Review: The Living Sea of Waking Dreams

The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This really struck a chord with me - one of the most effective pieces of fiction relating to the climate crisis thus far. Set amid the apocalyptic Australian wildfires (which feels like decades ago now) but also focusing on wider environmental issues, Flanagan uses multiple metaphors to emphasise our collective myopia and mishandling of a global disaster. Although I'm not usually a fan of magical realism, in this case it works perfectly - how else to get across the enormous existential and environmental catastrophe we all face, unless using examples that are outside of our standard human imagination.

Despite being a dark, bleak and somewhat harrowing read, there are glimpses of hope. This is a superbly timely book. My copy is full of notes, may write a longer review once it's been fully processed.

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