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Infinity Dreams
There are people who collect coins, baseball cards, flashlights. They trade and sell them at conventions, flea markets, antique malls. Those are not the people Nadine and Normal (a.k.a. The Collector) serve, and those places are not where you’ll find them.
Their quests have led them to decidedly less familiar characters and locales: a music obsessive who gives a little more than fandom—and takes a little more than music—from the artists he loves; a bouquiniste stall along the Left Bank of the Seine that has remained locked—for good reason—for 150 years; a box full of View-Master reels showing tiny photographs of places—some of which don’t exist; a former Nazi-in-training, haunted—to the point of life-crippling paralysis—by a taste.
But now, Nadine lives sequestered in the Northern California woods, caring for the Collector, who has slid into early-onset dementia. One day, against her better judgment, she accepts an interview request from a young journalist. Who might not be a journalist. He has come for their stories.
Or maybe for something else.
Meanwhile, down the coast, in the cities, a wildness has gotten loose, and the world is tilting out of true, and the boundaries between reality and dream are not just blurring but melting.
But is that for better or worse? And who gets to say?
Welcome to Infinity Dreams, a novel-in-stories about dreaming your life, and living in dreams, and the permeable limbo we insist on calling reality.
Their quests have led them to decidedly less familiar characters and locales: a music obsessive who gives a little more than fandom—and takes a little more than music—from the artists he loves; a bouquiniste stall along the Left Bank of the Seine that has remained locked—for good reason—for 150 years; a box full of View-Master reels showing tiny photographs of places—some of which don’t exist; a former Nazi-in-training, haunted—to the point of life-crippling paralysis—by a taste.
But now, Nadine lives sequestered in the Northern California woods, caring for the Collector, who has slid into early-onset dementia. One day, against her better judgment, she accepts an interview request from a young journalist. Who might not be a journalist. He has come for their stories.
Or maybe for something else.
Meanwhile, down the coast, in the cities, a wildness has gotten loose, and the world is tilting out of true, and the boundaries between reality and dream are not just blurring but melting.
But is that for better or worse? And who gets to say?
Welcome to Infinity Dreams, a novel-in-stories about dreaming your life, and living in dreams, and the permeable limbo we insist on calling reality.
297 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 21, 2021
About the author
Glen Hirshberg
95 books154 followersThree-time International Horror Guild Award Winner Glen Hirshberg’s novels include The Snowman's Children, The Book of Bunk, the Motherless Children trilogy, and Infinity Dreams. He is also the author of four widely praised story collections: The Two Sams, American Morons, The Janus Tree, and The Ones Who Are Waving. A five-time World Fantasy Award finalist, he has won the Shirley Jackson Award for the novelette, “The Janus Tree”. He also publishes new fiction, critical writing, and creative nonfiction in his Substack newsletter, Happy in Our Own Ways (https://glenhirshberg.substack.com/), and offers classes and manuscript coaching and editing through his Drones Club West activities (dronesclubwest@outlook.com). He lives with his family and cats in the Pacific Northwest.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
November 10, 2021
INFINITY DREAMS is unlike almost anything I've read before. It's the story of Nadine and Normal (aka The Collector) and their place in the world, both past and present. They collect things for people, but not just ordinary things like comics, signed memorabilia, or action figures. They collect things that, to most people like me and you, are not necessarily even real. The people they encounter and the things they are after are all so interesting - and that is what kept me hooked the most. I just kept wondering what could outdo what I just read, and I was surprised each time.
I think this might be a dark magical realism type of book? I am not familiar with that genre (outside of maybe Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lake which I absolutely loved) so I can't say with perfect honesty that is what this book fits into - but either way it works! There are terms, things, and people in this universe that might not make sense in our reality, but that fit together wonderfully within Hirshberg's creation.
Nadine and Normal are interesting enough, yes. But I found myself more intrigued by all the other characters they meet along the way in the stories shared. I wanted more time with them - and I think some of them could even be enough to serve as a main character in a spinoff type book if the author ever went there. Being in this world felt so surreal and free at the same time. I would love to see what other magic and wonders it holds.
INFINITY DREAMS is a delightfully unique book and Hirshberg has a storytelling voice that gives off Gaiman-meets-Bradbury vibes. Many readers will disappear into the prose with its dreamlike yet distinctive style.
I think this might be a dark magical realism type of book? I am not familiar with that genre (outside of maybe Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lake which I absolutely loved) so I can't say with perfect honesty that is what this book fits into - but either way it works! There are terms, things, and people in this universe that might not make sense in our reality, but that fit together wonderfully within Hirshberg's creation.
