Dreams of the Presidents: From George Washington to Barack Obama

(Paperback)

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The stuff of dreams - hopes, fears, and longings - represent universal subjects to which everyone can relate. These dreams take on a new cultural currency in "Dreams of the Presidents", a fictionalized anthology of dreams, one for each American president. Exploring power, as well as its limits and possibilities, Charles Barasch makes light of the entitlement and self-importance commonly attributed to politicians. Fun to read, humorous, and laced with events of historical interest, each poem gives a dose of insight into the presidents' lives and their relationships with others, including their families, allies, and rivals. Where contemporary people or important references to American history (such as slavery and the Indian wars) occur, notes explain and contextualize them within the poem's meaning.

Reviews

With the grueling neverending election finally behind us, Charles Baraschs magnificent book lets loose one last broadside at the insane zoo that is American politics. The conceit is simple: 42 poems, one for each president, in the form of a possible dream that president might have. The result is surreal, funny and even poignant at times.
Dan Szczesny, Hippo Manchester

The dreams drift lazily over the harder prose of the footnotes, forming a world saturated with sexual imagery and guilt about slavery and imperialism. Melancholic Presidents wander the White House hallways, grieving over dead children and spouses. Lillian Gish and Marilyn Monroe, who were half ghosts already, rub against the dreams surfaces. The poems are a delicious smoke curling around the Presidents; something like the fantasy air around the ad men on TV drama Mad Men, which couldve easily been Baraschs title.
Allen Shelton, PASTE Magazine

"None of the dreams in Dreams of the Presidents is real. But they're a brilliant concoction. And if we are ever to come to terms with the exaggerated importance we have assigned to our presidents, we will have to see these men (and women) as they are, not larger than life, but sized appropriatelyand as human and flawed and brilliant and scarred as each of us."
Nat Frothingham, The Bridge

Author Bio

A linguistics professor at the University of Vermont and a "Poet in the Schools," Charles Barasch has had poems published in many literary and general-interest magazines, as well as in the anthology, Baseball, I Gave You All the Best Years of My Life. Barasch is also a speech-language pathologist working with children from pre-school through high school in Plainfield, Vermont. With a broad background including everything from Romano-British archaeology to numismatics, from "oldies" radio to local politics, Barasch has also created crossword puzzles that have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Washington Post.