Sweet Dreams (1973)

Sweet Dreams is a 1973 novel by English writer Michael Frayn. The book follows a middle-class intellectual man, Howard Baker, who dies and ends up in a middle-class intellectual version of heaven, where he and his circle of middle-class intellectual friends have jobs such as designing the Alps and creating man. Howard moves through a series of more or less trite philosophical positions before finally going to work for God.

Reception

David Pringle included Sweet Dreams as Number 53 in his 1988 book, Modern Fantasy, The Hundred Best Novels. Pringle called it, "a beautifully sustained satire on the limitations of middle-class good intentions, reasonableness, decency, selflessness, moderation, fairness, sound common sense, and all-around good-chappery." He went on to say that it is "impeccably written, profound (and perhaps depressing) in its implications, and very, very funny."