Summary

In "Into a Bad Dream," the novel opens with a critique of a sentence divided into three pages and separated by a series of ellipticals, beginning with “Things are working out…. towards their dazzling conclusions…” (3-4). The narrator then criticizes moderates who defends interests that are not theirs and who only repeat their bosses’ teachings, such as “The need for law and order” and “The sanctity of the U.N. charter” (6). The narrator also criticizes “academic-pseudo-intellectual[s]” (6) who universalize these claims.

The narrator describes the journey that “Our Sister” (8) takes from her home to Europe. Our Sister recalls the dinner she had at the ambassador’s home, along with the First Secretary and another African man named Sammy. Sammy, who has spent a long time in Europe and who speaks “their language well” (9), tells Our Sister that she is very lucky to have...