Kate Hunter’s The Dream Sequence

Our narrator wakes up lacking all memory. She is a blank slate; the victim of a curse. A stranger tells her that in order to regain her memory, she must 1) find out who put the curse on her, 2) find out why, and 3) return the curse to that person. Such a simple premise serves as the backdrop against which Kate Hunter’s The Dream Sequence, explores deep issues of dream states and the validity of being, and at its most poignant, asks simply “what are dreams” [pg. 65]?

The Dream Sequence is what I call a conceptual story, in that the implications and connections created by the story’s concept are more important than the story itself. Hunter often ignores traditional story aspects such as characterization and story arc, which creates confusion—though intentional, I would argue intentional—for the reader. This novella requires work, but the committed reader will be rewarded.

The novella is told through a buried narrative structure in which plot points are revealed amidst the telling of other narratives, and is at times, a grammarian’s nightmare. Deciphering the story mirrors the narrator’s struggle to decipher her own position within the world. At times, I felt that my journey reflected the narrator’s position, especially when she experiences early on “a carefully choreographed conversation, in which I was speaking in a language where I knew all of the words but none of the meanings” [pg. 15].

A witch doctor sits at the center of the story, helping the narrator understand her position within this strange world of forgotten past. The doctor acts as the fulcrum savant against which the story leans, whose story-telling single handedly provides the momentum for the novella. In this sense, The Dream Sequence is a parable, written in an oral tradition.

The Dream Sequence explores the surrealist insight expressed by a Salvador Dali painting along with the nocturnal consciousness examined in Alex Garland’s novel, “Coma,” all carried by a memory-themed narrative reminiscent of Christopher Nolan’s film, “Memento.” While not good for lazy Sunday reading, The Dream Sequence is better suited for an afternoon of willful, self-enlightenment.

(Sadly, Impetus Press is no longer alive. I’m sure author, Kate Hunter, would love to you your love, though)

Hunter, Kate, The Dream Sequence: a Novella. Iowa City, IA: Impetus Press. 2006. paper,ISBN: 978-0977669318