Blog
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Short Story Review: “The Dreamdrive” by Weike Wang
(The short story “The Dreamdrive” by Weike Wang appeared in the May 25th, 2026 issue of The New Yorker.)
Illustration by Chris Harnan
Reading “The Dreamdrive” was like watching my favorite basketball player miss an unobstructed layup.
First, there was the tone of the piece, which was attempting to be lighter, easy, and humorous. The effect of this was that the story never achieved a depth. Everything was presented at arm’s length, making the story feel like nothing was at risk, or truly important. Also, in an attempt at humor, one character was described as “his then girlfriend,” implying her eventual fate. This cliched trick of description can work if it is partnered with irony, but in this setting, the attempt was to humorously build sympathy for our sad sack of a protagonist. Unfortunately, I did not see the reason why we needed to have this information presented in such a manner.
Second, the revelation of the dream fell out of the sky and crashed like dishes on the floor. It was as if the narrator decided that the story needed to end now, and we were quickly given the relevance of what had been happening. But without any foreshadowing, or even a climatic build up, the revelation doesn’t achieve any resonance. Such as, now that the protagonist understands where his reoccurring dream is coming from, how does that help him move forward? It’s implied that he can sleep again, but is there nothing deeper here? How is the hero changed, other than being able to sleep? It felt to me that an emotional plot point was missing.
Third, with the tone and lack of resonance in this story, it made the narrator sound condescending to the protagonist. The narrator treats the protagonist as a person to ridicule and kick around. Multiple times the hero is shown as a person no one takes seriously. And honestly, if the narrator doesn’t care about the protagonist, then why should the reader?
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Earworm Wednesday: The New York Stones
I had a friend, who fancied himself the end all be all final word which was handed down from God on everything music, and to that end, the disco/New York Rolling Stones were the worst, according to him. What were the New York Rolling Stones, you ask? He would claim three albums made up this period; Some Girls, Emotional Rescue, and Tattoo You. Sure, he’s say, there were a couple of good songs in there, but on the whole, they sucked.
I disagreed. In fact, I loved this period for the Stones. “Miss You” is one of my favorite songs of their’s and the reason is Bill Wyman’s disco bass. His playing is iconic, and a little gem of disco bass that just grooves into your head and won’t leave.
