How the Dead Dream

Money can't buy happiness; it is happiness to a real-estate developer named T., the protagonist of Lydia Millett's How the Dead Dream. However, after nearly killing a coyote on an interstate, T. begins viewing the world as a place where not only supply affects demand, but the demands of people affect the supply of animals. As he begins to understand human beings as both vehicles for profit and interruptions of ecosystem stability, T. manages several hilarious conversations worth their weight in gold, Apple stocks, or luxury condominiums. These dialogues, particularly those with his often-oblivious Catholic mother, save the novel from becoming too moralizing. Occasionally Millet succumbs to a pitfall of satire—flat, caricature-like characters—though with such complex illustrations of T.'s social and ecological consciousness, this becomes less troubling. Ultimately, Dream's brisk plot pacing, humor, and epiphanies make for a uniquely enjoyable look at the human conscience. And in an age where inconvenient truths require addressing, not only by Al Gore, but J.P. Morgan executives and other guys in suits, Millet offers the prototype for a new capitalist—one that's less Gordon Gekko and more Jane Goodall.