DREAM SCIENCE
by Thomas Palmer
Ticknor & Fields; 308 pages; $19.95
Rockland Poole, a mutual-fund manager in his mid-30s, suddenly finds himself in a room that could be his office but decidedly is not. It has all the accoutrements of white-collar work -- desks, chairs on casters, a file cabinet -- and a hospital bed where Poole must sleep each night. His food is brought to him daily by Mac, a burly man who can come and go as he pleases. Poole cannot; he has searched every square inch of the corridor outside and found no exit.
Fortunately for Poole, and...