Dream State: Oprah's Book Club
A Novel
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3.8 • 224 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
2025 Oprah’s Book Club Pick
New York Times Bestseller
“Fresh, wise, funny, and compassionate…Cinematic from the outset, Dream State opens (just as if a circular lens were unscrewing) upon a beloved old family homestead, site of a doomed wedding—descriptions so warm and attentive, a reader can’t help falling in headfirst…a wonderful feast, and feat.”
—The Boston Globe
“A transporting wonder…Puchner’s final chapter is one of the most touching and satisfying I’ve read in years.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
“Dream State is a novel you should read… Puchner writes about families and relationships as well as any writer I can think of… a powerful reading experience.
—Chicago Tribune
"For a big, immersive American saga, deeply pleasurable yet tinged with melancholy, you could do no better than Dream State." —The Guardian's Best Fiction of 2025
Cece is in love. She has arrived early at her future in-laws’ lake house in Salish, Montana, to finish planning her wedding to Charlie, a young doctor with a brilliant life ahead of him. Charlie has asked Garrett, his best friend from college, to officiate the ceremony, though Cece can’t imagine anyone more ill-suited for the task—an airport baggage handler haunted by a tragedy from his and Charlie’s shared past. But as Cece spends time with Garrett, his gruff mask slips, and she grows increasingly uncertain about her future. And why does Garrett, after meeting Cece, begin to feel, well, human again? As a contagious stomach flu threatens to scuttle the wedding, and Charlie and Garrett’s friendship is put to the ultimate test, Cece must decide between the life she’s dreamed of and a life she’s never imagined.
The events of that summer have long-lasting repercussions, not only on the three friends caught in its shadow but also on their children, who struggle to escape their parents’ story. Spanning fifty years and set against the backdrop of a rapidly warming Montana, Dream State explores what it means to live with the mistakes of the past—both our own and the ones we’ve inherited.
Written with humor, precision, and enormous heart, both a love letter and an elegy to the American West, Dream State is a thrillingly ambitious ode to the power of friendship, the weird weather of marriage, and the beauty of impermanence.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This novel is expansive, moving, emotional, and thought-provoking. In the best sense of the term, it’s a ride. In 2004, bride-to-be Cece is at her husband-to-be’s lake house in northern Montana, obsessively planning their impending wedding. Her surgeon fiancé, Charlie, is busy in Los Angeles, but his best friend, wedding officiant Garrett, is on hand to help. From that almost rom-com-like premise, author Eric Puchner takes us on an exhilarating journey through a half-century of the lives of these three characters and their kids. On one hand, it’s much like the decades-spanning, multigenerational family novels of Jonathan Franzen or Meg Wolitzer. We care deeply about all of these characters, feel for them when they make bad choices, and share in their small victories. At the same time, Puchner’s lush, evocative descriptions of the gorgeous mountain terrain surrounding his characters become increasingly unnerving as wildfires and other natural disasters become more commonplace. This is a transportive read, so schedule yourself some time to really get lost in it.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this introspective drama from Puchner (Model Home), two families' entwined fates are set in stark relief against harsh changes to the climate in near-future Montana. It begins in summer 2004, when medical school dropout Cece Calhoun travels by herself from Los Angeles to Salish, Mont., to begin preparations for her wedding to anesthesiologist Charlie Margolis, which will be held at his family's summer home. Charlie, concerned she'll feel isolated, sends his best friend and their officiant, Garrett Meek, to check on her. Cece and Garrett form a strong and unexpected connection, and they end up running away together shortly after the wedding. Nine years later, Charlie, now married with two children and still summering in Montana, invites Cece, Garrett, and their daughter, Lana, back into his life. Puchner's immersive narrative often has the feel of flipbook animation as it glides across the ensuing decades, highlighting Cece's struggles with running a bookstore, Garrett's fixation on tracking wolverines, and Lana's connection with Charlie's troubled son, Jasper, who later struggles with heroin addiction and is drawn to a dangerous cult. In the meantime, the nearby lake dries up and wildfire smoke becomes ever present, a subtle rebuke to choices made by the characters decades earlier. Puchner's expansive yet nuanced storytelling has much to offer.
Customer Reviews
Just ok…
There were many times I felt all of the characters to be relatable. But felt that the rambling on about each was excessive. Also really disliked the ending.
Wow!
That’s it! Just wow. Not sure why I’m crying.
Not recommended
Long and dragging, the disjointed chapters seemed endless. It appears the author could not decide what direction to take this story, so he went off in every direction. Unsuccessfully.