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The Dreaming
These stories have the virtue of taking the everyday lives of gay Trinidadian men utterly for granted in their searches for adventure, pleasure, self realisation, loving contact and sex. Written with a sharpness of perception and in a variety of engaging personal voices, these narratives find room for humour, tragic haircuts, and a connection between tattoos and terrible poetry. But they also acknowledge very real fears in a society where there is still prejudice, discrimination and homophobic violence. The narrator of several of these pieces is a writer who wants to focus on the pleasures and inner dramas of these lives as the truth about gay experience. But there are also the stories of brutal murders reported with coy innuendo in the press. If he is tempted to see his lovers as characters in a witty fiction of manners, is this the novel that can be written in Trinidad? And since this is Trinidad, could the conflicted, self-hating Dorian really be a serial killer? But then when one of Bagoo’s writer narrators unwittingly alarms his writing buddies by the freedom of his gothic imagination, who knows what might be true. Not for nothing does the author include the singer Kate Bush with her Wuthering Heights in his acknowledgements. Bagoo’s stories offer a witty and incisive portrait of contemporary Trinidad in all its intersections of race, class and gender politics. Not least, they have a strong sense of place – Bagoo’s gay Woodbrook offers a fine sequel to V.S. Naipaul’s Woodbrook in his classic Miguel Street.
"Bagoo takes a long view of the short story and has a particular gift for stories made of stories: the haircuts along a young man's stumbling path to wisdom or the sexual encounters that map the history of a failing relationship. There is pathos here, and sometimes anger, but above all Bagoo is a very funny writer, his crystal-clear prose making the most of his dry, self-deprecating humour."
– Jo Lloyd, winner of the 2019 BBC Short Story Award and author of SOMETHING WONDERFUL
"Any book of queer stories with a Kate Bush title reference has a lot to live up to, but Bagoo's collection–witty, intelligent, humane–is so inventive, so full of surprises at every turn, that I found myself wanting to return to his voice again and again. Bagoo is working out queer cultural concerns in an honest way here, and it's truly exciting to witness his rare talent developing with each story. Read this now."
– Garrard Conley, author of BOY ERASED
"Bagoo takes a long view of the short story and has a particular gift for stories made of stories: the haircuts along a young man's stumbling path to wisdom or the sexual encounters that map the history of a failing relationship. There is pathos here, and sometimes anger, but above all Bagoo is a very funny writer, his crystal-clear prose making the most of his dry, self-deprecating humour."
– Jo Lloyd, winner of the 2019 BBC Short Story Award and author of SOMETHING WONDERFUL
"Any book of queer stories with a Kate Bush title reference has a lot to live up to, but Bagoo's collection–witty, intelligent, humane–is so inventive, so full of surprises at every turn, that I found myself wanting to return to his voice again and again. Bagoo is working out queer cultural concerns in an honest way here, and it's truly exciting to witness his rare talent developing with each story. Read this now."
– Garrard Conley, author of BOY ERASED
190 pages, Paperback
First published August 25, 2022
3 people are currently reading
379 people want to read
About the author
Andre Bagoo
15 books40 followersAndre Bagoo is a poet and writer from Trinidad. He's the author of several books of poetry including Trick Vessels (Shearsman, 2012), Pitch Lake (Peepal Tree Press, 2017), and Narcissus (Broken Sleep, 2022). Additionally, his essay collection, The Undiscovered Country, was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2020 and won the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Non-Fiction. His fiction debut, The Dreaming, is published by Peepal Tree in 2022.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 16, 2023
One of my favourite reads of 2022 that I will be screaming about this year. If you read this book and do not like it- unfollow me because….. this book is brilliant, fresh, laugh-out loud funny, heartbreaking, poignant and visceral. A top favourite for me.
The Dreaming is a collection of twelve short stories, set in Trinidad and Tobago that follows the lives of queer men as they navigate a society that is still not as accepting of them. The collection documents their social interactions, dating, heartbreak, relationships, sex and love. Of the twelve stories all were my favourites. I loved reading about a Queer Writer in Trinidad looking for love and all the wrong turns that they end up taking before they find it.
