The Sleep Garden

by Jim Krusoe

In an underground apartment building called “the Burrow”-essentially purgatory—“twilight souls” inhabit the space between life and death. Interwoven with their stories are those of inhabitants of the living world: a retired sea captain, a psychotic former child actor (possibly the sea captain’s illegitimate son?), and the technicians who monitor the Burrow, making sure its occupants have a constant supply of oxygen and food. Through all of their stories, and the ways in which their lives, past and present, intertwine, Krusoe creates a poignant story about what constitutes a life, what remains when we die, and what we possibly carry with us into the next world. 

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Novels, Book Club, Weird Fiction, Magical Realism, Speculative Fiction

342 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 2016

About the author

Jim Krusoe is an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. His stories and poems have appeared in Antioch Review, Denver Quarterly, BOMB, Iowa Review, Field, North American Review, American Poetry Review, and Santa Monica Review, which he founded in 1988. His essays and book reviews have appeared in Manoa, the Los Angeles Times Book Review, and The Washington Post. He is a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Lila Wallace Reader's Digest Fund. He teaches at Santa Monica College and in the graduate writing program at Antioch University, Los Angeles. His novel, Iceland, was selected by the Los Angeles Times and the Austin Chronicle as one of the ten best fiction books of 2002, and it was on the Washington Post list of notable fiction for the same year. His novel Girl Factory was published in 2008 by Tin House Books followed by Erased, which was published in 2009 and Toward You published in 2010, also by Tin House Books.

Reviews

[Chris Keele · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sleep Garden opens with several questions for which no answers are provided. In the course of the book, I couldn't help but pose questions to myself to try to explain some strange occurrence, dialogue, situation, or some such, and yet as soon as a possible explanation or answer started to form it would disperse. I think great books make the reader sit and ponder for a moment before continuing on, and this one had me pondering quite a bit.

Many of the reviews highlight the book's humor, and there is a lot of it, but that isn't the substance. The bits of humor are sprinkled like sugar over an otherwise savory meal, highlighting and contrasting the various flavors. I found myself laughing (or at least chuckling) countless times (WYASBIWYCIM-"Wow! Is that Welsh? Or maybe Polish.") but so often a strikingly deep passage would come out of nowhere and make me do the pondering thing again.

There's much to think about: the space between life and death, wakefulness and sleep, reality and irreality, hopes of another, better life. This is a fantastic novel, and one which I'd recommend to everyone.

[Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

How many books and commentaries has Plato's allegory of the cave dwellers inspired? I have no idea, but this is one of them. If a reader misses the connection, it's emphasized when a character "wonders, aren't all thoughts like Plato's Cave (a place she imagines looks a lot like the Burrow) in that we're all chained and looking at the shadows cast by the fire on the wall of the cave, believing they're re real when they're not?"

There are five characters in this fictional take on Plato's cave, three men and two women who live in the "Burrow", an apartment complex which is built underground. They are all -preoccupied with vague dreams and desires, endless loops of self-referential details that are never realized. Another character, an old sea captain, who tells embroidered stories, appears from time to time. We don't really know too much about these characters, just fragments of what is going on in their heads. One of the women has fantasies of being a celebrity chef, the other who makes a living through phone sex, daydreams about a career as an actress that eluded her. One of the men sits in front of a computer all day working on his financial investments, another thinks of writing a tv pilot script based on a group of people who live in an underground apartment, and the third has an obsessive compulsion to carve wooden ducks.

At one point the captain speculates as to why humans seem to have this desire to live out alternate stories, replacing the ones they are living. No one quite seems to know how they got to where they are in life, where they really want to go (their dreams allow them to indulge themselves without actually taking any action, and are only vaguely aware of their dissatisfaction).

The captain, in fact, acts as a kind of chorus to this bleak collection of humans. He comments on why people like to hear and tell stories. "Is it that they represent a knowledge people imagine they don't have? That stories take people on voyages to places that are different from their own pathetic wanderings? Is it that stories, unlike most people's miserable existences, have definable boundaries, have beginnings and known endings, whereas in real life we discover ourselves dropped onstage midway through some ongoing dramatic series, or maybe a situation comedy, and we're expected to figure out what role we're to play, never knowing if this current episode will be the last or will be renewed for another season?"

It's obvious, then, that this novel, if it can be called that, is more interested in questioning the reasons we read novels, than in telling any coherent story. Getting caught up in a story is to remain in the cave, to go the direction of Krusoe's fiction is to emerge into the sunshine of truth.

