ALEXANDRA ARES

CRITICAL REVIEWS

In this entertaining novel, Ares sends New Yorkers Kitty Roman and Desert Rose on a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles in search of fun and fortune. While Desert Rose's pursuit of uncommitted boyfriend Charlie becomes increasingly frantic, Kitty finds her own wish for nonattachment conflicting with her desire to live life passionately. Amid the book's humorous side glances at pompous New York types and commercialism running rampant in the Los Angeles art world, Kitty's belief in fateful encounters pits her heart against what she terms the good-enough sense of commitment. Despite its philosophical trappings, this is an enjoyable read that offers a pleasingly light take on the old refrains of friendship, career paths, and romantic entanglements.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY


A rollicking romp from East Coast to West with two free-spirited and artistic young women...with running themes of the demise of art for commercialism and the comparison of communism vs. capitalism. *US REVIEW OF BOOKS* Dream Junkies comes across as a forty years' later response to Erica Jong's Fear of Flying...Fascinating. Ares is a terrific writer; shrewd in observation and smoothly descriptive in prose and dialogue. It is suggested that all men as well as women caught in an unsatisfactory love life give Dream Junkies a read. SAN FRANCISCO REVIEW OF BOOKS I really loved this book. Everyone who lives in this country, immigrant and native born, can appreciate the struggle of wanting to find your niche here. This book is part friendship story and part self-soul searching story, has a little of everything. It has funny parts. It has sad parts. It has parts that will make you think. A BOOKISH AFFAIR
A novel above its literary gender...Kitty, the main character, is well-versed in theater, knows something about politics, and makes an interesting parallel between the communism totalitarism in USSR and the capitalist one in US...A cool American adventure like ride the storm for go-west postmodern amazons. TIME OUT BUCHAREST
The string of American adventures that Alexandra Ares devours in her book has some of the European interwar flavor and mystery described by Anglo Saxon writers of that era. This time the roles have reversed: an European discovers America. She is a sensitive, romantic and sometimes cynical writer, but surely courageous. *ROMANIAN BOOK REVIEW*
In this analytical slice-of-life illustrating how romantic struggles know no borders... The alternately glamorous and gritty glimpses of L.A. and the consistently strong, realistic dialogue give the well-paced novel a cinematic feel. KIRKUS INDIE REVIEW
I enjoyed it. Great character development...Couldn't stop reading the book. I was looking for the next Kitty conversation about fine art or about Manhattan or Romanian politics or the differences in dating in the U.S. versus Europe. *THE ARDENT READER*