This book is distinctly Trini and I think that is what I enjoyed most about it. I know all the roads, clubs, coffee shops and bars mentioned in the book. Bagoo does an exceptional job of telling stories we generally don’t read and I was here for it. If you love Kei Miller or Jonathan Escoffery’s work, I think you will absolutely enjoy this one.
Please do not sleep on THE DREAMING.
The Dreaming is a collection of twelve short stories, set in Trinidad and Tobago that follows the lives of queer men as they navigate a society that is still not as accepting of them. The collection documents their social interactions, dating, heartbreak, relationships, sex and love. Of the twelve stories all were my favourites. I loved reading about a Queer Writer in Trinidad looking for love and all the wrong turns that they end up taking before they find it.
This book is distinctly Trini and I think that is what I enjoyed most about it. I know all the roads, clubs, coffee shops and bars mentioned in the book. Bagoo does an exceptional job of telling stories we generally don’t read and I was here for it. If you love Kei Miller or Jonathan Escoffery’s work, I think you will absolutely enjoy this one.
Please do not sleep on THE DREAMING.
January 19, 2023
I read this book cover to cover in one sitting because it was hilarious and moving and absolutely unputdownable. I had things that I needed to do but I was so sucked in by the vortex of the words that I kept telling myself "one more short story" until I'd come to the end. I love the way The Dreaming portrays the queer Caribbean with love and hope and a strong analytical eye.
First line of the first story: “I found another place to get my hair cut when I moved to Woodbrook.”Andre Bagoo has a way with words that's deadpan and hilarious but also breathless and breath-taking.
First line of the first story: “I found another place to get my hair cut when I moved to Woodbrook.”Andre Bagoo has a way with words that's deadpan and hilarious but also breathless and breath-taking.
September 22, 2023
"Newton knew enough about closet cases to impose clear limits. He lowered his expectations again and again and told himself it was just sex, not love. Yet still, some of these men lingered in his mind, hard rocks in his sea of longings. If only one—just one—could find the courage to be truthful, to love him and to love him openly. If only. "
I have read Andre Bagoo's collections of poetry and essays. He continues to prove himself as a versatile writer in stories that are deep-rooted in the socio-cultural milieu of Trinidad. By turns playful and contemplative, they explore gay life in all its complexity without caring to censor or sanitize, especially in the case of pleasure and desire. Bagoo does not retread the same queer ennui of living a double life and gay loneliness in every story and also has characters finding happiness. Queerness is not always front and center; sometimes it's just incidental to a plot.
It's astonishing the way Bagoo's space-specific exploration of hookup culture, obsession with physical perfection, promiscuity, relationships, in-community bigotry, and overall survival in a homophobic society assumes such a universal quality and echoes queer life in India (and, one can safely say, elsewhere). Buoying it all is a prose that is perceptive, insightful, sensual, and tender, frequently peppered with beautiful turns of phrase. My favourite stories were "Haircuts", "Conundrum", "1960", "Selected Boys: 2013-16", "Preludes", "The Forest Ranger", and "Not Looking".
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
March 31, 2023
Every story is compelling. The simple language and syntax is a feint. Propelling each story are questions that suck you into the current, but Bagoo’s narrators never provide answers. Ambiguity and winking silences abound. An invitation for the active reader to jump in.
What does it mean to be queer, to be gay, to be a man, a writer, a son, an aging person in Trinidad today? (And these stories are very much set in the hyper-present; there are regular references to lockdown, the pandemic). Is homophobic violence and societal scorn the story? Or is it full, emotionally rich, gay communities, relationships, parties and individual lives? The stories toggle back and forth between the pleasure and the pain of contemporary gay male life in Trinidad, but without becoming either explicitly tragic or exuberantly joyful. Instead, they live in the grey middle space of unanswered questions, of indeterminacy. This doesn’t feel like a collection with one clear political agenda to me. Could be wrong. The agenda (if there was one) would be…be nuanced in your opinions of others. You never know the whole story.
Standouts for me on first read: Haircuts, Belmont, The Forest Ranger, 1960, Hunger.
