Googy & the Dream-walker

Gooby and the Dream-walker  — Novel Synopsis

Twenty-five chapters, 71,000 words: Literary/philosophical fiction for adolescents and adults.
       Claire is a teacher in her early forties, divorced, and a mother of two sons, Edward and Steve.  Edward has been mentally handicapped and paralyzed since a near-fatal accident many years ago, while Steve is a rebellious teen who lives unhappily with Claire’s ex-husband Jeff. Claire is very frustrated with her family, health, and career, and deeply resents the fact that her beloved mother is dying from terminal cancer. On top of everything else, Claire endures the guilt that she may have contributed to Edward’s life as an invalid. Jeff, a thwarted writer, still loves her. While Claire also harbours affection for him, with so much history between them, she can’t bring herself to admit it. Confronted with all of these stressful life circumstances, Claire feels depressed and lost.
      Expecting her students’ assignments by email, Claire receives an email from a person nicknamed “Dream-walker,” who begins to email her regularly. In his emails, Dream-walker relates his adventures in a far-off land travelling with a goblin guide named Gooby. Strangely, these humorous but thought-provoking stories all seem to correspond to the challenges that Claire has to confront in her daily life. The emails gradually allow Claire to change her perspective. Little by little, they lead her to gather the courage to face her dilemmas with her family back in the real world. The adventures detailed in the emails, combined with Gooby’s unique views on life, shed light on the philosophical questions that Claire has been struggling with for many years: Who am I? Why do I have to suffer like this? Where am I going next? How can I be happy?

Claire’s problematic relationship with Jeff makes a strong case for applying a philosophical belief system when facing life’s difficulties. Jeff loves Claire, but his guilty feelings about Edward’s accident complicate things. Claire forwards him Dream-walker’s e-mails, which provoke Jeff to move forward on his journey of self-discovery. Through Gooby and the Dream-walker, Jeff becomes aware that inspiration must come from the soul and that solitude is a state of mind. After getting out of their ruts, both Jeff and Claire become conscious of the deep bond they have long been sharing, and their relationship turns a new page.

      In reading about Dream-walker’s thought-provoking adventures, Claire finally realizes that the core of her unhappiness lies in her accumulated fear of losing her sons, her husband, her mother, her health, and her career. With Gooby as her second-hand guide, she learns how to cope with hardships—including the death of her mother, Steve’s defiance, and her gradual loss of hearing—and gains a much clearer comprehension of her situation. Claire remains puzzled as to the identity of Dream-walker and continues to wonder why he cares about how she feels and where his emails are originating from until the very last chapter, when she discovers his shocking identity.