Dream State

About This Audiobook

Eric Puchner’s *Dream State* isn’t just another family saga—it’s a sun-bleached, palm-tree-strewn descent into the American myth of upward mobility, where the cracks in the facade are as glaring as the California sun. The Lumas family’s carefully constructed dreams of success in the 1980s hospitality industry begin to fracture under the weight of their own expectations, secrets, and the relentless grind of a business that demands everything. Puchner’s prose is sharp enough to cut through the nostalgia, balancing wit with a creeping sense of dread that makes this more than just a nostalgia trip. The audiobook’s setting—a world of poolside lunches, corporate retreats, and the hollow clink of glasses raised in toast—is rendered vividly, immersing listeners in a world where the American Dream is less a promise and more a mirage.

What sets this apart is Puchner’s knack for exposing the absurdity and tragedy in everyday life. The characters, flawed and deeply human, stumble through their roles like actors in a play they’ve forgotten the script to. The narration by MacLeod Andrews elevates the material even further: his voice shifts seamlessly between the Lumas family’s coded snobberies, the brittle optimism of their employees, and the simmering resentment beneath every forced smile. It’s a performance that turns what could’ve been a simple family drama into a darkly comic, piercing examination of class and ambition.