Excellent, excellent collection.
What does it mean to be queer, to be gay, to be a man, a writer, a son, an aging person in Trinidad today? (And these stories are very much set in the hyper-present; there are regular references to lockdown, the pandemic). Is homophobic violence and societal scorn the story? Or is it full, emotionally rich, gay communities, relationships, parties and individual lives? The stories toggle back and forth between the pleasure and the pain of contemporary gay male life in Trinidad, but without becoming either explicitly tragic or exuberantly joyful. Instead, they live in the grey middle space of unanswered questions, of indeterminacy. This doesn’t feel like a collection with one clear political agenda to me. Could be wrong. The agenda (if there was one) would be…be nuanced in your opinions of others. You never know the whole story.
Standouts for me on first read: Haircuts, Belmont, The Forest Ranger, 1960, Hunger.
Excellent, excellent collection.
December 20, 2022
What is a work of fiction, if not a memoir laced with hyperbole?
I immediately picked up Andre Bagoo's recently published collection of short stories (The Dreaming) after a lukewarm review of his earlier work of poetry, Pitch Lake. I am most excited that I did. I completed this book in less than 24 hours because it was a page turner. It was rich, rhythmic, flowed well and Bagoo's prose is brilliant. I know his short bio describes him first as a poet then as a writer, but I will gladly be an advocate for those descriptions to be swapped.
The Dreaming is a rich work of fiction that definitely gives the impression that Bagoo was writing his own memoirs. I think he confirmed as much on pg. 142 when Amber, one of the characters in the short story 'MS.' said "I'm saying we all know he's been having a hard time. I'm telling you this story feels completely biographical."Bagoo goes on to quote Naipaul: "an autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies. It reveals the writer totally."
The dreaming focuses on the lives of queer men in Trinidad, the horrors they face, the joys they experience, and the awkwardness they endure in many social interactions. Bagoo channels Kei Miller and Okechukwu Nzelu in his work, brilliantly combining his talents as a poet, essayist, and novelist.
I definitely recommend this book for reading.
I immediately picked up Andre Bagoo's recently published collection of short stories (The Dreaming) after a lukewarm review of his earlier work of poetry, Pitch Lake. I am most excited that I did. I completed this book in less than 24 hours because it was a page turner. It was rich, rhythmic, flowed well and Bagoo's prose is brilliant. I know his short bio describes him first as a poet then as a writer, but I will gladly be an advocate for those descriptions to be swapped.
The Dreaming is a rich work of fiction that definitely gives the impression that Bagoo was writing his own memoirs. I think he confirmed as much on pg. 142 when Amber, one of the characters in the short story 'MS.' said "I'm saying we all know he's been having a hard time. I'm telling you this story feels completely biographical."Bagoo goes on to quote Naipaul: "an autobiography can distort; facts can be realigned. But fiction never lies. It reveals the writer totally."
The dreaming focuses on the lives of queer men in Trinidad, the horrors they face, the joys they experience, and the awkwardness they endure in many social interactions. Bagoo channels Kei Miller and Okechukwu Nzelu in his work, brilliantly combining his talents as a poet, essayist, and novelist.
I definitely recommend this book for reading.
August 30, 2023
I read The Dreaming in record time, especially for a short story collection. I’ve been having trouble getting into short stories lately, and this is the first one that has truly hooked me. The Dreaming is a collection featuring 12 compulsively readable short stories that explore the lives of gay men in Trinidad—the first story, Haircuts, does so through the narrator’s journey of looking for a hairdresser he could visit for his regular cuts. His life through a couple of years, as a journalist and as a lover, is written through his barbershop-hopping, a fascinating way in which to frame the story.
In Conundrum, a poet is forced to pretend he likes his boyfriend’s poems for the sake of their relationship. Throughout the story, the reader is brought along to find out whether the narrator ends up telling his partner this truth or not. This adds to the story’s page-turning quality: it feels as if we’re waiting for a lit fuse to reach the end of the line, and are left to spectate what the ensuing explosion would look like. The story, too, has beautiful turns of phrase sprinkled throughout, like so:
Andre Bagoo does not shy away from adding political nuance in his stories. In Simple Things, we briefly get a glimpse of Trinidad’s problems in medicine and healthcare. In The Forest Ranger, larger themes regarding nature and corporate environmental destruction are tackled, although it is beneath a plot that is only mildly interesting.
