The Daemon in Our Dreams

by John F. Rooney

Since Lee, Fran, and Paul, all chose to board the Global Quest cruise ship on a tour called “The Passage to India,” each has experienced vivid nightmares about the same threatening young man. Coincidentally, they run into each other on their tour across Asia, which should be a highlight for the travelers but incongruously is a trial for them as well as their traveling companions. “Everything I ever read that was really good had a lot of irony in it,” says Lee Alby to the other two, quoting an old student of his. “I don’t think you have enough irony in your piece. You should put more irony in it.”

The Daemon in Our Dreams has irony on many levels. There is tragic irony, because we know from the first few pages who is going to die, when and where, but the characters have not a clue. There is Socratic irony demonstrated through the actions of three doomed compatriots. Situational irony is rampant. For example, the cruise takers are all wealthy, and they choose to go to some of the least developed places in the world to see some of the richest monuments made by man that are surrounded by the world’s poorest people.

The big question is: “Why are the three of us, seemingly total strangers, dreaming about the same man and why does he hate us?” I had a quick list that I thought could bear fruit: fornication, overindulgence, treachery, hubris, vengeance. The biggest irony of all is that I spent the entire time I was reading trying to figure out what links the characters together. I had forgotten that in all of the definitions of irony, there is only one constant – the written word and the underlying meaning are not the same thing. That means when you read the very last page, you will know what cosmic irony is.

This book is for a person who enjoys a book that doesn’t end on the last page with everything tied up in a neat little bundle. The Daemon in Our Dreams will make you think for hours, if not days afterward.