false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171141780m/89055.jpg 89055 20 <I>The House of Sleep</I> is an intricate cat's cradle of a novel, full of both sly satire and oblique meditations on the interstices of love, sleep, memory, and dreams. The setting is Ashdown, a wind-swept old house by the sea that once provided university housing and now is home to a clinic for sleep disorders. During the early 1980s, a group of students meet here, united by little other than a curious preoccupation with sleep. They include Sarah, a narcoleptic who has trouble distinguishing her intensely vivid dreams from reality; her first boyfriend, the fussy egomaniac Gregory, who gets his kicks from pressing his fingers on Sarah's closed eyes; Terry, a film buff who sleeps at least 14 hours a day, dreaming blissful dreams he can never quite remember; and the sensitive Robert, who loves Sarah enough to do anything at all in order to have her. By a series of startling coincidences, the four are drawn back to Ashdown 12 years later, setting into motion a plot so carefully contrived it makes most thrillers look spare and impressionistic. Like a dream, <I>The House of Sleep</I> resonates with repeated images, phrases, even passages; here they serve as narrative glue for a complicated story that moves backward and forward in time and in and out of different points of view. The result is sometimes puzzling, always absorbing, and often very funny indeed. 2250286 book 1997 The House of Sleep total:547|5:141|4:199|3:157|2:39|1:11| 547 2061 743 49 3 1 false false Sat Apr 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sat Feb 16 10:26:38 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 16 10:26:38 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false false Sat Jan 24 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 24 00:00:21 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 24 17:30:56 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 17 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 18:26:47 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 13:20:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Mar 16 10:38:30 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 18 07:52:00 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Sep 02 13:28:33 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 02 13:28:58 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 04:12:05 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 04:14:33 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Mar 21 07:38:27 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 25 08:30:58 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 13 07:52:01 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 13 07:58:43 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false true Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 09 12:54:15 -0700 2008 Fri Mar 20 08:05:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 19:08:36 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 19:10:06 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sat Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Mon Mar 09 11:40:02 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 09 11:41:08 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Wed Feb 20 09:53:14 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 20 09:56:05 -0800 2008
How wrong. A beautifully crafted novel which kept ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jul 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 13:34:44 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 13:35:41 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Nov 20 08:10:53 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 08:11:02 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Sun Sep 21 15:15:16 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 21 15:18:31 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Jul 28 09:53:18 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 28 09:59:12 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 31 19:45:12 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 08 09:45:10 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Apr 16 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 08 07:17:04 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 16 09:15:49 -0700 2008
I really liked the structure, the broken sentences with the first half ending a chapter set in the past and the second half beginning a chapter set in the present...

The ending I thought was a ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 30 13:17:49 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 14 14:26:22 -0700 2008
What at first appears to be a straightforward t...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1998 Mon Mar 17 14:30:14 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 17 15:10:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=89055