Dream State

by Moira Crone

Moira Crone's acclaimed book, Dream State contains award-winning stories that radiate from the Louisana landscape and observe the twisted romance and fabulous ironies that resound in this fecund, steamy terrain. "It's interesting to live in a place so many people dream about," Crone, professor of creative writing at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, says. "Sometimes it's hard to live out your own dreams, maybe because it's hard to tell which dreams are yours." The New York Times Book Review says, "Dream State successfully presents a fresh version of the Deep South, one that is exotic without being either grotesque or romanticized." In the New Orleans Times-Picayune , Susan Larson says, "Crone renders the place with an immigrant's clarity and an adopted daughter's solid affection. To read Dream State is to surrender to her spell, a powerful potion of beautiful humor, and keen insight." Crone writes with equal grace about failed movie stars, environmental lawyers, residents of the French Quarter, or models from uptown New Orleans. Her work explores politics, love, immigration, and marriage. Lee Smith characterizes her prose as "precise and hallucinatory at the same time. Each of these wonderful tales is as complex as any novel, as vivid and fast and surprising as your life."

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

Paperback

First published September 1, 1995

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread

These stories are acute observations of Louisiana from the viewpoint of outsiders. They are set in a recognizable specific time period yet don't feel dated. The voice of each first-person narrator is distinct from the other. Most of the stories are humorous, even if it's in a deadpan way. The basic overall theme is that an outsider living in Louisiana either tries to flee from this "dream state" or ends up fully, and irrationally, embracing it.

I first read this collection in 2006, I think, not long after Hurricane Katrina, which explains why the last story is one I vividly remembered. Since then, I've read more of Moira Crone and would rate higher The Ice Garden, which deserves to be more known. This collection is probably a 4.5 stars-read for me now, but I'm going to keep it at a full-5 stars for nostalgia's sake and for my introduction to an insightful writer.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three of these short stories were excellent. I Am Eleven, told in a child's voice; Gauguin, where a New Englander experiences his first hurricane, Andrew, no less; and There Is A River In New Orleans, which seemed to be told by the adult version of the daughter in The Ice Garden, a novel by Crone that I read a couple of years ago. The others had a strange quality to them, which is no doubt evocative of the way outsiders perceive New Orleans when they try to live among the natives.

[Dave Marsland · Rating 5 out of 5]

"New England is really a state of mind, not a place, when you are this far south"
One of the standout books I read last year was Moira Crone's The Ice Garden. I was wowed by it and vowed to read more of her. Then didn't. Until I picked up Dream State.
I wasn't disappointed. All the stories are set in Louisiana, the 'dream state', and are told by characters who are not from there. Retrogression is never far away.
"This is the conundrum of form, I think: when those days were mine, they were hollow.
Now they are brimming and gorgeous"
It's smart, funny and wise. The eponymous story is stunning and there isn't a weak story in the entire collection.

[Diane McPhail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptionally beautiful language carries the reader through these stories the way a dream carries the dreamer into imagined landscapes. The intertwining of these skillfully wrought tales affords the reader a journey through the Louisiana landscape in the company of finely imagined characters and their intricate balance of relationships, with each other and with themselves. A book to read and to study, if you are a writer or a thoughtful reader.

[Jane Deaux · Rating 5 out of 5]

She agreed to be on my thesis committee!!! I just finished this book, and I loved it.

[Trish Clifford · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so pleased to find her again...This was a pleasant reunion with an interesting writer.

[Phoebe Kate Foster · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crone is one of the great under-appreciated short story writers around right now. Her work is Southern without stereotype or cliche -- a rare thing -- and quirky without being self-conscious.

[Sarah Honenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

A powerful Southern writer, very understated, but dark issues. Her newest story collection is linked stories about one small town in the fifties. Amazing. And her awards are impressive.

[Barbara Shine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Crone is an innovator in the short story. Engaging and provocative throughout.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked a few of the stories, but most of them just didn't click for me.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of emotionally evocative stories, mysterious and true.