Fever Dream Paperback – October 5, 2017

Brilliant, concise. Woman and child, from any big city (but probably Buenos Aires), arrive at a vacation house along a river. Husband will join them for the weekend. Neighbor wearing a gold bikini brings them a bucket of water, says not to drink the tap water; it smells bad. But they already have, just a little when they arrived thirsty.Every genre, even horror, has great writers.The resources of our world have largely been destroyed. No where to hide. Fictional version of Blowout by Rachel Maddow.As I go into Month 5 of coronavirus lockdown, hidden away in the desert like one of a friend's rescue dogs, lines from Fever Dreams surface. Pay attention. Things that look like nothing (sitting on damp grass) are important. My friend's desperate need for social interaction. Okay, she is invested in being kind but why is Friend in our tiny Post Office lobby talking to the one man in town who tested positive for the virus? Why does his mask not cover his nose? He says masks are to block sputum from spraying. But the disease gets into the vascular system through the lungs, air going in and out through nose and mouth. Has she contracted the disease? Will she bring it home? She and I are wearing masks. Is that enough? Is my throat a little sore? My pandemic mantra is that I am safe and have a roof over my head. The second half is true. Is the woman in the book hallucinating her mother and son friends? Am I hallucinating the danger? Is neighbor downplaying the danger so he can go inside the Post Office and the Store? We had to do a 14 day self-quarantine when I returned from overseas, driven back from a country that didn't have much of a problem then and has a huge problem now. Did he? My friend in Belarus saying a huge number of children have birth defects from Chernobyl. Chernobyl is fuming again but wasn't when I was there.Planetary pandemics. The places I paid for but now cannot get to. The crazy college kids who went to Mexico anyway. Death. Long term medical conditions. Student who tested positive but has no symptoms so he doesn't care. My lost travel deposits and purchases. Collapsed businesses, lost jobs, corruption. Suddenly the best you can hope for is to be safe and have a roof over your head.

I read Fever Dream in one sitting because it was absolutely gripping. At the same time, it was also incredibly sad. I’m not a parent but I feel that many parents will be able to relate to Amanda and Carla in this novella. A parent is always aware of the rescue distance between them and their child and that worry of danger to your child is always present in the back of your mind. Schweblin focuses quite a bit on that aspect of being a parent and how a mother always feels that invisible rope to their child.Another theme I felt this book dealt with is the devastation of the environment. In today’s economy, farms are being pumped with dangerous pesticides that hurt all forms of life that reside in the area. Fever Dream illustrates the human toll that capitalism has taken and how there is no justice for those people who have gotten sick by the chemicals in their environment.Lastly, there were some surreal moments surrounding the transmigration of the soul. For being such a short read it had a powerful emotional impact on me and I definitely look forward to reading more of Schweblin’s work in the future.

Not quite as stellar as the reviewers would have you believe. Thankfully this is a very short book. Reading the first half was more annoying than edifying, what with trying to figure out who was speaking, what their relationship was, how many speakers were involved and why we should care. Once you're able to sort all that out -- and as you get further into it -- the book becomes, hmm . . . sort of interesting. The subject of environmental pollution is an important one and the author's approach, that of giving voice to its victims, should be a powerful one. Unfortunately, this work seldom veers much beyond curiosity. Cleverness, even creativity, both of which this book clearly has, does not guarantee a great work of art. While I applaud the author's concerns, choice of topic, and even her radical approach to storytelling, Fever Dream comes across as much more fever than dream.

Amanda is lying in a hospital bed with a boy named David by her side, asking her questions while she desperately tries to piece together the tragedy that happened at David's parents house.There are things that David needs to know for certain because they're running out of time.We come to learn that Amanda and her daughter Nina were vacationing near where David lived. David's mother Carla is secretive at first about the many small graves that keep appearing in the yard near the lake.By being able to recall the conversation that Amanda had with Carla, we learn what the graves are for and so much more. 😫That's about all i can say without giving away too much since this is a very short book (192 pages).It definitely feels like you're in a fever dream and in the midst of a panic attack at the same time.Very unique! I've added a few of her other books to my wishlist because i enjoyed this SO much.

My book was ordered on the 27th of April and was supposed to arrive on the 1st of May, but it has arrived today and it’s in a very good condition. So, overall experience from this seller is positive.

“I’m wondering whether what happened to Carla could happen to me. I always imagine the worst-case scenario. Right now, for instance, I’m calculating how long it would take me to jump out of the car and reach Nina if she suddenly ran and leapt into the pool. I call it the “rescue distance”: that’s what I’ve named the variable distance separating me from my daughter, and I spend half the day calculating it, though I always risk more than I should.”Rescue distance, which is also the exact translation of the original Spanish title, is something parents of little children (I say parents but I really mean mothers) are constantly calculating throughout their day, but lacked the vocabulary to describe it. Schweblin takes the elemental fear of all parents as well as the real environmental toxicity caused by indiscriminate soy farming in Argentina to create a taut psychological thriller of motherhood vs environmental pollution. The result was the tensest 192 pages of my life. One word review: Terrifying.Argentine gothic is a genre in it’s own right and Schweblin’s Fever Dream, with just a hint of the supernatural (if you choose to find the narrator reliable) can proudly find its place therein.

It's one of those rare books that brought out a physiological response in me. The idea of rescue distance really moved me. A quick, satisfying read.

The first time I read it, my heart started racing within minutes - and continued for the entire read. Same thing happened the second time. This is an extraordinary novel, wildly original, deeply affecting. One of the best of 2017!

I really enjoyed this book. The writing is great. I felt like, as an Australian reader, I lacked some of the context I needed to make the ending as impactful as I wanted it to be. Overall incredibly solid, would recommend