Preview of Martin Dressier: The Tale of an American Dreamer Summary:

In Martin Dressier, Steven Millhauser is indeed concerned with the social implications of the American Dream (and, in foregrounding the very fact that this pillar of American culture is a dream), but he is also equally interested in dreams and hallucinations as such. Not only is Martin "living the American dream," he is in an important sense "dreaming" his life. Millhauser presents Martin's experiences of the world as heightened, hallucinatory experiences that flirt with the boundary between reality and dreams. This is evident throughout the novel, such as in the moments at which Martin feels as though everything is "too much, too much—the whole world was trembling—at any moment it would crack apart." Martin feels dreamily disconnected from his environment: "Then the dreamfeeling would come over him, as if his real life were not here, where it seemed to be, but over there, a...