Sweet Dreams Are Made of This

Sweet Dreams Are Made of This continues the story of Manfred Schmidt and is set between 1980 and 1984. The emerging adulthood of the angst-filled American hero begins in Keene, New Hampshire where he moves to restart college. He quickly makes friends and throws himself into intriguing activities and experiences, trying to make up for what he imagined he missed when he dropped out of college two years previously. With anticipation and trepidation, he enters manhood, determined to balance his desire with his ambition. In search of adventure, Manfred travels out west with a friend, ending up in California where he visits relatives and an old high school friend he met in Ireland. Back in New Hampshire, he finds romance and also rekindles his commitment with the Democratic Party by volunteering with Gary Hart's insurgent 1984 presidential campaign. The book ends in Boston, where Manfred has moved back to for graduate school. Even though idealism is still the driving focus of his life, his experiences begin to shape the decisions he makes for his future. Still, he won't allow what is happening to himself and to American politics to overwhelm the power of his dreams. Yet a disturbing vision he saw in the fall of 1980 still haunts him. Sweet Dreams Are Made of This is the second book of the Manfred Schmidt tetralogy. Book 1 is Deacon Blues, Book 3 is Road To Nowhere and Book 4 is Losing My Religion.