A Book of Dreams

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His sister does not seem to have written anything about their father or his work or how it affected her. It seems to have made the rounds in influential artistic circles a few decades ago, but never really into the mainstream public. The feeling of what it must be like to be a child caught up in events beyond one's comprehension is very powerfully conveyed. In some ways this book reminds me of The Glass Castle in that much of it is in the voice and point of view of a young child relating the imaginative way they coped with a father who lived outside of the norm.

Melancholic recollection of a dream and fantasy filled childhood that conflicts, jarringly, with the reality of his world and intruding memories as he comes to terms with his father's death.I was not entirely sure what to expect when I picked this up and paid the most money I have ever paid for any used book - but I did know that there was something special about it because of the sheer amount of other works of art that used this text as an inspiration.

In doing so I was surprised to learn that the song was actually based off of a memoir written by a man named Peter Reich about his childhood and experiences with his father, psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich.The last third of the book though was a slower read, at least for me, it also seemed to relate to The Book of the SubGenius in my imagination for some reason or another. I struggle at times to understand how cultures of beliefs that seem irrational to me are so persistent, but this story about a boy needing to keep living in the world of meaning his father created for him makes it so sympathetic; it’s about believing in his family and the relationship as much as any given philosophical or political ideal. In a tapestry of dream-like memories Peter Reich relates his experience of something which, when he wrote this book in 1973, he was still struggling to comprehend.

Wilhelm Reich can divide opinions, and Peter moves away from the controversy with this honest telling of his family, whereby we meet Wilhelm as a father, rather than a scientist/doctor/con man etc.

From the late 40s through to the mid-50s Reich was under investigation by the American Food and Drug Administration for providing an unauthorised form of treatment - the accumulators. It's a very touching look at an incredibly interesting and bizarre life which proves that truth can indeed be stranger than fiction. That said, I found the story largely unremarkable, which is surprising given just how bizarre and fascinating a person Wilhelm Reich seemed to be.