- Paperback: 200 pages
- Publisher: Soft Skull Press; 1 edition (Sep 30 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 193236000X
- ISBN-13: 978-1932360004
- Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 15 x 1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,086,931 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
At once tragic and madcap, Sharpe's second novel offers an acidly funny portrait of a "diminished nuclear unit" coping with its patriarch's pharmacologically induced stroke. Divorced, depressed Bernard Schwartz is taking Prozac, but the accidental ingestion of another antidepressant lands him in a coma. His adolescent children, the conflicted and caustically witty Chris, and the serious, earnestly spiritual Cathy, must muddle through their father's helplessness in this character-driven tale. In one of the novel's best scenes, Chris, devastated but true to his trademark hostile sense of humor, adorns his unconscious father's face with drawn-on "make-up," which includes rosy cheeks and a Hitler mustache. It's moments like this-when fear induces laughter, and humor invites pathos-that make this tonally skillful novel dazzling but also difficult. Sharpe (Nothing Is Terrible; Stories from the Tube) shows little mercy for his characters; even as he lovingly catalogues their every idiosyncrasy, he dumps on them one humiliating circumstance after another. Upon waking from the coma, Bernard is physically and mentally compromised, and Chris, who's in charge of his rehabilitation, takes advantage of this role reversal with mixed results. He dresses his father in age-inappropriate clothing and openly mocks Bernard's attempts at readjustment-but he's dutiful, too, and Bernard takes solace in some of his unorthodox teaching exercises, like the naming of trees. The family dynamics culminate in unexpected and dramatic ways at the novel's end, a needed jolt after some mild plot stagnation sets in midway. Readers of alternative and literary fiction should appreciate Sharpe's clearly drawn characters and his thoughtful, if withering, examination of the contemporary hierarchies of family and authority.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
""Matthew Sharpe's vision of American life is fresh, original, and very funny, funny in the way that occasionally makes you sob, original in the way that makes you look at everything--hospitals, suburban shrubs, grousing, sad-faced families--in a new and kinder light."
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Recommended Without Reservation,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Sleeping Father (Paperback)
I am amazed by the amount of vitriol in some of the reviews of this book. It's sharp and witty at turns, yes, but ultimately the author treats his characters on the whole more gently than, say, Evelyn Waugh or Jane Austen. I have read there's a movie in the works, and even as I was reading the book I found myself casting it in my mind (paging Jake Gyllenhaal). I would also say that this book has more in common with the movies American Beauty and The Ice Storm than with any other recent novels that come to mind. So, if you liked either of those films, I can recommend this novel to you without reservation. It's not particularly experimental in technique, so it all really comes down to the tightness of the writing and the humanity of the characters, who will live in your head for a long while after you've finished the book.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't miss this book!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Sleeping Father (Paperback)
I am astounded at the negative reviews of this book! I found this to be one of my most enjoyable reads in recent memory. The reader must step out of the box a bit to appreciate the quirkiness of this novel, but the task is worthy of the effort. It's highly original and the plot, while not mired in reality, is well developed. Is everyone in this book dysfunctional? Maybe, but those who can't occassionally see themselves here and there in these pages are in denial. If you prefer to think in black and white, this may not be for you. Appreciate alternative lit? Check it out, you won't be disappointed...
5.0 out of 5 stars
I loved this book!,
By
This review is from: The Sleeping Father (Paperback)
I am so surprised to see the virulent animosity aimed toward this book. It was one of the best books I've read in awhile. To me, if a book is full of great, quirky characters who think unique, interesting thoughts, that is a book well worth my time. Tom Robbins is a master at this: books where the plot is secondary to the characters and the ideas. To read this book and focus on whether this plot point or that plot point is realistic is to miss the point, I think.
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