To emphasize his point that people have only the vaguest idea of how to live their lives, he has the Burrow dwellers actually try to walk out into the sunshine one day, only to find the door barred. They then make their way through a heat vent tunnel which is dark and leads, you guessed it, only to more darkness. Presumably, they will return to the burrow. It's a grim story (or rather a collection of fragments of stories) all right, but interestingly told.

[B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Welcome to the Burrow, a safe and affordable underground living space that keeps its many secrets well-buried. Krusoe’s fine usage of poetic and accessible language creates a story that reveals the bizarre in the mundane through the lives of those who live in the Burrow: Jeffery, Raymond, Madeline, Viktor, and Heather. The novel never explicitly reveals that their housing complex is essentially purgatory, though there are hints scattered throughout that gives way to its liminal presence. Strange dreams occupy their sleeping minds. Mirrors take the place of windows. There are odd sounds beyond the walls. The characters cannot remember the last time they left, and whenever they try to leave, distractions follow and they remain buried within the Burrow. When they eventually manage to escape, they travel through a hidden passage way. Krusoe writes this in the shape of a metaphor for rebirth, newly describing them as “patient tendrils of plants [that] push out of the soil like fingers” as if they have been reborn into a pure and innocent form, like those in the garden of Eden, after having been washed of all their sins and asleep in purgatory—the Sleep Garden. (At least this is my skeleton of an interpretation because I definitely believe there is some sort of connection between the sleep garden and the garden of Eden.) In the midst of all of this are the interwoven storylines of characters in the living world that does not explicitly have to do with the Burrow, leaving the reader to make the connections for themselves and thus figure out life after, before, and during death.

Just as life refuses to reveal its meaning, Krusoe’s book never explicitly reveals its answers. In this sense, the novel’s various plots and characters are parallel to life, especially because it has much to do with life given the main characters are stuck in purgatory until the very end. Krusoe’s novel is perfect for readers that are open-minded and do not dive into books with a specific genre and plot in mind. These readers do not expect to have a neatly folded conclusion that answers all the questions the novel poses. Instead, these readers strive to create the meaning for themselves in the same way that they strive to create meaning out of life based off of their own existence. In this sense, The Sleep Garden is true to life because no one really knows the meaning behind existence just as novel’s plot is not spelled out. This can be a selling point because people are constantly searching for the meaning behind their existence. We are all just fluttering around, trying to get through the day and make a mark on the world while we’re at it. This book shines a light into the shadow that hides life’s meaning.

[Pollyanna Macchiano · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for something similar to Haruki Murakami but need a break from his world, I highly recommend The Sleep Garden. It's whimsical, surreal, with just a hint of dark comedy. I absolutely enjoyed the frequent breaks in narrative and found Krusoe's literary style refreshing. He builds a web of characters not too broad, but not too limited, in a way that really gets into the heart of the human condition. It's a brilliant commentary on life and death, on the waking life and sleeping life. I wish it didn't end.

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't explain this book. Just do yourself a favor and read it.

[Marie Kelleher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part Plato's Cave, part Waiting for Godot, and part WTF did I just read, I don't quite know what to think about this book.

The basics: Five people live in an underground apartment complex known as "the burrow." Each of them has Big Plans for what they'll do once they move out, and each of them has That One Thing they need to finish or accomplish before they can take that step. No one ever seems to leave, except one person who, one day, was just gone.

Several times, various voices in the book refer to them as "Twilight Souls", but are they dead? Half-dead? Or merely half-alive? Oh: and outside the Burrow (maybe?) there are people going about their not-quite-normal lives who may or may not be connected to the people inside or the lives they once lived. How alive are they, on a scale of 1 to 100?

As I said, I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. There were places where I felt like I was reading a productive indictment of a life half-lived, or a life spent waiting. But I also often saw it as too heavy-handed and/or self-conscious. And the narrative style -- fragments presented just a few pages at a time, as something you might think just as you were briefly waking up from a dream before rolling over and going back to sleep again -- won't be for everyone. I can say that it was unsettling, and that the ideas are still following me around. So: worth a read, but not quite a full-throated endorsement. I'll be interested to read what other people thought of it.

[Andrew]

A cryptic little book that starts to get more and more interesting towards the end. I'm not 100 percent on how I feel about it -- some of the voices of the residents of the Burrow are far more interesting and compelling than others, and some of them are just downright boring, and I didn't really get a sense of their weird little world as a coherent setting / plot device. But there were some high points, and I'm open to reading more Krusoe. The vague sort of Beckett voice he has is pretty compelling.

[Robert Morgan Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the way Jim challenges one's perception of what exactly a novel can be. What is narrative? Plot? Lately his work has gotten very incremental; lots of white space to facilitate easy digestion. I for one am grateful and inspired by his approach. And I also like this book's similarity to Kafka.

