Broken Land Dreams, a speculative fiction novel by Brooklyn resident David Forbes, portrays a bizarro version of Brooklyn to explore social commentary about democracy, while acting as a love letter to the borough itself.
The first half of the book draws on the tradition of Portnoy’s Complaint and The Catcher in the Rye. Readers are taken inside the mind of retired high school social worker Jacob Traum, who spends his time brooding on the world’s bleak state, especially after his wife, Maya, has left him. While this risks repetition due to the protagonist’s nature to spiral and brood on his issues, Forbes approaches Jacob with refreshing self-awareness.
“The first few chapters are my own kind of kvetchiness,” said Forbes, an emeritus professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Traum's inner monologue becomes a launchpad to the second, plot-driven half of the novel – a Dante-esque descent into his discovery of the Ratocracy conspiracy (including punny characters like Ratty Ghouliani), who plot to take over Brooklyn. Alongside his allies, the protagonist has to defeat the Ratocrats, working to save Brooklyn and win back his wife.
Forbes’ magical realism is enhanced by the literary traditions it invokes. From the novel’s structure being based on The Divine Comedy, to a few of the characters being personified poems like The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock and Miles to Go Before I Sleep, these references become easter eggs for bookworms, especially those drawn to classic literature.
What stands out most in Broken Land Dreams is its hope, especially regarding politics. Forbes, who taught school counselling at Brooklyn College for 19 years, said his left-leaning views are rooted in his upbringing as the child of union activists, the grandson of a participant in the Jewish socialist Bund movement, and a product of the 1960s. Both Forbes and the protagonist’s melancholy reflects a personal and generational disillusionment experienced by left-leaning Boomers during the first Trump administration and the pandemic.
For Forbes, this feeling has only amplified under Trump’s second term, but he feels more hopeful than others in his generation. This is exemplified through his faith in younger people, as it's the high school characters that help Traum restore Brooklyn from the Ratocracy.
“They're gonna carry on his (Traum's) work,” Forbes said. “He's retired, he's of a certain age. But he's still in touch with these six very multicultural, multi-gendered kids.”
Alongside its academic roots, unique style, and sense of hope, Broken Land Dreams highlights Forbes’ love for his adopted home of Brooklyn, which includes using the Brooklyn Botanic Garden as heaven.
“I've lived in Brooklyn for many years. I wasn't born and raised here, but I feel like it's my home,” Forbes said. “I just see Brooklyn as an aspirational, futuristic place for multi-everything; multi-generation, multicultural, multi-gender.”
