In the Land of Dreams: a ghost story or a delusion?

In the Land of Dreams by Lawrence Swaim opens with a man being checked into a transitional house of Bellevue Hospital after revealing suicidal thoughts in the emergency room the night before. He believes he is being stalked by his ancestor who lived in the area in the 1680s when New York was New Amsterdam. The story then shifts to the point of view of the ancestor, Barnt, who is running his business, raising his family and living his life. When his action leads to a curse because he has knowledge of a vast treasure that he never told anyone about and now he must tell his descendant to lift the curse on the family. Is Barnt a figment of the man’s imagination, a ghost or are they one and the same?

In the Land of Dreams was very hard to read. The open chapter failed to capture my interest but I read on hoping it would…and it didn’t. The end of the book tells the reader that the story was a morality tale about how America, once the Land of Dreams, has become the Land of Desire for unlimited money and power. That would be okay if the narrator then doesn’t insult the reader buy saying “Was not the idea of a treasure quest a big part of what kept you reading?...Grow up, why don’t you?” The book is way too long and overly detailed and jumps back and forth which made it hard to stay focused. I do not recommend In the Land of Dreams.

In the Land of Dreams

is available in paperback and eBook