Similar to Jones’ first two novels, Sixty Lights and Five Bells, Dreams of Speaking also explores the concept of modernity and its effect on understanding ourselves.
She feels a sense of isolation and disorientation as she mourns her ever-growing physical and emotional distance from her working-class family and her failed relationship with Stephen.
To her surprise, Alice discovers Mr Sakamoto spoke impeccable, literary English and was also fascinated by modern technology, working on a biography of Alexander Bell, the inventor of the telephone.
The pair forge an intense friendship, predicated on their shared curiosity for the modern world and their search for some way of explaining the elusive poetry which resides within a machine.
For example, whilst Mr Sakamoto and Alice are seemingly dissimilar, coming from different countries and generations, these boundaries are crossed as they bond over their shared appreciation for the mass culture of Hollywood films.
Wevers highlights that the wonder and romance of technology, in Jones’ text, is overshadowed by its "crepuscular gloom"[2] and the "solipsistic reveries"[2] of passenger experience.
Interestingly, whilst the river in Perth is perhaps the nearest thing to natural landscape in the novel, it is also, ironically, a place of consumption.
"[2] Alice's natural curiosity for modernity provokes her to unveil the profundity of the evolving world as well as forging new friendships and hence gaining renewed perceptions.
Her development and immersion in her “unfeminine interest in machines,”[2] perpetuates her new friendship with Mr Sakamoto who offers enlightening new perspectives.
Jones reiterates the transformative ramifications that result from engaging with unexpected friendships, venturing into the unknown, despite metaphysical frames.
Death,”[2] emphasising the restraints of modernity which although profound lacks emotional relevance, a pivotal message which Alice learnt through her embracement of friendship.
Furthermore, Alice's immersion in the new city of Tokyo as a result of pursuing new friendships suggests the intrinsic necessity for individuals to extended boundaries and discover new ideas and people.
Inherently, Alice mixes Japanese and Australian stories fluently, allowing the cultures, memories and interactions to clash temporarily and spatially.
[5] In the novel, this argument is exemplified clearly through Alice's realisation that whilst we live in a constant present tense, merely a photograph can send us hurtling back in time.
When describing childhood stories, Jones is able to refrain from overwriting and instead presents a simplistic and enlightening tale that is far more engaging to the reader, according to The Guardian.
[6] Overall, Briscoe contends that the novel strives for an almost European sensibility, as it lacks a definite narrative structure, eschews many conventions and is suspended from a transparent theme.
[6] Whilst her attempts to create an experimental, poetic text failed, in the eyes of Briscoe, in a starker, Australian mode, Jones excels.
[7] Mr Sakamoto's recitation of the story of Bell, and the role the haunting fact of his mother's deafness played in his later invention of the telephone was, according to Bradley's review, where the notion of loss was the strongest.
[7] Bradley also notes that the sections in Nagasaki, although initially seemingly all-too-obvious, are strongly delivered by Jones to create effective and powerful commentary on the perils of modernity.