Dream State: Oprah's Book Club

I’ll admit, I approached *Dream State* skeptical of yet another ‘family drama’—but Puchner’s novel disarmed me within chapters. The wedding at the heart of the story isn’t just a backdrop; it’s a catalyst for every simmering grudge, half-buried secret, and delusional hope these characters have been nursing for decades. The pacing is relentless, with Puchner juggling multiple perspectives without ever letting the tension sag. That said, the sheer *volume* of dysfunction occasionally tips into overload—there are moments where I wished he’d linger a beat longer on quieter character beats instead of hurtling toward the next explosion. MacLeod Andrews’ performance is a masterclass in vocal range. His ability to distinguish between a dozen-plus characters—each with their own tics, rhythms, and degrees of self-awareness—keeps the audiobook from becoming a blur of voices. His rendering of the patriarch, a man whose pride is as fragile as his health, is particularly heartbreaking. My one critique? The production occasionally suffers from uneven audio levels during the more chaotic scenes, where background noise (a clinking glass, a distant argument) gets lost in the mix. Still, it’s a minor quibble in an otherwise stellar listen. If you love stories where humor and heartbreak are two sides of the same coin—think *The Royal Tenenbaums* meets *Little Fires Everywhere*—this is your next obsession.