Dream Sequence
CBC Books | | Posted: August 30, 2019 8:38 PM | Last Updated: February 21, 2020
Adam Foulds
Henry Banks, star of the UK's most popular television series, has higher aspirations, ones befitting of his talent: a serious film career, beginning with a role in a brilliant Spanish director's next movie. To make the jump to the big screen, he'll have to remake himself in more than one way. But as he runs his morning miles and scrutinizes his changing physique in the mirror, he doesn't know that he's not alone in his obsession—Kristin, an unstable American fan, has her own ambitions. From the author of Man Booker-shortlisted The Quickening Maze, Dream Sequence is a moving depiction of desire and delusion and the unsettling consequences of fame. (From Biblioasis)
Dream Sequence was on the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist.
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From the book
The beautiful house was empty. Kristin watched from the front window as her sister climbed into her snow-spattered car and drove away, shuttling from one set of worries — Kristin — to another — the noisy, complicated, enviably involving struggles of her family life.
Suzanne had left behind a liveliness in the air through which she had moved and talked. Kristin walked back to the kitchen where there were syrupy breakfast plates to clear. She transferred them to the small dishwasher and sucked her sweetened thumbs. Diversify, Suzanne had said. Find some other activities and interests. She used a clear, careful voice with Kristin at the moment, stripped of challenge and controversy. In Kristin's mind Suzanne's broad, freckled face still hovered, neutral and patient, ready for her reaction. I understand you not getting a job for a while if you don't have to. You're in a great situation, when you think about it. Perfect fresh start time. Craig thinks... Kristin didn't care what Craig thought. Craig was entirely unsympathetic. Craig was most of the problems Suzanne was now shuttling towards in her rattling Kia on the road back to Pottstown. Craig thought that Kristin had got it made: married to her boss, divorced by her boss and now entitled by law to the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed. You won the Rollover, he liked to say straight to her face and smiling, as though she wouldn't hear the dirty joke he was pretending he hadn't made. Craig was the sort of dumb and nasty that thinks it's smart. Often, when Suzanne's back was turned, he looked at Kristin, just looked at her for as long as he felt like it, smoking and thinking things.
From Dream Sequence by Adam Foulds ©2019. Published by Biblioasis.
Why Adam Foulds Wrote Dream Sequence
"Dream Sequence crystallized out of a few years of disparate experience, both of my own and friends of mine. There were things that I was experiencing — including visiting Doha in Qatar and seeing a friend navigate the acting world — that made an impression on me.
"Actors epitomize that experience of feeling precarious and marketing and presenting oneself. They are also self-conscious and competitive in a continuously anxious way.
Actors epitomize that experience of feeling precarious and marketing and presenting oneself. They are also self-conscious and competitive in a continuously anxious way. - Adam Foulds
"Being near people going through the audition process, which is so gruelling and torturous, makes an impression. Actors go through what are basically job interviews every week or two, for which they often are not contacted about again. You can see how hard that is on someone's resilience and determination."