In Selected Boys: 2013-2016, the stories start intersecting, and characters from previous stories start to recur and appear, with varying degrees of screen time. I had fun picking out the people whose names seemed familiar, recalling what was said about them in previous stories. This story in particular is graphic and steamy, a quality it shares with several others in the collection.
Out of the 12, my personal favorites are Bad-talking Boys, MS., and Not Looking. The latter two are the two closers in the collection; it seems as though Andre Bagoo truly saved the best for last.
Bad-talking Boys is about the gay narrator’s relationship with his straight friend, an on-call cab driver whom the narrator met when he was a passenger. Despite the restraint in narrative (it’s all about their relationship and nothing else), the story is readable and addictive, carried by its two main characters and their unique dynamic.
MS. is perhaps the most entertaining story in the collection, about a writing group worried that their new member’s violent stories are autobiographical. The original writing group members are endearing, and how the introduction of their new member affected the group is fascinating to witness. Andre Bagoo’s humor is best displayed in this story, capped with the most memorable ending in the collection. The following quote is incredibly funny with the necessary context:
Finally, Not Looking worked so well as the collection’s closer. The plot is intriguing from start to finish. It uniquely has a thriller slant, which I of course welcomed with open arms.
Overall, The Dreaming is a collection of interesting stories about interesting people—the lives they lead, their relationships, where they are from, and where they are going. It doesn’t care too much about a strict plot structure with a resolute ending. It feels vignette-y in this sense, especially knowing every story is set in the same contained universe, proximate with respect to each other.
🌿 my book blog: karlcalagan.com 🌿
For a moment, he kept his hand in my hand. It felt like a soft bird. Then he pulled away.
In Conundrum, a poet is forced to pretend he likes his boyfriend’s poems for the sake of their relationship. Throughout the story, the reader is brought along to find out whether the narrator ends up telling his partner this truth or not. This adds to the story’s page-turning quality: it feels as if we’re waiting for a lit fuse to reach the end of the line, and are left to spectate what the ensuing explosion would look like. The story, too, has beautiful turns of phrase sprinkled throughout, like so:
Yet still, some of these men lingered in his mind, hard rocks in his sea of longings. If only one–just one–could find the courage to be truthful, to love him and to love him openly.
Andre Bagoo does not shy away from adding political nuance in his stories. In Simple Things, we briefly get a glimpse of Trinidad’s problems in medicine and healthcare. In The Forest Ranger, larger themes regarding nature and corporate environmental destruction are tackled, although it is beneath a plot that is only mildly interesting.
In Selected Boys: 2013-2016, the stories start intersecting, and characters from previous stories start to recur and appear, with varying degrees of screen time. I had fun picking out the people whose names seemed familiar, recalling what was said about them in previous stories. This story in particular is graphic and steamy, a quality it shares with several others in the collection.
Out of the 12, my personal favorites are Bad-talking Boys, MS., and Not Looking. The latter two are the two closers in the collection; it seems as though Andre Bagoo truly saved the best for last.
Bad-talking Boys is about the gay narrator’s relationship with his straight friend, an on-call cab driver whom the narrator met when he was a passenger. Despite the restraint in narrative (it’s all about their relationship and nothing else), the story is readable and addictive, carried by its two main characters and their unique dynamic.
MS. is perhaps the most entertaining story in the collection, about a writing group worried that their new member’s violent stories are autobiographical. The original writing group members are endearing, and how the introduction of their new member affected the group is fascinating to witness. Andre Bagoo’s humor is best displayed in this story, capped with the most memorable ending in the collection. The following quote is incredibly funny with the necessary context:
He would rename his manuscript My Life: An Autobiography in Stories.
