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‘Dreams’ Review: Dag Johan Haugerud’s Intimacy-Themed Trilogy Concludes With Its Most Youthful, Delicate Chapter
A teenager's crush on a teacher cues an investigation of romantic awakening, power imbalance and creative catharsis in Dag Johan Haugerud's 'Dreams.'
The dynamic between student and teacher can be a charged, intimate one even in its most appropriate form: As children, we spend so much time with our educators, and are so dependent on their attention and approval, that the relationship can evolve into fast loathing or quasi-familial affection — an impression, either way, that often lives far longer in the memory than whatever it is they taught us. Intricately shaded and unfailingly sensitive on a volatile subject, Dag Johan Haugerud ‘s “ Dreams ” captures the disorienting bifocal lens of first love, where on the one hand, the world around you becomes a hormonal haze, while on the other, you see more clearly into yourself than ever before. How much of the detailed novella that emerges from her heartache is truth and how much is fantasy is hard to gauge, particularly once Johanne makes the bold move of turning up at her teacher’s home — cuing a series of friendly hangouts, under the guise of extra-curricular knitting lessons, that the besotted girl believes must be leading to something more.
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