[John Treat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not every character in The Sleep Garden lives in the Burrow boarding house, but they might as well. One of the novel’s lessons is that we could all be in an experiment or a prison, as Jeffrey speculates (p. 316, 311). When I began reading this 2016 work in 2020, I had been sequestered in my own house for four months, things (including food) showing up in (Amazon) boxes at my front door, unheralded. I think Kafka, Borges and possibly Bourroughs, as well as Krusoe, cohabitate here with me at times as well, so I am not lonely; at least no lonelier that Raymond, Madeleine, Viktor, Heather and the whole ensemble cast of Mellow Valley are. Or were. Or will be again. If there’s a way out of all this, Louis has found it, but I don’t think I’d like the way he lives on the outside. No one brings him his meals.
I don’t know if Krusoe wrote this novel according to a careful plan—doesn’t seem like it—but it flows. The prose has cadence, which either comes naturally to the author or is the style-massage of a great editor. Everything is uncanny but everything—see the above paragraph—makes sense quote unquote. What do I take away from this book for my own writing? Well, I don’t have the same hyperactive brain neurons as Krusoe, so a crazy cluster fuck of a novel is not in my future, but I have a similar (generational) range of cultural references. Which now I feel licensed to use. My TV series won’t be Mellow Valley, but it might be called I Left It to Beaver and Now I’m Fucked.

[rain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I thought it was a pretty good and thought provoking book about life and death and how your lives interconnect with everyone around you.

While the writing can be a bit choppy and go back and forth much too quickly to the point of whiplash sometimes, it had a good solid overarching “plot” with the kids in the Burrow and how they relate to one another and why they’re there. As well as how where they are connects to the living world “above” them.

The ending was a bit abrupt and ambiguous, but I like that in books cause then I can continue thinking on where the characters have gone and what has happened to them. It does a good job of drawing metaphors to going back to an old life that may not be there waiting for you anymore and moving on to better things after death. I’d definitely recommend it, just that it takes a bit to get used to his writing style.

[Thurston Hunger · Rating 3 out of 5]

For an askew review: Is this what happens when a poet thinks about TV today and tries to anchor himself to a plotline? Notably the realm of reality TV.

I thought the book might be a little like http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165078/c... with airs of philosophy, but for me it was not that. Since I nominated it for our book club, I almost want to subtract another star but won't. I guess it was weird, but manageably so.

An indirect nightmare for the unavoidable dirt nap? Those big bulldozers you hear, they're the graves two rows over. You've got time.........but not much.

[DRugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my introduction to Jim Krusoe, and I found this novel quietly compelling. It has no clear plot and focuses on a group of characters' fantasy and dream lives. The book reminds me of how all of us create a diverse and complex web of reality for ourselves that has little to do with our actual surroundings.

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whenever I need a break from reality and need to tip toe through the absurd, Jim Krusoe never fails to come through. With lots of room for ruminations on the philosophical, intellectual and humorous nature of life. A demented genius is how one reviewer put it..

[Alexandra (birdyreads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Twilight souls” in between life and death reside together in an underground apartment, called the burrow. The residents question their existence as days and dreams drift by. Interwoven through the story living souls also reflect on their lives.

This book was very strange, yet thought provoking. I found myself reflecting on my own life as I was reading. While reading I found myself want more from the story, I felt like pieces were missing from the stories.

[Jonathan Gruber · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty interesting and some novel characters, but ultimately a bit forgettable. Didn't like it quite as much as his others - too open ended and disconnected

[Courtney Andresen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review forthcoming...

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

This isn't a review, it's just me rambling for the sake of getting schoolwork done. I didn't edit this to fit html format, so too bad for anyone who actually wants to read this (pseudo-review, I mean, not the book; by all means, read the book). Written 3/3/16.

Just a little over a month ago, Jim Krusoe’s The Sleep Garden was published, and still remains fogged by great anonymity – having only 28 ratings on Goodreads, and an even lesser amount of ”reviews.” Frankly, I’m not one to shy away from the obscure – I just never seem to come across it, and frequenting more popular works lends for more discussions between fans anyways.

So, much like Nobody is Ever Missing, The Sleep Garden’s cover popped out of me on the New Fiction bookshelf. And upon seeing that the title was The Sleep Garden, I quickly grew excited. The Sleep Garden? Fascinating. It could be anything. A small scan of the synopsis – equally interesting – and I borrowed it. And so, also much like Nobody is Ever Missing, The Sleep Garden became one of my favorite books. In the context of how I found them, and what they ended up being, Nobody is Ever Missing and The Sleep Garden are one and the same. However, in that context there is a single core aspect that sets The Sleep Garden so far apart from Nobody is Ever Missing.