Finally, Not Looking worked so well as the collection’s closer. The plot is intriguing from start to finish. It uniquely has a thriller slant, which I of course welcomed with open arms.
Overall, The Dreaming is a collection of interesting stories about interesting people—the lives they lead, their relationships, where they are from, and where they are going. It doesn’t care too much about a strict plot structure with a resolute ending. It feels vignette-y in this sense, especially knowing every story is set in the same contained universe, proximate with respect to each other.
🌿 my book blog: karlcalagan.com 🌿
February 28, 2023
A fantastic, meticulously polished collection. At the risk of revealing a minor spoiler, there is a moment in the last story in this collection where the narrator (a gay, Trinidadian writer) observes that his stories about the gay community on the island exist somewhat in a fantasy world. Gay men exist not totally, but more freely. They are not safe, but they don't live in fear per se. Meeting, dating, having casual sex and just existing seem to be a matter of course. It's not so terribly different from the real world, but it's strange enough to feel like something is off, as if in a dream.
That is for me, the most revealing moment in the book as to Bagoo's approach to putting together this collection. It's a window into a slight distortion of gay Port of Spain, with the awareness of the real, waking world with all its evils, prejudices and violence in the background.
A fascinating read with the care given to each word that you would expect from a poet of Bagoo's caliber. There's not a wasted word, no throw away story, and no good point to stop reading.
Fantastic.
That is for me, the most revealing moment in the book as to Bagoo's approach to putting together this collection. It's a window into a slight distortion of gay Port of Spain, with the awareness of the real, waking world with all its evils, prejudices and violence in the background.
A fascinating read with the care given to each word that you would expect from a poet of Bagoo's caliber. There's not a wasted word, no throw away story, and no good point to stop reading.
Fantastic.
August 11, 2023
3.5 stars - the dreaming is a great collection of short stories featuring mostly gay and queer men in trinidad, and characters who are all surprisingly connected to each other. the stories are all different, unpredictable and often veering from expectations, keeping the reader on their toes.
tho some stories are more memorable than others, and overall the whole work's impact isnt as visceral as i think it could be, bagoo's writing nevertheless flows rly well, and rings true for both sth universal and personal. i also enjoy how the crux of each story - be it the theme, main conflict or the characters' circumstances - varies. the most T&T setting can be immersive as well, and im grateful to get to learn more abt the caribbean country and its ppl - esp those who are LGBTQ+ - in various ways thru bagoo's first collection of fiction.
tho some stories are more memorable than others, and overall the whole work's impact isnt as visceral as i think it could be, bagoo's writing nevertheless flows rly well, and rings true for both sth universal and personal. i also enjoy how the crux of each story - be it the theme, main conflict or the characters' circumstances - varies. the most T&T setting can be immersive as well, and im grateful to get to learn more abt the caribbean country and its ppl - esp those who are LGBTQ+ - in various ways thru bagoo's first collection of fiction.
February 25, 2023
The Dreaming by Andre Bagoo is an insightful piece of writing. Andre's words feel very literary, but also very Trinidadian, there is a comfort and familiarity in reading this book as a Trini. His stories feel like tip toeing somewhere between the line of fact and fiction, and leaves the reader with intriguing surprises at every corner. The characters feel human and friendly, and being from Woodbrook, the neighborhood feels familiar like my own.
Andre introduces his reader to several scenarios of gay life, thoughts, emotions and experiences and intertwines that with very Trinidadian experience.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. At the end of each story, i kept wanting more.
Andre introduces his reader to several scenarios of gay life, thoughts, emotions and experiences and intertwines that with very Trinidadian experience.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. At the end of each story, i kept wanting more.
February 27, 2023
And what seemed like just a collection short stories seemed to tie loosely together midway and then leaves you wanting more….. Excellent. A nice quick read. I was invested in many of these characters. Trevor, however, needs his own book.
Want to read
September 1, 2023Gay + Carib?
Another Savidge find (how?) but looking for it after I'm done with the video
Another Savidge find (how?) but looking for it after I'm done with the video
July 12, 2025
Enjoyed the MS short story - read as part of a book club read .
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews