Dream State by Eric Puchner - Book Review and Craft Tips

Part of my ongoing series Reading as a Writer to study what resonates with me as a reader and what craft tips I learned as a writer—and how debut authors like me can hopefully position their work for book club success!

The Premise

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Eric Puchner's Dream State (buy here) is an ambitious multigenerational family saga that weaves together friendship, love triangles, marriage, parenthood, climate anxiety, grief, betrayal, actual wolverines (Go Blue!), mental health struggles, and more— literally all of the things. Set against the backdrop of a summer lake house in Montana, the novel opens with Cece, a med school dropout, planning her wedding to Charlie, an anesthesiologist. When Charlie remains in LA during wedding preparations, he delegates Cece's care to his college best friend, Garrett—a decision that sets the story's central tensions in motion.Genre & Book Club

Publisher Classification: Doubleday markets this as Literary Fiction and Family Life, though it could easily fit into Nature & Environment categories as well.

Picked by: Oprah's Book Club selection for February 2025.

What Made This Book Irresistible

The Satisfying Scope

I love me a long book! Dream State is 448 pages. While I understand how difficult it is to sell novels over 300 pages (or whatever is the current magic number — my work-in-progress is currently at 278 pages!), a nice long saga gives readers substantial value—the kind of immersive experience that justifies both the price tag and the emotional investment. There's room to truly live with these characters across decades. I like the idea of working on a future novel that is more roomy and allows for this type of time span.

Fresh Take on Western Family Drama

Puchner delivers a "regular" family saga set in the American West without relying on cowboy tropes or violent wars over land. Before reading, the only Montana I knew was Yellowstone and while I love John Dutton and Kelly and Rip and Casey, of course, reading about “real” characters in that setting (including one who opens a bookstore!) made me feel so much more immersed in the West.

Compelling Character Work

To me, Cece emerges as the story's heart—her voice reminded me of Mary Catherine Garrison’s character in Somebody, Somewhere. The dialogue throughout crackles with humor, tenderness, and genuine emotion, and the visuals of each character felt distinct.

Universal Truths

A particularly beautiful line describing Cece after she dropped out of med school: "[she] was sure she had something great to offer the world, something big and pure-hearted and indispensable. If only she could figure out what it was." PREACH, ERIC!

Mary Catherine Garrison

My #1 casting choice for Cece

Craft Spotlight: What Writers Can Learn

Time Management

Spanning 50 years, Dream State demonstrates masterful temporal shifts. Puchner leaves significant time jumps between chapters, allowing crucial events to happen off-page. This technique proves more powerful than showing everything—it made me realize sometimes what we don't see hits harder than what we do. Beautiful.

Structural Satisfaction

The varied POVs and circular narrative structure create a deeply satisfying reading experience, though they also left me questioning whether the entire book exists within a "dream state"?? And indeed, it does because it exists in my imagination! A clever metafictional layer.

Setting as Character

The Montana lake house functions as a character itself, while the looming specter of climate change creates genuine dread. Puchner's imagined future wildfires feel very now and made me appreciate the challenge of writing speculative environmental fiction that will still feel relevant after the two-year publishing timeline when end times are upon us.

Masterful Pacing

The multiple POVs maintain momentum while exploring weighty themes—marriage, grief, climate anxiety, parenting, love, and jealousy—from varied perspectives. The early plot twist establishes the book's emotional stakes immediately, and I kept flipping the pages and staying up far too late because each chapter/POV sped the story forward.

Final Thoughts

I usually listen to author podcasts the morning after I finish reading their book (as I require a totally blank slate before I start a new novel), and I rarely go in search of videos but I couldn’t help but watch this Oprah interview with Puchner. It’s a great study in media training and pitching/selling your book as an author—including the importance of author “vibes,” if you will. Going forward, I need to watch these types of author videos instead of podcasts (though I feel like they are becoming one and the same?) How else could one imagine receiving that call from Oprah?

Also, I found this New York Times piece on current book cover trends (which features Dream State's striking neon sans serif title against a classical painting) super interesting.