It is, almost frighteningly so, a novel that I could see myself writing.

I can’t really see myself recommending The Sleep Garden to anyone else, purely because of how ecstatic I personally was when realizing that Krusoe and I are on nearly the exact same wavelength. It’s not just that I can see myself writing something similar The Sleep Garden, I have written something similar to The Sleep Garden – or, at least, half of it, that half being the world of the Burrow, where five “twilight soul” characters are living, and not living, with dreams and the shifting of reality being a major theme.

The Sleep Garden reads like a languid drawl, moving from quick and concise to spouts of sheer absurd insanity. It’s confusing, with characters that share names, characters that don’t exist, characters that are based on characters and who are those characters – and aren’t, at the same time. It has this underlying sense of unsettling terror, almost as if the book itself is telling you to wake up. It sells itself as the space between dreams and wakefulness, surreality and reality, life and death. It’s hypnopompic.

And while that may be all well and good on its own, what makes this novel seem so brilliant in my eyes is, again, how it’s so much of what I’ve wanted in a story, and it works completely. Jim Krusoe has created his own masterpiece, and in doing so, mine. Maybe he’s a genius. Or maybe he’s just putting everything he loves into a book of his own, and that’s fine too.

[Kelsey Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

2.75 stars
1/4/19 The beginning started out strong with interesting characters and questions about where they were and what they were doing there. I felt as though the thoughts of the characters were thoughts I often have myself about what it means to be alive and where do we go when we die. However, I found the plot a bit disjointed, and I think there were a lot of unnecessary things that kept getting added on, especially towards the end. I understand (for the most part) what the ending symbolizes, but I was disappointed with it. I guess it felt a little pretentious in my opinion. I also think that having the last part of the story done through the play was a huge cop-out and took meaning away from the ending.

10/25/19 After some time away from this book I bumped it up to 4 stars. It’s really stuck with me months after finishing it and is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking book’s I’ve read in awhile. I may hate the ending, but the journey was well worth it.

[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Break out the Advil, it's a deep thinker! Sleep Garden is a murky mix of thoughts of a select group of characters who appear to have little purpose or motivation. I found the book started out great, I like the way Jim structured the writing, it is broken up a lot with small teases of the stories purpose or in some ways a lack of purpose? Ultimately it is a story that tries to portray what life or what is between lives. The reason it doesn't achieve 4 stars is because I felt this type of topic is better digested in novella or short story format, no more than 200 pages that is certain. But still worthy of read!

[Jade Gotter · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd little book. If you want an easy read that doesn't provoke deep thinking, this is not it. Having read some reviews before starting the book, I knew what the storyline was and who the characters represented. However, knowing what's going on and understanding it are two different things and I feel like I looked forward to reading each chapter because I so desperately wanted to understand it. The ending leaves you with questions about your own life. "Where are we? How did we come here? Where are we going?"

[Matisse · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had Krusoe as a writing instructor for a while after college. I didn't know the master of prose I had had access to. This man knows exactly what a book is supposed to be, and exactly how to twist that to create something else entirely, at times almost cubic in narrative.

I read elsewhere that this was the kind of read people disliked if they didn't "get" it. There's a lot to "get", and even if a lot of it is still a mystery, I'm chewing over it days later. That's the mark of a powerful novel, in my humble opinion.

[Julie Flockerzi]

The Sleep Garden was interesting. I cannot understand why the occupants did not try to go out the door. They seemed very content with the way they were living. I don't understand the reference to the mirrors. No one ever saw the food appear and never questioned it. They just seemed to go only with their lives. No one questioned their loved ones or any love in their lives.Not sure if they knew where they were.

[Kathleen Woodcock · Rating 4 out of 5]

It a strange little book filled with unusual characters who are happy living in the 'Burrow' where all their needs are provided for: food and hobbies which make them happy and content. They never venture out and never seem to question it. Across the way lives the Sea Captain who has retired to land but he can't figure out what is causing the hole in his backyard. And you read in fascination and wonder 'Why'?

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't even have words... read it. Read it! But don't read it if you hate surrealism because you won't like it and I don't ever want to hear anyone to ever say they don't like this because they don't get it...

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything about this book is beautiful. I cried upon finishing it, and think I will spend a long time trying to figure out exactly why.

[Jana]

I got half way and didn't see the point in continuing.

[Jacqueline · Rating 1 out of 5]

This story was terrible. Maybe I just didn't get it...but wow. I am an avid reader who currently doesn't have a whole lot of free time, and I'm quite upset that I wasted any time on this book.

[Debs · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 stars

[Raychael Lane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I waited for answers......

[Kristen Nielson]

Couldn't finish it.