Dream Date: Stories

by Jean McGarry

The writer's fourth collection of stories explores, with a touch of surrealism, the unconscious desires or fears inherent in relationships Jean McGarry has been praised for her "deft, comic, and devastatingly precise portraits" ( New York Times Book Review ) and as "a writer who honors the human condition" ( Baltimore Sun ). In her new collection of stories, Dream Date , she focuses her skills as a "gifted observer" ( Publishers Weekly ) on the delicate boundary that separates the real from the ethereal states we drift into and out of as we try to make sense of our relationships, romantic and otherwise, with the other sex. Funny and haunting in equal measure―and suffused with a hint of the surreal―McGarry's stories explore the confusions, contradictions, and calamities of the modern in "Paris," a woman tracks down her wayward husband in the City of Lights and ends up having a meeting of minds with his mistress that gives great satisfaction to both women; in "Moon, June," a woman stalks the wardrobe of a wealthy socialite in a consignment shop, opening up a world of polymorphous delight and fashion envy; and in "The Secret of His Sleep," a man wakes up after forty years to a reality that is at once strangely familiar and completely unexpected. In these wry fictions, real-world problems often have solutions fashioned with the stunning clarity and logic of a dream.

248 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2002

About the author

American novelist and short story writer, a Professor at the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars.

Reviews

[Martin Bihl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Brief, interesting, New Yorker-ish stories that, at their best moments, offer a little more. For example, the first story, which subtly wanders among the brains of each of the characters, giving the reader an unusual perspective. However, I find her male characters tend to be rather infantile - and while i will not deny that this characteristic exists, it suggests a sameness about the stories that is disappointing. Nevertheless, although this was my first introduction to McGarry, I look forward to reading more in the future.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

An incredibly talented writer, but man, I cannot stand her stories, mostly because I can't stand a single one of her characters. So many douchey, upper-middle class academics. So many pretty women who make me want to roll my eyes until I yank them out of their sockets.