What Dreams May Come

What Dreams May Come is a book that has been around for around 31 years, since it was copyrighted by RXR, Inc., and still it captures the minds and hearts of its readers. Unfortunately, most people tend to focus on the 2002 film that featured Robin Williams and Cuba Gooding Jr. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since it's one of the few movies based off of Richard Matheson stories that kept the heart and soul of original product. Still it is worthwhile to examine the book on its own.

You'll notice, if you read it, that it's one of the few books that has been effectively and accurately adapted to film. The only other one that was almost completely accurate happened to be A Stir of Echoes. What about the obvious book of I Am Legend since there are four different adaptations you're probably asking yourself. It never really kept the true feel of the novella. Sure, each of the four different film adaptations had their own different merits. However there was still something about the stories that were lacking in some way, usually the emotion. It also tended to shift the power to try to make a change from the hands of just a regular guy to someone who seemed to know a little more about science and survival so that they don't have to learn it all as they go. A Stir of Echoes kept the main character a blue collar guy, which made it easier to connect with him for most people and it was easier to buy his skepticism and true horror of the new awareness he had gained. Sure there were some changes but the didn't steal from the storyline or the feel of the book. What Dreams May Come also had some changes when it was adapted to film. Sure some of these did change certain aspects of the story, but not in major ways.

So in terms of What Dreams May Come, what is it that is so great about the story? Regardless of whether or not you can identify with the characters you could still easily get sucked into the story. It just deals with a lot of things that we all care about. Love, life, death, work, family. Even if we can't identify with the characters directly, we can relate to the concepts that the story revolves around. It's life, at least partially.

It also is one of the few things out there that isn't afraid to make leaps of faith and show the afterlife. It actually a well-researched story using studies and theories from multiple articles and papers on such things as astral projection, psychics, out of body experiences, as well as both heaven and hell. It's very simplistic love story but it's also a very deep one that challenges its readers to think about things as more than just what we can see. There's a lot that goes into the story and even though it moves slowly at times, it is touching. It's moving on a lot of different levels.

There really isn't much that you can see as wrong with stories of a writer like Richard Matheson. Regardless of the type of story there's something that fits. Regardless of the time of the story, again, there's something that fits. He manages to make jobs, circumstances and times that not everyone can really relate to as understandable and easy to relate to as possible as possible. In the storytelling style, while you know that something like this might be incredibly unlikely, you're sucked in. You're able to suspend your disbelief, not only easily but quickly.

If you're looking to get into Richard Matheson as a writer, What Dreams May Come is actually one of the best books he's written. It's well worth the money for it, especially since there are places selling some of his books for $5.