Graham Greene’s “A World of My Own: A Dream Diary”
Book review by Dennis D. McDonald
Graham Greene, author of many books including Our Man in Havana, kept a diary of his dreams. In 1994 this distillation of his dreams, organized by topic, was published.
It's a fascinating read. You begin to wonder how the book distinguishes between real world experiences and the author's dream experiences. That did have me confused at first.
It's hard not to begin wondering, “Where did this dream come from?” For example, “Did the author really meet these 3 popes?”
I doubt that the interpretation of dreams is a hard and fast science. Even in my own wildest dreams I usually catch a whiff of reality. What comes through loud and clear with Graham's dreams is that he must have experienced a lot of interesting things in a lot of interesting places at a lot of different times in his life—and it wasn't all because he was a big reader. It sounds like he had a wild ride through life!
One disappointment: there may be more instances than reported here that would give a better indication of how Graham's dream life influenced his writing. That's hinted at through mention of his and other authors’writing in his dreams, but the details are sparse.
Apparently dreams can work both ways; I'm sure that's not an original observation!
Review copyright (c) 2026 by Dennis D. McDonald.