Nadine and Normal are interesting enough, yes. But I found myself more intrigued by all the other characters they meet along the way in the stories shared. I wanted more time with them - and I think some of them could even be enough to serve as a main character in a spinoff type book if the author ever went there. Being in this world felt so surreal and free at the same time. I would love to see what other magic and wonders it holds.
INFINITY DREAMS is a delightfully unique book and Hirshberg has a storytelling voice that gives off Gaiman-meets-Bradbury vibes. Many readers will disappear into the prose with its dreamlike yet distinctive style.
December 22, 2021
“Always, even in our most intimate moments, we are speaking in code. And even when we’ve given each other encryption keys- even if we’ve kept, memorized, and internalized them- we never catch the whole message. Not once. Not ever. About anything”.
An ethereal story poignantly posing the question “can dreams be separated from reality ?”. The story follows the kind of logic and sequence of events you’d find in dreams (meaning; it’s complicated, nonlinear -and explains little, if anything, of the events you find yourself in).
The story is written well enough, but I’m probably not the target audience and found a lot of it going over my head a bit too much (probably not helped by the fact that I struggled to relate to Nadine).
See below for an overview.
A man assumed to be a journalist visits Nadine and Normal/the collector. He wants Nadine to tell stories from their hunts for very special objects. The reason Nadine’s the sole interviewee is that Normal’s been caught in a state much like severe dementia since a hunt 18 months back. We soon become aware of the (not) journalist (Rev) being after more than just stories.
And thus begins a tale told through shorter stories as Nadine feels compelled to let Rev in on the landmarks of her & Normal’s life together.
These include:
-A story about Nadine, Normal & Spook following a repeated radio message to find a music collector who collects something very different than just vinyl, & who quite possibly takes more from the musicians than he leaves them with in trades.
-The story of how Nadine met Normal in Paris: A flashback to Paris; Nadine who’s recently broken up with her boyfriend and is in the city to view the opening of a book stall that has never been opened in its 100+ years (and probably never should). She also spends the night in a house that doesn’t seem like it belongs amongst the other ones with 3 strangers who will all have a central role to play later on.
-The story of a hunt they undertook for a German with a dark past who was looking for a special cookie he would have been better off never having tasted in the first place.
-The story of their trip to a not-place with Tony, a friend of Normal (and also a collector). Tony collects items of sentimental value and is looking to get his hands on a part of a pocket watch hunter casing that will prove central to the story later. Things come crashing down on Tony, who should have left this well alone.
-A story of a failed hunt but successful rescue. A pit stop for cactus candy in what has got to be the strangest supermarket unfolds into a story about a godlike Ibis, not-cats, trapped/protected women.
-In the present, Rev holds Normal accountable for how he dealt with the Ibis & his identity is finally revealed, as is his intent. He makes away with something special and the ultimate hunt ensues, one that will decide the fallout of reality vs dreams
An ethereal story poignantly posing the question “can dreams be separated from reality ?”. The story follows the kind of logic and sequence of events you’d find in dreams (meaning; it’s complicated, nonlinear -and explains little, if anything, of the events you find yourself in).
The story is written well enough, but I’m probably not the target audience and found a lot of it going over my head a bit too much (probably not helped by the fact that I struggled to relate to Nadine).
See below for an overview.
A man assumed to be a journalist visits Nadine and Normal/the collector. He wants Nadine to tell stories from their hunts for very special objects. The reason Nadine’s the sole interviewee is that Normal’s been caught in a state much like severe dementia since a hunt 18 months back. We soon become aware of the (not) journalist (Rev) being after more than just stories.
And thus begins a tale told through shorter stories as Nadine feels compelled to let Rev in on the landmarks of her & Normal’s life together.
These include:
-A story about Nadine, Normal & Spook following a repeated radio message to find a music collector who collects something very different than just vinyl, & who quite possibly takes more from the musicians than he leaves them with in trades.
-The story of how Nadine met Normal in Paris: A flashback to Paris; Nadine who’s recently broken up with her boyfriend and is in the city to view the opening of a book stall that has never been opened in its 100+ years (and probably never should). She also spends the night in a house that doesn’t seem like it belongs amongst the other ones with 3 strangers who will all have a central role to play later on.
-The story of a hunt they undertook for a German with a dark past who was looking for a special cookie he would have been better off never having tasted in the first place.
-The story of their trip to a not-place with Tony, a friend of Normal (and also a collector). Tony collects items of sentimental value and is looking to get his hands on a part of a pocket watch hunter casing that will prove central to the story later. Things come crashing down on Tony, who should have left this well alone.
