Week Twelve: José Eduardo Agualusa, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers

    This week we were tasked to read The Society of Reluctant Dreamers by José Eduardo Agualusa. Published pretty recently in March of 2020, this story mainly follows the tale of Daniel, a journalist, Hossi, an ex-military man turned resort owner, Karinguiri, a revolutionary and Moira, a dream artist. It is set in modern Angola. The story explores the themes of dreams, memory (again), freedom, independence and strength. It explores the importance of dreams in predicting future events, telling the stories of individuals, uniting a people and fueling the strength of the Angolan dreamers. The word "dream" has two widely recognized definitions - the first one is the movie that we imagine in our heads when we're fast asleep. The second definition is "a cherished aspiration." In this book, Hossi's appearance in everyone else's dreams served to connect these two ideas together. His appearance in other people's dreams acted as a spiritual inspiration and an almost magical symbol that pushed the people to unite over their common objective - freedom. 

I appreciated the use of different characters to show the variety in perspectives that existed on the government and the dictator. For instance, Lucrécia was someone who believed in the President and benefitted from his position as leader. Family wise, her and her father had a lot of political influence and were able to lead a decent life maneuvering the loopholes that only rich have the privilege of maneuvering. On the contrary, there's her daughter Karinguiri, who is an adamant fighter for the fall of the dictatorship and the freedom of her people, the very opposite ideals and values of her mother. Then, there's Daniel, who is kind of just in the middle. He doesn't agree with Lucrécia's beliefs, but he also won't step up to the mic without a push from someone or something else. This demonstrates the patchwork that is modern Angolan society in its diversity in thought, values and ideals. 

Overall, I quite enjoyed this book. It wasn't boring and it kept me engaged enough that I managed to finish reading it in a relatively short amount of time. As the last book of our semester in Romance Studies, I believe I made the right choice. 

Here are my questions for this week. Was there any one character in particular that you related to? Was there anything about their personality, passion, desire for justice, passiveness that was relatable? Also, as a more general question, what do you think are the purpose of dreams? Are you the type of person to forget them as soon as you wake up or the type of person to write dreams down every morning in a dream journal - and why?

Comments

  1. JonApril 4, 2022 at 12:41 AM

    "The word 'dream' has two widely recognized definitions - the first one is the movie that we imagine in our heads when we're fast asleep. The second definition is "a cherished aspiration." In this book, Hossi's appearance in everyone else's dreams served to connect these two ideas together."

    Yes, this is a nice way of putting it. The book does shuffle or shift between these two definitions... I think the second one comes the fore especially towards the end.

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  2. Michael LiApril 4, 2022 at 1:27 AM

    Hi Lisa! Thank you for your post. You made a very good point about the differentiation of political positions regarding the three noteworthy characters in the novel. I think this difference when understanding partially abstract concepts such as dictatorship and democracy comes down to their personal, ideological, and moral involvement in Angolan society. To answer your question, I think that while associated with just political beliefs like those of Karinguiri’s, many people, including myself, are often influenced by other practical factors that can cause an arguable setback to Daniel’s position.

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  3. Sophia CinelliApril 4, 2022 at 8:42 AM

    Hi Lisa!
    For me, dreams are something that don't carry much meaning and I have usually forgotten about them once I have woken up. I don't believe this is the case for others. I think that some people have dreams of purpose, which is really cool to me! It's interesting to think how different our minds are when we are sleeping and the places they'll take us.

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  4. Diya MannApril 4, 2022 at 2:54 PM

    Hi Lisa!
    I enjoyed reading your blog post! To answer your question, I have never questioned or put much thought into the bigger picture of dreams. I usually forget about my dreams as my day starts. But this book made me stop and think about how dreams come to us. I agree, though, with Agualusa's ideas on the power and purpose of dreams and how they expose our intimate thoughts and how some of our dreams become a reality.

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