Big Dream

At Dream Inc., a lifestyle magazine publisher, people are struggling not only to do their jobs—or even to keep them—but to fall in love and stay that way, to have friends, to be good parents and good children, to eat lunch and answer the phone and be happy. Which can be pretty interesting . . . even on company time.In The Big Dream, acclaimed short story writer Rebecca Rosenblum offers a suite of linked stories exploring the working world in all its dark and humorous complexity, creating an In Our Time for our time.Rebecca Rosenblum's debut collection Once drew comparison to Alice Munro's Dance of the Happy Shades" (Quill & Quire). She works in publishing in Toronto, Ontario.

“"[These stories] contain images ... so evocative that they vibrate. Rosenblum is an elegant stylist and spiky humorist; her language is precise, her ear for dialogue almost faultless."”

"Rosenblum writes with exquisite attention to detail, not to mention an astute sense of comedic timing: her uniquely troubled and wholly convincing characters should appeal to readers of commercial and serious fiction alike."—Canadian Literature"The prose in these 13 stories contains rueful truths...swift portraits...and depths of feeling"—Quarterly Conversation—The Globe & Mail"For readers who want fiction to engage with the world we live in, Rosenblum's work matters."—Prairie Fire"In her spry, satirical new collection, Rosenblum (Once) presents 13 dialogue-rich and highly readable vignettes featuring a colorful cast of characters who work for Dream Inc., a foundering Canada-based lifestyle-magazine publisher. There’s the Vice President of Human Resources, forced to lay off customer-service reps while her mother lays dying in a local hospital; the college student on the verge of a nervous breakdown who works in the cafeteria; the corporate-branding specialist experimenting with lesbianism; and the retired exec who can’t quite let go of the dream. None of her main characters are editors; they come from other areas of the publishing industry, and they struggle with such mundane decisions as where to eat lunch and what to do after work. Rosenblum makes these challenges read like monumental events in her characters’ lives (which they no doubt are), and deserves admiration for her well-chosen details and nuanced protagonists.—PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY"Each short story is rich with memorable dialogue, capturing the empty banter, complaints, and flirtations that often fill the halls of an office. Rosenblum’s natural dialogue and descriptive prose result in a collection that successfully depicts the complex balancing act between home and work that so often define the lives of office workers who struggle to stay afloat inside and outside of their cubicles."—This"Rosenblum is an entertaining master of minutia, she has a prodigious ability to take ordinary details and restyle or adorn them in just the slightest way, transforming the mundane into the eccentric. The stories in The Big Dream come alive with orange-juice stained pillows, Zellers jeans, and jam sandwiches ... The Big Dream thoroughly succeeds ... Rebecca Rosenblum is a gifted chronicler of our time."—The RoverRosenblum’s characters are funny and human ... they are distinct and engaging. It’s lovely, moving writing.—Quill & Quire
"Rosenblum writes with exquisite attention to detail, not to mention an astute sense of comedic timing: her uniquely troubled and wholly convincing characters should appeal to readers of commercial and serious fiction alike."—Canadian Literature"The prose in these 13 stories contains rueful truths...swift portraits...and depths of feeling"—Quarterly Conversation—The Globe & Mail"For readers who want fiction to engage with the world we live in, Rosenblum's work matters."—Prairie Fire"In her spry, satirical new collection, Rosenblum (Once) presents 13 dialogue-rich and highly readable vignettes featuring a colorful cast of characters who work for Dream Inc., a foundering Canada-based lifestyle-magazine publisher. There’s the Vice President of Human Resources, forced to lay off customer-service reps while her mother lays dying in a local hospital; the college student on the verge of a nervous breakdown who works in the cafeteria; the corporate-branding specialist experimenting with lesbianism; and the retired exec who can’t quite let go of the dream. None of her main characters are editors; they come from other areas of the publishing industry, and they struggle with such mundane decisions as where to eat lunch and what to do after work. Rosenblum makes these challenges read like monumental events in her characters’ lives (which they no doubt are), and deserves admiration for her well-chosen details and nuanced protagonists.—PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY"Each short story is rich with memorable dialogue, capturing the empty banter, complaints, and flirtations that often fill the halls of an office. Rosenblum’s natural dialogue and descriptive prose result in a collection that successfully depicts the complex balancing act between home and work that so often define the lives of office workers who struggle to stay afloat inside and outside of their cubicles."—This"Rosenblum is an entertaining master of minutia, she has a prodigious ability to take ordinary details and restyle or adorn them in just the slightest way, transforming the mundane into the eccentric. The stories in The Big Dream come alive with orange-juice stained pillows, Zellers jeans, and jam sandwiches ... The Big Dream thoroughly succeeds ... Rebecca Rosenblum is a gifted chronicler of our time."—The RoverRosenblum’s characters are funny and human ... they are distinct and engaging. It’s lovely, moving writing.—Quill & Quire

Rebecca Rosenblum: Rebecca Rosenblum graduated from the English and Creative Writing masters program at the University of Toronto. Her work has been published in Exile Quarterly, Danforth Review, echolocation, The New Quarterly, Qwerty, Ars Medica, and Journey Prize Stories 19, and was included in 2008’s Coming Attractions and Best Canadian Stories Anthologies. Once, her first book, won the Metcalf-Rooke Award for fiction. Rebecca lives and writes in Toronto, Ontario.

At Dream Inc., a lifestyle-magazine publisher, people are struggling to do more than their jobs. They struggle to fall in love. They struggle to stay that way. They struggle to be good parents, and to be good children. They struggle to have friends, to eat lunch, to be happy, and to answer the phone. And all that struggle can be pretty interesting ... especially when it happens on company time. In The Big Dream, acclaimed short story writer Rebecca Rosenblum documents a new generation discovering itself in the workplace, and gives us an In Our Time for the present age.

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