Matthew Temple

Whilst the synopsis on the back cover may lead you to expect a story about bullying, revenge and atonement, in truth, Things Said in Dreams is a masterful exploration of much grander topics or deeper subjects.

As I read, I began in ache out of sheer admiration for Matthew Temple’s style. By the time I was through, I was paralyzed.

Things Said in Dreams is amphibian chameleon hypnotic sardonic manic hypothetical incisive indelible deep treacherous tragic philosophical spiritual unblinking..forgiving.

You will forget to breathe. You will never forget Matthew Temple.

This novel must be as close to the mentation of a physically and sexually and emotionally challenged teenager traversing the corridors of her high school and her out of school maze trying to make sense of her pets, her strange boy friend, her boyfriend's sister (the descriptions of her sensual obsession with that sister's body and accoutrements is at once hilarious and erotic) as any author has accomplished to date.

Yes, there is a lot of vulgarity for lack of a better term for early physical exploration, dialogue with her classmates with some very bizarre moments.

But the glory of the writing is the ongoing unspoken dialogue our strange girl has with us, the reader. It is all over the place crazy at times, disjointed, flights of fancy, discombobulated for pages, but reading this wondrous work is very much akin to wandering in and out of a performance of Bach's Goldberg Variations—complex, wild at times, tender at times and in the end finding center the way Bach's variations are indeed variations.

As satisfying a literary experience as has come down the pike in a novel form in a long time.

Things Said In Dreams doesn't leap off the page. It spills from it and washes over you like a steady stream of consciousness, released in a singular breath of spoken word given life by the protagonist.

In a way, the plot is secondary to the sheer experience of chasing the story. It seems to race ahead, with characters and relationships appearing from nowhere, each quite organic, but some seeming to want further exploration. Yet that never seems to hinder the flat-out, take-no-prisoners style which Temple wields deftly.

When I finished, I knew what had happened, and how, with even a hint of why, but I realized that I was exhausted. This is not a bad thing in any way. Temple has created a mature, complex experience that is more pursuit than novel, where the story is first out of the starting blocks and you are close behind, never ahead.

A thoroughly enjoyable book for readers seeking a deep, driven narrative.