The Man of My Dreams traces the life of Hannah Gavener from the age of 14 to the age of 28, with snapshots at different times in her life.  Hannah is a little easier to sympathize with than Lee, the main character in Sittenfeld's first novel, Prep, but she is still rather awkward and naïve.  The first chapter, June 1991, starts out well, showing the troubled marriage of Hannah's parents, her rather tense relationship with her older sister, and her subservient position in her friendship with her wild cousin Fig.  These all play out as the years pass in subsequent chapters, in Part II, showing her college years in 1996 to 1998, and Part III, when she is in her mid-twenties, in 2003 and 2005.  This novel is a little more ambitious than Prep in showing more of the main character's life, using a few carefully selected episodes.  The writing is in the third person, with a neutral anonymous narrator, with language that Hannah would use. 

In the second chapter, Hannah is a freshman at Tufts in 1996.  While her friends are living the stereotypical lives of undergraduates, with all the excesses that entails, Hannah is passive and her days are uneventful.  She is the rather boring safe friend who gives people advice when they need it.  She hasn't even kissed a boy yet, let alone had sex.  By the next year, she is still a virgin but she now has a psychotherapist, Dr. Lewin, a woman in her late thirties.  This relationship is very important for Hannah, and it turns out to be helpful.  The final chapter is a letter from Hannah to Dr. Lewin, explaining how she has overcome her youthful insecurities and illusions.

The central theme of the novel is Hannah's unrealistic ideas about ideal men.  When she is 14, she is preoccupied with Julia Roberts' upcoming marriage to Kiefer Sutherland.  The narrator, who writes from the perspective of the present, mentions Roberts' troubled history in her succession of marriages.  Later on, Hannah becomes convinced that one of Fig's ex-boyfriends is the man for her, but it is soon clear that she is deluding herself.  Eventually she develops a relationship with a man, but somehow she never seems fully committed to it.  It is only by the end of the novel that Hannah gets better perspective on her childish ideals and she is better able to see others for how they really are.  Even then, although she shows herself able to care for children, it is open to question whether she is really capable of love with a man. 

Sittenfeld's writing is strong: especially at the start of the novel, the work is a pleasure to read.  However, as we get into the story further and become familiar with most of the characters, the energy level drops.  It is interesting to see how Hannah develops, and her letter to her therapist is funny, but it is hard to care very much what happens to her.  The Man of My Dreams is more satisfying than Prep, because it is a little more ambitious, but it is not compelling. 

Link: Review of Prep

© 2007 Christian Perring. All rights reserved.

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of the Arts & Humanities Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at Dowling College, Long Island. He is also editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews.  His main research is on philosophical issues in medicine, psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Fiction