Dream State & Chili Crisp Sourdough
I love chili crisp. And I love Dream State.
Good Book: Dream State by Eric Puchner (2025)
I love reading acknowledgements at the end of a book. It’s such an interesting glimpse into the author whose words you just spent days or weeks reading. I love seeing what is important to them and what elements led to the work I hold in my hands becoming real. They can be heartfelt, academic, long-winded or efficient. In The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel begins her acknowledgements with her daughter’s nanny, who she explains made writing the book possible. At the end of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong gave thanks to artists both living and dead who had influenced his writing.
When reading Dream State, I imagined author Eric Puchner must be a Montana backcountry biologist, an experienced backcountry skier, and a cinephile. Whether it was the details around a backcountry ski trip at the heart of the story, a character who studies wolverines in the mountains, or the world of documentary filmmaking, the voice and detail were so authentic. In reality, Puchner lives in Baltimore and teaches at John Hopkin’s (although his partner’s family does have a home in Montana he has visited for many summers).
In Dream State’s acknowledgements, Puchner thanks a wolverine biologist he learned from who tracked the animals in Glacier National Park, a backcountry ski guide and avalanche expert, and several filmmakers. It becomes clear he is not only an amazing writer but highly skilled at collecting experiences from others to build his characters. He dove into these different vocations and worlds, and was able to gather the knowledge to craft a story that feels like it is about real, fully-formed people.
Read below for my full take on Dream State, and to check out the tangy, spicy sourdough loaf I baked to go with it.
Dream State In a Nutshell
Dream State is a work of fiction that follows lifelong friends over generations as they grapple with a major betrayal. Cece arrives a month before her wedding at her in-laws’ summer house on the lake in Salish, Montana. She’s immersed in planning her wedding to Charlie, when she meets his best friend from college, Garret. He lives in Salish, has fallen on hard times, and has accepted Charlie’s request that he officiate his and Cece’s wedding. Though initially wary of gruff and odd Garret, Cece forms a connection with him that upends how she thought her life would go. The novel follows the three friends for the next 50 years, tracing how one decision altered their lives and those of their children. Set against the backdrop of the rapidly warming Montana valley they are all so connected to, Dream State brings ecology, climate change, relationships, addiction and parenting into one heartbreaking story.
Dream State in Three Words
Immersive, melancholy, moving
What I liked about Dream State
Timelines
Nothing is more frustrating than reading a book where the timeline jumps around and not understanding where you are. When it’s not clear where in time the story has ended up, I become completely removed from the story as I try to orient myself. I’ve never read a book before that manages shifting timelines more gracefully than Dream State. Unlike some books, the chapter headings never include a year or give a stated declaration of the timing. Yet it was always obvious. Without having to come out and say, ‘Now we are in the year 2009’, Puchner drops breadcrumbs in the first few pages of a chapter that let me understand exactly where we were and what had transpired.
Language
I used to be vehemently anti e-reader. I would hear people say, “You can have hundreds of books on them!” and I’d wonder, why do you need hundreds of books at once? Then I went on a six-week canoe trip in 2023, and since I wasn’t about to pack a barrel of books, I reluctantly bought an e-reader. I loved it right away, and I’m a convert. One feature I didn’t realize e-readers had until I bought mine was the ability to click on a word and get a dictionary definition. I think this is so cool, and I enjoy getting to learn new words while I’m reading, instead of just skimming over an unusual word or half-understanding it within its context. I learned so many new words reading Dream State. Puchner covers philosophy, science, cults, ecology, and geology, giving me lots to look up (see: antinatalist, Australopithecus, vertiginous).
Spending a long time with characters
Dream State falls into my favourite category of fiction, one that follows a family over a long time frame. Something about spending so many pages with one group of people and seeing how their lives evolve over the years makes a book so memorable to me. It also makes all of the monumental events in their life seem even more emotionally charged and meaningful. I was so invested in the trajectory of their lives that I stayed up til midnight last Tuesday finishing Dream State (was I crying? I was crying) and woke up with some substantial bags under my eyes.
Good Bread: Chili Crisp Sourdough
Why this bread for this book?
This book starts with an intriguing premise, and then delves deeper and deeper into the complexities of relationships as the years roll on. I thought the depth of chili crisp, a condiment with soybean oil, roasted soybeans, crispy bits of garlic and onion, and chili flakes, fit well with the trajectory of Dream State. It’s a bit of a slow burn—it’s nothing like a Frank’s hot sauce, where the acidity hits you right away, or like a Siracha, with an obvious bite of spice. Chili crisp is subtle heat with complex flavour and texture—you taste a lot at the same time. I connected chili crisp to Dream State’s slow build-up, with lots of different characters’ motivations and tensions growing and transforming over decades.
Recipe
I used Tartine Bread’s country loaf recipe (here), and then I added in 1/3 of a cup of chili crisp. The crisp was added in during the bulk fermentation, after I turned the dough the third time.
There are lots of different brands of chili crisp, but I like the OG—Lao Gan Ma. My friend baked sourdough with chili crisp and cheddar cheese last week, and I can’t wait to try making that.
Looking forward:
Book I’m looking forward to reading: Health and Safety by Emily Witt
Music I’m looking forward to listening to: Lifted by Israel Nash
Bread I’m looking forward to baking: Matcha pineapple buns
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