What do You think about The Daydreamer (1995)?
I once heard Ian McEwan described as a Marmite author; a distinctive taste that, in line with the Marmite marketing slogan, you either "Love it or hate it." I must admit, I've had my share of "hit and miss" with McEwan but I did enjoy The Daydreamer, which is his first work of fiction for children. The book is described however as appealing to adults as well, due in part to the fact that it is an "adult" Peter who tells the story of his childhood.The Daydreamer is about 10 year Peter Fortune who is a chronic daydreamer. He transforms boring events into elaborate stories in his head, making mundane situations more fun. Peter believes that the reality of his life can rarely live up to the things his mind concocts.The Daydreamer is told in the form of seven interlinking stories, all of which reveal the secret journeys, metamorphoses and adventures of Peter's childhood.What I particularly enjoyed about this book was that daydreaming was portrayed as an essential dimension of play, for adults and children alike. In daydreaming, we’re free to psychologically traverse through every obscure or far flung thought. We’re welcome to try on any solution or scenario that piques our interest at the moment. Let's face it -- who hasn’t indulged in a little Walter Mitty style fantasy and not felt better – or at least been pleasantly amused – for it? Isn’t it how we become more fully ourselves?So here's my suggestion for the day: Make some time for losing yourself in thought. Drop everything and do it now, or schedule it if you have to. Don’t go to bed tonight without endeavoring some kind of cerebral journey. Your brain – and perhaps your well-being – will be the better for it.3.5*/5
—Lynda
Cele 7 capitole ale cărții sunt tot atâtea povestiri – de fapt, mai există și prezentarea lui Peter care, ea însăși, este o povestire în sine – pentru copiii de… toate vârstele. De mult nu am mai citit povești care să mă fascineze atât de mult ca aceastea. Protagonistul, un băiețel de câțiva anișori, aflat în primii ani de școală, este un visător, genul de copil pentru care realitatea nu este altceva decât viața plictisitoare la care trebuie să se întoarcă după fiecare episod de visare, sau sursa unor probleme care se rezolvă mult mai ușor în lumea imaginară asupra căreia deține controlul total. Copil dificil, spuneau adulții că ar fi, însă el nu a înțeles ce înseamnă acest lucru până când nu a crescut mare și… a început să aștearnă pe hârtie „unele din ciudatele aventuri care s-au petrecut în mintea lui”.Trei dintre cele 7 povestiri tratează o temă destul de complexă, încarnarea sufletului în alt trup și percepția diferită asupra lumii pe care acest proces o oferă. Un Peter care face schimb de corpuri cu motanul său, în povestirea Motanul, descoperă că viața felinei nu este chiar așa de inexplicabilă cum pare a fi. Somnul (de fapt comoditatea) este scopul principal al animalului, așa încât cam tot ceea ce face trebuie să se finalizeze în confort, căldurică și repaus. O întâlnire cu un rival din vecini pare a fi apogeul unei zile reușite, chiar dacă pentru un om nu ar reprezenta decât un șir de miorlăituri. Toate acestea sunt simțite de copil la prima mână, iar felul în care autorul descrie evenimentele este extrem de convingător. Continuarea recenziei o găsești aici http://www.bookblog.ro/recenzie/o-sup...
—Bookblog.ro
In the preface to The Daydreamer Ian McEwan asks if we adults really mean it when we say we like children’s literature or are we merely “speaking up for, and keeping the lines open to, our lost, nearly forgotten selves?” Mind you when he wrote this it was before the whole Harry Potter phenomenon – and there were plenty of adults who enjoyed curling up with that series. Still, the appeal to adults of Harry Potter might have been as much about the finely constructed plot and suspenseful narrative as the fantasy itself – its own inviting escape from the more mundane aspects of everyday adult existence. In contrast, The Daydreamer, McEwan explains, is a book for adults about a child in a language that children can understand. It’s a fantasy too as the title suggests, but it’s a fantasy that engages rather than escapes reality.Peter, the almost decade old central character, is a dreamer, though his dreaming is not so much to take refuge from the world as it is a way to explore its curious and limitless possibilities. Peter’s dreaming is pure imaginative freedom – and it’s this propensity for quiet daydreaming that unsettles the grown-ups since they have no way to control what’s going on inside his head; “He could have been setting his school on fire or feeding his sister to an alligator and escaping in a hot air balloon, but all they saw was a boy staring at the blue sky without blinking, a boy who did not hear you when you called his name.”The book is divided into chapters – each chapter its own story linked into the broader narrative of Peter and his family. During these adventures of the imagination Peter switches bodies with the family cat and later his baby cousin. He plots how to catch the neighborhood burglar with Roald Dahl-like inventiveness; confronts an unconventional bully using fantasy logic; and inhabits the body of his young adult self. Through each of these transformations we get to share Peter’s pleasure of viewing the world from another person’s (or animal’s in the case of the cat) perspective and also come to experience empathy and understanding in the process. Not unlike the adventure of reading itself.And although this might appear to betray the book with well-meaning adult moral purpose, the only real message that The Daydreamer imparts is; imagine. Like the baby in the story who is overcome by the beauty of sunlight playing on a wall we are equally mesmerized by McEwan’s luminous storytelling – and the wonderfully real possibility of it all.
—Frances
