Room to Dream

By: David Lynch, Kristine McKenna

Narrated by: David Lynch, Kristine McKenna

Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

An unprecedented look into the personal and creative life of the visionary auteur David Lynch, through his own words and those of his closest colleagues, friends, and family - adapted by David Lynch from the print book especially for this audio program.

In this unique hybrid of biography and memoir, David Lynch opens up for the first time about a life lived in pursuit of his singular vision, and the many heartaches and struggles he’s faced to bring his unorthodox projects to fruition. Lynch’s lyrical, intimate, and unfiltered personal reflections riff off biographical sections written by close collaborator Kristine McKenna and based on more than 100 new interviews with surprisingly candid ex-wives, family members, actors, agents, musicians, and colleagues in various fields who all have their own takes on what happened. 

Room to Dream is a landmark book that offers a one-time all-access pass into the life and mind of one of our most enigmatic and utterly original living artists. 

With insights into . . . 

• Eraserhead
• The Elephant Man
• Dune
• Blue Velvet
• Wild at Heart
• Twin Peaks
• Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me
• Lost Highway
• The Straight Story
• Mulholland Drive
• INLAND EMPIRE
• Twin Peaks: The Return

Adapted for audio.

©2018 David Lynch and Kristine McKenna (P)2018 Random House Audio

Critic Reviews

“Insightful...an impressively industrious and comprehensive account of Lynch’s career.” (The New York Times Book Review)

“A memorable portrait of one of cinema’s great auteurs...provides a remarkable insight into [David] Lynch’s intense commitment to the ‘art life.’” (The Guardian) 

“This is the best book by and about a movie director since Elia Kazan’s A Life (1988) and Michael Powell’s A Life in Movies (1986). But Room to Dream is more enchanting or appealing than those classics.... What makes this book endearing is its chatty, calm account of how genius in America can be a matter-of-fact defiance of reality that won’t alarm your dog or save mankind. It’s the only way to dream in so disturbed a country.” (San Francisco Chronicle) 

When the Idea Breaks

"Room To Dream" is shared by two readers, David Lynch and Kristine McKenna. The stated goal of this strategy was to develop a kind of tonal narrative where the idiosyncratic world of Lynch could slowly unfold. This was supposedly best accomplished by having McKenna read the fairly standard biographical content, which was then complemented by Lynch's textural storytelling and remembrances.

While initially delighted to hear Lynch recount his adventures as an artist, I sadly witnessed "Room To Dream" collapse under its own weight. Once the joy of hearing Lynch recounting his own life and work fades, this listener found much of the contrasting readers content to be redundant, if just uninteresting.

Also, Lynch's tendency to moralize (concerning his experiences with TM and how the practice can "save the world") was, at times, irritating and juvenile. As a person who practices and believes in the benefits of TM, my patience with finger waggers, even those as gifted as Lynch, apparently runs pretty thin and was the final reason I put this book down.

The hardcore fans should find this read enjoyable enough, but for those of us with a peripheral interest ( I only love two of his films), this book tends to run out of life about halfway in. This is a shame because I thought a subject like Lynch would make for a more interesting and worthwhile autobiography.

Room to Dream is peachy keen!

Room to Dream is a great in depth look at a David Lynch and his many works. Despite what professional reviewers and writers have said there is a lot of insight given as to what a lot of his movies are about. I really enjoyed the back and forth style of the book. First you get the conventional biographical chapter, and then Lynch tells you things about that particular time in his own voice. He does get on his soapbox a few too many times regarding transcendental meditation, but he’s so earnest about the good that he believes that it will do in the world that it’s a forgiveable flaw. I discovered a lot of lesser known, but very cool, things that he had created through this book including the videos that he made for his website as well as the album and EP he made with Chrysta Bell. All in all this audiobook is as good as a cup of black coffee and a slice of cherry pie!

I thought this was great!

There have been a few books recently which I have had in both physical form, and in audiobook, in which each is different. The fact that David Lynch goes off script occasional really makes this.

A unique audio experience

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in David Lynch's personal stories. I am very familiar with his work and really enjoyed hearing more about his upbringing in particular.

The real prize here is that Lynch's chapters differ from the printed book. The printed book trims some stories and omits others compared to the audio edition, which allows Lynch's stories to unfold in their own time.

I'm interested to know where Lynch's readings came from as it seemed to me that portions of his chapter Spike seemed to match recordings from "Eraserhead" Stories, a 2001 documentary. If some of it were pieced together, it sounds very natural and conversational.

Best Lynch Book Yet!

I thought I knew all there was to know about the Lynch story as I've read most of the books released about the man and his films. I was wrong. There are so many stories and insites I'd never heard and lots of blanks were finally filled in. The format where Lynch himself responds to Kristine's chapters is fantastic as you can really hear the emotion in his voice as he shares his tales. Highly recommended!!!

Dream on!

This unique biography/autobiography hybrid provides both the facts about and the personal insights of Lynch, described by The Guardian (UK) as "the most important director of this era". After the opening chapters about his childhood and time as an art student and painter, the book is organized into time periods that correspond to the major films and TV projects -- Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Dune, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, etc. McKenna provides the biographical highlights, including commentary from Lynch's friends and colleagues, alternating with Lynch's personal recollections about the same periods, which often veer off on interesting tangents. There's information here that hasn't been shared much or at all before -- about his marriages, for example. There's also just a bit of proselytizing about Transcendental Meditation; however you feel about that, it goes by quickly. Lynch's consuming commitment to creativity, not just film-making but painting and photography, comes through strongly. It inspired me enough to start drawing again, a hobby I hadn't pursued in years. That's a sign of a powerful book, I think.

Fascinating story

The book might have better with only David speaking...it was sometimes confusing as to whose story was being told and the gender thing was confusing

Inspiring book

Listening to this has inspired me to fulfilling my art life. The audiobook reads differently from the paper book. I’m a fan so I got both.

Everything I wanted it to be.

I’ve been waiting for this book for many, many years. Insight into the motivations, circumstance and luck that formed David Lynch into the multimedia master that he is. I was riveted and finished it in 2 days.

If you’ve ever wistfully thought about what your life ‘could have been, if only...’ it’s an amazing look at someone who just went ahead and consciously chose the right door every single time. His is also a crazy business model we could all learn from.

An Abstraction of an Artist's Life

There are many sources both written and visual on the work and life of David Lynch. What value you obtain from this book, I think, is correlative to your familiarity with these other works. There are no great revelations here, and the joy is listening to Lynch himself recant some memories for the listener.