Review of When Life Is Like a Dream

[LinaMueller]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "When Life Is Like a Dream" by Phillip Methula.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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When Life Is Like a Dream by Phillip Methula is categorized as Drama and Poetry, but it's, in fact, one of the six plays that the author wrote to discuss the racial conflicts and apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s (few years before Mandela became president). For readers who don't know, "play" is a literary form of writing for theatre. I confess that I was surprised when I realized that the author chose to discuss this subject in this way. As counterintuitive as it may seem, I believe this is a great way to look at a society where diverse groups are in conflict. The central issue is that only a highly talented author could write a play that fulfills this objective. Did the author achieve his goal? Read on to find out.

Surprisingly, the author introduces nine main characters at the beginning of the book and more than 30 minor characters who have no names and include "compound dwellers," "farmers," "rebels," "seer," and many more. Thus, it was possible to discuss the different points of view of racial groups, economic classes, and even politicians. The book has 5 acts that address several other issues ranging from blacks wanting to improve socially in a racist environment, the atmosphere of mistrust between the races when a fever starts to claim many lives, strikes, and even an armed revolt of a segment of whites because they thought that the country's president was a race traitor.

The book is fascinating, and it's hard to pinpoint what I liked the most. Phillip has brilliantly managed to portray many aspects of society intelligently and even with a bit of humor. It illustrates how some uneducated blacks were innocent and believed the official narrative that they were in an unfavorable situation through their fault. Besides, I also found the description of the distrust between whites and blacks during epidemics masterful: the first ones said it was "black death" and the second ones "white death." Rather than the two groups coming together to solve the problems, these deaths only contributed to increasing distrust and prolonging the death toll. Something quite realistic if we consider human psychology.

The author did wonderfully in this book: there is barely anything negative to mention. The most challenging aspect for a book with so many characters would be maintaining cohesion, which the author managed to do very well. I found only two grammatical errors, which undoubtedly indicate that this work is professionally edited.

Now I will answer the question I asked in the first paragraph: there is no question that the author achieved his goal. For being an impeccable book and one that managed to masterfully describe the views and conflicts of the most diverse segments of a society that lived in apartheid, I gladly rate When Life Is Like a Dream four out of four stars.

I recommend this book to people who like to study racism and understand how the race issue influences the behavior of human groups. It would help if you also liked plays to appreciate this masterpiece fully. However, I do not recommend this book for teenagers under 16 as too much profanity and swear words.

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When Life Is Like a Dream
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[Gabriella1997]

I love the poetic aspect of this book and I would love to read more about racism, nice review.

[Suzer6440 xyz]

Drama and poetry mixed together sounds clever! I think I will enjoy the many characters described in this book. However, I’m not sure about the amount of profanity included. That is the one thing that would shy me away from this book. Kudos to you though, for a very nice review

[M Jansen]

I am super into history and stuff but usually keep that and my books apart. But this book feels important to read even though I think plays are harder to read sometimes so thank you for your review.

[Astral Magi]

It sounds like a wonderful way in which to explore the subject of segregation. Thanks for a great review.