books

Travel ‘Across Dreamlands’ with Lara Hassan

BY YAP PIK KUAN
August 14, 2015

Lara Hassan's 'Across Dreamlands' is an exploration of emotions in a surreal dreamscape.Exploring the dream-like spaces in between sleep and wakefulness, “Across Dreamlands” is Lara Hassan's second self-published book after “Small Talk with the Moon” (2009).

A collection of poems and prose, the cover is adorned by a brightly painted dreamcatcher, an apt representation as Lara attempts to capture her dreams in words on the pages of her book.

Nothing encapsulates her concern with the surreal concept of in-betweenness more than the prose “In-between”.

“We meet in the crevices of time throughout our lives. Here he is again in my in-between; where souls roam and secret loving needn't be sordid,” she writes, illustrating an overarching theme of love and its accompanying feelings of anguish, loss, jealousy and at times, happiness.

The subject matter is something that readers can easily identify, especially with an emotion as universal as love.

Love is explored in the surreal spaces in between dreams and reality, a theme that reappears throughout “Across Dreamlands” as she longs for lovers out of reach in “Forbidden Lovers” and “Here nor There”.

The surreality of her world isn't just confined to dreams. Lara also plays with how heightened emotions can make even reality seem like a figment of her imagination.

For example, alienation and jealousy makes her reject her past love in “Elliot You”, saying, “Sorry I lied, there was nothing in the kiss under the stars, nothing in us furtively holding hands under the table with our friends, that felt as real as the real thing. It was all just a dream.”

But it isn't all doom and gloom for Lara. In a similar but altogether more cheery vein, the twilight hours of the early morning in “Like Gold” lend a dream-like quality to the scene as her child whispers to her, “Mommy you smell lovely. You smell like gold”.

The sweet moment encapsulated as they both lie half awake can't help but bring a slight smile to your face.

Lara's writing is at times pointed and other times meandering. Her poems tend to be the former, clear and straight to the point.

It's structure and punctuation also lend to a feeling of breathlessness as you read it. Sentences are chopped up into lines in a poem, giving rise to a sense of rapidness or urgency.

In comparison, her prose can be obscure, with run-on sentences that are long and winding with no seeming end in sight.

The stark contrast of her writing can be read as a representation of the way love makes you feel, from having butterflies in your stomach to a relaxed sense of comfort and contentment.

The collection is also unapologetically personal. At times, the reader feels as if they were reading the pages of Lara's diary, a voyeuristic peek into her world. It's an intimacy that plays into the theme of love.

“Across Dreamlands” is easy to pick up and read as nothing is more than a page long. It's just as easy to finish in one sitting.

However, if readers want to delve further in between the lines, the book demands that you take your time deciphering Lara's words.

Reminiscent of author and artist Lang Leav's works, “Across Dreamlands” works just as well as reading material on your weekend cafe visits or curled up with you on cold, rainy nights. – August 14, 2015.