SOURCE: Knapp, Bettina L. Review of Le palais des rêves, by Ismail Kadare. World Literature Today 65, no. 2 (spring 1991): 344.

In the following review, Knapp considers the balance of humorous and serious subject material in Le palais des rêves.

Ismail Kadare, the prolific Albanian author of poems, short-story collections, and novels, has just had his fifteenth work translated into French. Published in Albania in 1981, Le palais des rêves, one of his finest works, made waves. Was it derisive? Satiric? A subtle way of condemning the communist vision of an automated society? Could it have been a warning against the institutionalization of groups of psychological clones? Was it a plea for individuality? Whatever Kadare's intent, the novel is humorous. It is, nevertheless, to be taken seriously. Forces of regression exist in each society, people who seek to smother the free-flowing thoughts of others. Although written with tongue in...