-A story of a failed hunt but successful rescue. A pit stop for cactus candy in what has got to be the strangest supermarket unfolds into a story about a godlike Ibis, not-cats, trapped/protected women.
-In the present, Rev holds Normal accountable for how he dealt with the Ibis & his identity is finally revealed, as is his intent. He makes away with something special and the ultimate hunt ensues, one that will decide the fallout of reality vs dreams
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Did Not Finish
May 2, 2022I might revisit this again at some point, but after reading just a bit of it I could tell I don’t have the energy for the mental gymnastics it will take to understand what is going on. I enjoy books like that sometimes but not right this second.
October 7, 2021
First, I’d like to thank Cemetery Dance Publications for providing me with a pdf copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I think it’s important to point out that this title is best described as magical realism and, because of that, the reader shouldn’t expect any graphic/scary scenes. In no way did I find this to be a bad novel, however, it’s not my kind of book so I didn’t particularly enjoy it, which made the reading experience peculiar because even though I didn’t like it, I could see why so many people would love it. Most of my problems with the book stemmed from the type of reader that I am, except for one: Nadine and Normal were so poorly constructed that the side characters ended up being far more interesting and fleshed out even though they appear much less. The plot is great, the adventures connect seamlessly together, there are great twists that were so well woven into the story that I never saw them coming, furthermore. The mythos used to base the shorter stories made them interesting and unique, however, they were too brief, and I felt they weren’t developed to their full potential.
The prose is very poetic, almost dream-like, which fits with the general mood of Infinity Dreams, but that resulted in a slow-paced narrative that only picks up during the last fifty pages. The book alternates between the present and flashbacks of Normal’s (aka The Collector) and Nadine’s (his partner) adventures going all the way back to their first encounter decades ago. Even the chapters dedicated to their adventures are slightly boring due to the high amount of Nadine’s internal monologues and her slight obsession with The Collector’s body language/behavior and how they secretly expressed how much he loved her. In fact, I had trouble caring about Nadine at all, because her entire world revolves around Normal from the second she meets him, she has no friends of her own, except her mother, whom she almost never sees after meeting the Collector. Technically, they work together and attend to their customers together, but throughout the whole book Nadine acts like an outsider that’s merely following Normal along and listening in to his conversations with other people, she doesn’t have a presence. She goes as far as claiming that he had become her purpose in life, not that their job gave her purpose, but Normal specifically, which means that Nadine’s entire purpose in life is a man. Let’s face it, no matter how much they’re in love, having one sole person as a life purpose is concerning and a tad bit sad.
Overall, Infinity Dreams is worth it for the plot, it really is different from anything else I’ve read this year and each adventure lived by the main characters was unique. Just keep in mind that the pace is very slow, and the prose is not the most direct, so if that’s not something you enjoy, better steer clear of it.
December 3, 2021
“In the woods—a somewhere more miraculous than anyplace they have been or dreamed—the silence ignores them. Goes about it’s business.”
Nadine and Normal (a.k.a. The Collector) have lived a life of finding the one-of-a-kind or in some instances, things that just shouldn’t exist. Now in retirement, Nadine looks after The Collector who has dementia. She decides to talk to a journalist who would like to hear some of their tales.
Halfway through the book and I thought it was going to be a clever collection of short stories, wonderful atmosphere and setting made it feel Victorian, yet it was modern, making for almost a steampunk vibe. I was feeling this was a nice character study, dealing with the loss of someone that was actually still alive and living with you. How you can be so proud, so embarrassed, and so sad about a person all at the same time.
But this was just at the halfway point. Things aren’t what they seem.
Nadine and Normal (a.k.a. The Collector) have lived a life of finding the one-of-a-kind or in some instances, things that just shouldn’t exist. Now in retirement, Nadine looks after The Collector who has dementia. She decides to talk to a journalist who would like to hear some of their tales.
Halfway through the book and I thought it was going to be a clever collection of short stories, wonderful atmosphere and setting made it feel Victorian, yet it was modern, making for almost a steampunk vibe. I was feeling this was a nice character study, dealing with the loss of someone that was actually still alive and living with you. How you can be so proud, so embarrassed, and so sad about a person all at the same time.
But this was just at the halfway point. Things aren’t what they seem.
October 7, 2021
Intriguing tale of Nadine and Normal collectors . There adventures include lots of strange finds. Interesting characters.
September 5, 2023
Probably a perfect story. At the very least a book only a select few could dream up, let alone put to words. Enjoy.
July 12, 2025
I had trouble getting into this one, it's very well written so I stuck it out longer than I would have but it just isn't my cup of tea. I would definition give the author another chance, the narrator on the audible edition was great also.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews