The Palace of Dreams

#321
Title: The Palace of Dreams
Translator: Barbara Bray (from a translation to the French by Jusuf Vrioni)
Author: Ismail Kadare
Year: 1990/1993
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
Country: Albania
205  pages

Though ultimately Kafkaesque, this novel is initially dreamier and less threatening. It serves as a critique of Soviet bureaucracy and also of the ethic this breeds--after only a week at his prestigious job in the Palace of Dreams, the protagonist is disconnected, afraid, and angry. Bitter and resentful, he quickly resorts to making things up rather than seeking more assistance in culling and interpreting the nation's dreams. As his family's fate becomes increasingly intertwined with the dreams brought to the Palace, he struggles to understand the relationships between history, politics, and the collective unconscious. The indicting punchline of this increasingly complex situation is that the protagonist, who understands so little, is not annihilated as he would be in Kafka, but rises precipitously to become the highest authority.