of the book.) ( )