Tome Thursday: Dakota and the American Dream

Hello everyone!

I'm back with a slightly different book review this week, in terms of I don't think I would have picked this one out on my own, or it's unlikely I would have.

But I was very kindly approached by the author, Sameer Garach, and he asked me to read it and write an honest review about it, so how could I refuse?

Answer: I couldn't.

Also the title sounded like something that could potentially be quite intriguing, but I will say I almost never read the back of the book, or the Goodreads blurb, before reading the book proper. I do read them, occasionally, especially if it's a contemporary kind of book, but mostly I sort of just skim through and then dig into the book proper.

So while I knew SOME of what this one was all about, I certainly had no clue as to the actual content, which I think is the proper way to read something. 

After all, if you consider the ones you read at school, one of the favourite questions a teacher will ask when presenting a book is 'What do you think this book will be about? What's on the cover?' etc.

Now without further ado, let's jump right into Dakota and the American Dream.

Following the question I asked myself up above, Dakota and the American Dream would, in my humble opinion, be about some sort of exploration of what the term 'American Dream' even means. 

It's a fairly popular one and widely known, considering people usually go to America chasing it: that steady job, being able to do exactly what you dream of doing, 2.5 family, dog, and white picket fence remain probably the best-known foundation of it, though of course it's changed some over the years as well.

That's my take on it, in any event. Let's look at what Dakota says.

We meet Dakota, a ten-year-old boy, in the park with his mother, who's busy working. We learn that Dakota's mother has an apple business, and they produce any apple-related product imaginable, not that he's very keen or fond of them.

He's not, honestly.

Plus he's a bit bored at the park because his usual playmate isn't there (we learn about a dog he befriended, Bernie, but we never actually get to see him, and it's slightly unclear whether this is a stray dog, a friend's dog, or the family dog, only that they're great friends). This results in him sitting down on the bench next to his mother, debating what to do, when a squirrel with an olive green back pops up.

Said squirrel is a TALKING squirrel, and before you get too excited thinking Dakota might have found Narnia, he follows the squirrel over a game of hopscotch and up a tree through a hole that drops him into a pile of garbage.

Note #1: don't follow talking squirrels.

Lots and lots of garbage, at that, so that he needs to take a shower and change clothes, ending up dressed in a conservative grey suit with a tie before realizing that the only door out of this hole is too big for him, and he can't reach the handle. Luckily, there's a syrup medicine close-by, which will make him grow, and Dakota drinks that before heading through into what we are told is Corporate America.

Note #2: if the medicine was prescribed by a Dr. Quack, don't take it.

This seems to be a largely concrete jungle type of thing, with a tall building he wants to reach the top of, to be able to see everything - but somehow he ends up in a work interview at a bee hive, and he lands the job, though we (and Dakota) are never actually told WHAT his job is. He just got it.

Continuing on, Dakota realizes that his hair has grown abnormally long (think Cousin Itt long) and he's incredibly thin, and also that he has more money in his pockets that he knows what to do with. He actually causes an accidental flood with it, which brings out the residents of the sewers, including a Black Rat and White Mouse, who argue about prejudice, colorism, and who should lead their district.

At the same time, Dakota's told he can't enter the tall building he wants to go in if he doesn't have a mask, and he's eventually presented one - a forced smile clip-on - by the White Mouse, which comes in handy when the Green Squirrel mistakes him for his assistant, and sends him in to fetch his golf clubs and towel. With the hair bothering him so much, Dakota is incredibly happy to find a pill that will shorten the hair in the squirrel's office, but a side effect of it is that it also shortens HIM, and makes him fat.

This prompts the Green Squirrel to realize that it isn't actually his assistant, and he summons the cleaning service - ladies who speak Spanglish - which attacks Dakota by throwing things at him.

Note #3: stay out of the cleaners' way. Always.

Depressed because of how he looks like, especially since he also has acne all over his face, Dakota barely escapes a large kitten roaming the hallways of the building and comes across a Mirror who tries to explain to him there's nothing wrong with how he looks - but as that fails, eventually gives him an inhaler that will give him the desired beauty, with another side effect.

