A Dream Life

by Claire Messud

Overview

A jewel of a novel by New York Times-bestselling author Claire Messud

When the Armstrong family moves from New York at the dawn of the 1970s, Australia feels, to Alice Armstrong, like the end of the earth. Residing in a grand manor on the glittering Sydney Harbour, her family finds their life has turned upside down. As she navigates this strange new world, Alice must weave an existence from its shimmering mirage.

Lies and self-deception are at the heart of this keenly observed story. This is a sharp, biting, and playful tale with a cast of unscrupulous characters adrift in a dream life of their own making. Written with the characteristic delicacy of touch, humor, and emotional insight that make Claire Messud one of our greatest writers.

“A novelist of unnerving talent.” —The New York Times Book Review

“[Messud is] among our greatest contemporary writers.” —The New Yorker

“A perfect frolic of a book, puffed on breezes of beauty and wit: it waltzes you through a little fear, a little darkness, and tips you out, refreshed and laughing, into the sun.” —Helen Garner

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781649697295
Publisher:	Tablo Tales
Publication date:	01/15/2022
Series:	Short Books by Great Women Writers
Pages:	136
Sales rank:	222,475
Product dimensions:	4.50(w) x 7.25(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Claire Messud is the author of seven works of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers The Emperor’s Children and The Burning Girl, and a book of essays, Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write. She is a recipient of Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships and the Strauss Living Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Hometown:

Somerville, MA, USA

Place of Birth:

Greenwich, CT, USA

Education:

BA in Comparative Literature, Yale University, 1987, MA in English Literature, Jesus College, Cambridge University, 1989

Editorial Reviews

11/22/2021

Messud (The Burning Girl) offers an intriguing if slight domestic drama. When Alice Armstrong’s husband, Teddy, gets a job in Sydney, Australia, she moves there with him and their two young children, Sadie and Martha, from New York City. Their imposing new house, dubbed Chateau Deeds after its owners, offers Alice “a hiatus from reality,” but it also requires tremendous upkeep, which proves too much. The first two housekeepers Alice hires don’t work out, leading a friend to recommend getting live-in help. The choices presented by her applicants leave her feeling “assailed by the arbitrariness, the strange irrelevance, of her Australian existence.” Alice hires Simone Funk, a choice that may be foolhardy—Simone tells wild, possibly tall tales about being a runway model as a teen. Simone also has an outburst that may be a red flag (“Stuck-up cow. She doesn’t know the first thing about me,” Simone says of a house guest). There is some chilliness between Alice and Simone, and things come to a head after it’s revealed that Simone has Alice’s daughters massage her. Messud keeps readers on tenterhooks waiting for a shoe to drop, and when it does, everything recalibrates. The story may be slim, but the writing is crisp—“Guilt swept across their features like a veil”—and so is Messud’s attention to detail. This is worth savoring. Agent: Sarah Chalfton, the Wylie Agency. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

"An interior tale of relationships, deception and characters living in their own dream lives, this beautifully written slim book will not only transport you around the world but will remind you that wherever you go, there you are." —Zibby Owens, Good Morning America

"A witty novella...Think The Turn of the Screw reimagined as a comedy of manners. And yes, it’s also a beautifully designed little book — a delight to read and eminently giveable, too." — Ron Charles,The Washington Post

"Messud is clearly well suited to the novella’s compact form, alive to the specifics of the sentences but able to draw back to see the mystery of the whole." —Wall Street Journal

"Messud’s eye for class distinctions and gender expectation is as sharp as ever...limned with Messud’s characteristic tart, cogently detailed realism...Messud takes a cool, detached tone, emphasizing the humor of her dilemmas" —Kirkus Reviews

"Sharp edges in just the right places, and glint with an insight that both cuts and beguiles." — Jonny Diamond, Editor in Chief, Lit Hub

"The author of The Emperor’s Children writes a slim novel about an ex-pat family in Australia via New York, where lies and self-deception mix." —Zibby Owens, Bookfluencer, Podcaster, Author, named “NYC's Most Powerful Book-fluencer” by New York magazine's Vulture
 

"I defy any reader to put this book down once you start it...A Dream Life is a comment on and an evisceration of privilege." —Jason Rice,  Vol.1 Brooklyn

"Messud writes some of the most complex characters you’re likely to encounter in fiction, and this short novel demonstrates that skill in abundance." —Brooklyn Rail, BOOKS OF THE MONTH, Vol. 1 Brooklyn

From the Publisher

2022-01-19
Alice Armstrong, an American wife and mother transplanted to Australia in 1971, is unnerved by the responsibilities of running her grand new home.

Her husband, Teddy, pleased by the promotion he gets with his bank’s overseas posting, jokingly dubs the mansion they’ve rented in Sydney “Chateau Deeds,” name-checking the pretentious nouveau-riche Australians who built it. Her daughters, 4 and 6, run shrieking gleefully through the vast rooms. But Alice feels she’s living in “a dream life, where nothing could matter and nothing would last, a hiatus from reality.” Reality intrudes when she realizes she can’t do all the household work on her own. A comedy of employment errors ensues, limned with Messud’s characteristic tart, cogently detailed realism. It begins with an unwed mother who brings her infant, cleans haphazardly for half a day, and never comes back. Other maladroit hires include a bossy Russian caterer for the couple’s numerous parties; a salty live-in housekeeper who turns out to be wanted for credit card fraud and passing bad checks; and the driver of the children's school carpool, whose inappropriate attentions to the girls stop barely short of molestation. Alice also has a hard time with the opinionated gardener left behind by the owners; like all the Australian help, he barely conceals his opinion that his putative boss is hopelessly clueless. Teddy, rarely home, can’t understand why she can’t manage better, and Alice can’t understand what she’s doing in this strange place: “It was as if she had awakened after a drugged sleep to unfamiliar surroundings, as if some irretrievable portion of her life had been stolen from her.” This might be sad if readers were encouraged to feel any empathy for Alice, but Messud takes a cool, detached tone, emphasizing the humor of her dilemmas. The ending suggests that Alice is finally taking some control of her life, reinforcing the overall impression that the stakes aren’t very high here.

Messud’s eye for class distinctions and gender expectation is as sharp as ever in this enjoyable minor effort.

Kirkus Reviews

A witty novella…Think The Turn of the Screw reimagined as a comedy of manners.”

Washington Post