“ Dream State ” named the new choice of the Oprah reading club: NPR

In a pivotal scene from the new novel Dream stateBy Eric Puchner, Buds Garrett and Charlie are at university, returning to the house of a Halloween party. They immerse themselves on each other as guys like to do, until Garrett accidentally makes an anti -Semitic joke. Charlie explodes. They are fighting. And none of them knows where to go from here. The novel says:

“Male friendship was a question of rhythm. It was a kind of song without words, an instrument that you knew by heart, you learned the pace together and practiced it all the time, for days and months and years, perfecting it by feeling, it was The swing of your silences, the karaoke follow behind the gibberish that you sang. The rhythm itself has said important things, unresolved things, so you wouldn’t have to do it. However, there are times like this, rare, when that was not enough. »»

Dream state is the latest choice of the Oprah reading club. It is also the rare literary novel which examines the different angles of contemporary male friendship. “Friendship is such an important and important part of my own life,” said Puchner. “I felt like I wanted to write something that I wanted to read but that I did not know – as far as I know – in the world.”

For 19 -year -old men, like Garrett and Charlie, using expressions like “hey guy, I’m sorry” or “i love you” can run the risk of ruining the atmosphere. But Puchner said he wanted to write about how male relationships can change over time. When we talked, Puchner had just returned from a trip with his friends.

“He was remarkable how much he was revolving around this kind of Jokey insults,” he said. “We play Euchre and we drink beer and we insult each other. The difference is now that there are also direct expressions of heat, gratitude and affection.”

A classic love triangle

The novel opens with a beautiful Edenic wedding by the lake in Montana. The bride and groom Cece and Charlie should marry when a Norovirus fight spreads through the wedding party, leaving part of the guests throwing songs. And it’s not even the worst thing that happens at marriage. Because Cece, the love of Charlie’s life, ends up marrying Garrett instead.

“I wanted the book to feel in its first 100 pages as an old -fashioned Russian novel. It is a love story that turns into a love triangle,” said Puchner. But he wanted to do something more ambitious in the second half, and show how the errors of this trio make “have repercussions not only for themselves, but for their children and the next generation”.

Puchner addresses weddings, careers and children who leave the triangle. But also how his characters react to a changing world. The book takes place in Montana. And over time, the air becomes a little dirty. The lake becomes drier. Puchner said that the way the life of his characters was parallel to the effects of climate change on the American West “felt fortuitous”.

A soft-tomer parameter

The setting was inspired by a Montana house where Puchner’s wife, the novelist Katharine Noel, spent a lot of time. His great-grandfather built the house and the family always goes there to visit each summer. But there is an element of sadness for these trips.

“It’s incredible to be there. It’s such a good condition. But yes, Glacier Park looks different from it when I was a child. Flathead lake is different,” said Christmas. “These things are sad and difficult, but they are also manifestations of something sad and difficult all the time. Very concrete.”

It is not a spoiler, but at the end of Dream state You have the impression that your relationships, your house, your world will not – and cannot – look alike in five, 10, 50 years. It’s obvious. But is the book asking – is it worth trying to keep these things anyway?