THE HOUSE OF SLEEP

By Jonathan Coe

Vintage, 1999, $13

"The House of Sleep" is one of those little "sleeper" (pun intended) novels that keeps you reading to find out what the point is of all this confusion and angst. The ending is so full of twists, turns, and completely unsuspected outcomes that it is well worth reading.

The bulk of the book is nicely layered with bone-dry wit and skewed observances. All of this helps turn what could have been a desultory little non-entity of a book into a fun and fascinating read.

The novel chronicles the interconnections of four characters as they wend their ways through college and post-college lives. Sarah, an undiagnosed narcoleptic, ostensibly has the most ‘adventures’ because of her condition. Robert, hopelessly in love with Sarah, despairs of ever consummating their non-relationship because Sarah is currently involved with a woman. Terry, a good friend of Robert’s, is both plagued and blessed by dreams so lovely that he can hardly bear to get through his forced periods of wakefulness. And Gregory, Sarah’s previous lover, makes only a brief appearance early on as a brilliant, but possibly disturbed student on the verge of making some life-changing decisions.

Now move on 13 years.

Things have changed radically for Sarah, now diagnosed, married, and divorced. After college, she and Terry shared a flat (strictly as roommates) for a while, and she has been able to follow his writing career by the increasing frequency of his by-line in different papers. Robert has seemingly disappeared off the face of the earth. And Gregory now runs a sleep disorder research clinic; earlier suspicions of his disturbance are fully justified now, although Terry, quite accidentally, is one of the very few Gregory allows to see just how far over the edge he’s gone. Terry has gone from sleeping a minimum of 16 hours a day to not having slept in approximately 12 years, something Gregory greatly admires. Terry comes to the clinic by invitation from Gregory himself, and the game is really on.

How these four people come together again, and what happens when they do makes for an odd, understated, and enormously surprising and funny story. "The House of Sleep" is like a verbal Chinese puzzle box – totally engaging and oddly satisfying, even when you don’t know why it works.

Kelly Feazelle is a graphics designer for The Pilot.