He'll be irresistible.

So after using the inhaler, and having a run-in with a jenny, Dakota eats some chips to become what he considers "normal" and continues on his way up, being told that he may be able to use the Corporate Ladder, and it's all about who you know (the ladder functions so that you step on other people and have acquaintances and friends offer you a hand up). Coming to the top, he first ends up in a meeting with the Fiscal Lion and a huge gorilla who keep arguing and not getting anything done while food around them goes to waste, and eventually manages to get to the golf match he'd been promised along the way.

This is where he meets the Big Boss, the description of who makes me think of a certain President, but it may be accidental; said Boss loves firing people, but no one actually gets fired since no one actually does anything, as Dakota learns when he finally gets to the offices proper, after getting drunk with a cow and a teddy bear who seem to be his friends until he says something they consider offensive (but is actually the truth).

At this point, Dakota's tired and just wants to go home, and also he's aged - he's now an old man, it's the end of the day, and Big Boss and the others FINALLY get around to his work application and can't decide whether he's ten years old, as he says, or senile, as he looks.

In the end, they choose to believe what they can see, and fire him from a cannon.

Which is when he wakes up, having fallen asleep in the park cuddled up next to his mother.

Dakota proceeds to describe his dream to her, which the mother can explain away with things from around them having trickled into his subconscious and taken on a fantastical spin, as dreams do. But she also wonders about her son's future, and how he might achieve his own American Dream - and whether or not he'll be happy with it.

This is where the book ends, and of course from the moment as soon as the appearance of the Green Squirrel, the reader realizes this is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, with a modern day twist.

We get to see the corporate world from the perspective of a child - indeed, at times it seems as if many of the adults in this world simply pretend at being adults, but are actually more childish than the protagonist - and how his simple logic could probably solve many of their problems, if they were so inclined.

We also see many of today's problems captured in essence: racism, fitting in, wearing a mask to hide your true self from your professional life so that you may advance, advancing at any and all costs, saying things to please your superiors when in reality you think something else entirely, learning how to work in a team, to not say exactly what you mean, and that, in the end, it may all be for nothing - because you'll be judged by the way you look, not necessarily by the way you conduct yourself. It all depends, really.

A thought-provoking story that has elements which brings it closer to children and enables them to understand things they probably wouldn't if this wasn't written from Dakota's point of view, this is also a fairly depressing, if realistic take on the world today. As someone in the work market, I know exactly how desperate and depressing it can get sometimes.

Still, it might have benefited from at least one positive experience somewhere, at the very least to give the reader - probably a child, as this is who it's mainly geared towards - some sense of optimism and the wish to ACTUALLY want to participate and make the system better. But maybe that was the point of the dog who becomes Dakota's companion and guide, though she meets a rather sad end, at that.

The story in itself is written in a very simple language, obviously meant for a young audience with no "big" words or anything, although I was confused by Dakota's expression of 'Holy seeds!' which he seems to use instead of 'Oh my God!' so far as I was able to understand it. I've never come across this particular saying in any book I've read, or heard it spoken by any of my American friends, and not being American myself I have to say it threw me every time it fell from Dakota's lips, because it sounds unnatural to me and completely bogus, in contrast to the fairly realistic picture the book tries to present (even if in parody). However, as said before, this may be because I'm not American, so I'll defer to other, American readers.

There isn't much length to this book, it's quite short at around 140 pages, perfectly acceptable to read over a period of time, perhaps in a classroom, because the chapters aren't too long either, so if you wanted to work a lecture around one per hour, it would absolutely work, in my opinion. I didn't see any real errors, so the author and whoever edited after him did a fantastic work on that, in this day and age when a lot seems to slip through the editorial cracks.

Overall, this was a fairly easy, enjoyable read in terms of length and language - but food for thought in terms of content. A shadowy version of our own world and how one might perceive it, with a lot of its problems brought to light in utter absurdity, but even as you laugh you should remember this actually happens, and it's not so laughable when it does.

This is a book that makes you stop and think, and I'm very glad the author reached out to me to read it.

10/10 would recommend.

xx

*image not mine