Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.
Start by marking “Sleep, Death's Brother” as Want to Read:
Sleep, Death's Brother
by
Sleep, Death's Brother is an instruction manual on dreaming for children or incarcerated persons, teaching such individuals to lucid dream and thus use their dreams to somewhat escape their situations. While it is often the case that dream life is passively experienced, acclaimed novelist Jesse Ball (born 1978) reminds us that dreaming life is also a place where a sense of
...more
Paperback, 88 pages
Published
February 27th 2017
by Pioneer Works
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Reader Q&A
To ask other readers questions about
Sleep, Death's Brother,
please sign up.
Be the first to ask a question about Sleep, Death's Brother
This book is not yet featured on Listopia.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30

Start your review of Sleep, Death's Brother

This short text about lucid dreaming gives practical advice on how to remember and gain agency over dreams, but as this is Jesse Ball, the book is also a poetic endeavor. The content is especially directed at children, and while the language is easy to understand, it is never condescending and has some dark undertones: Ball addresses the fact that the world can be a terrible place and that kids are fully dependent on the adults around them, and he points to the mind as a refuge. With the text co
...more

5 stars for now. But we'll have to try this whole lucid dreaming thing before I'll really know.
I have very boring, fairly vivid dreams, for the most part. But nothing chaps me more than a work dream.
I always thought the answer was that workplaces should give you like 3 dream days per year. Days where you call in, not sick, not vacation, but you're like, "I dreamed about work all night, so I put in my time. I'm not coming in."
But I guess lucid dreaming is a more realistic alternative until I rise ...more
I have very boring, fairly vivid dreams, for the most part. But nothing chaps me more than a work dream.
I always thought the answer was that workplaces should give you like 3 dream days per year. Days where you call in, not sick, not vacation, but you're like, "I dreamed about work all night, so I put in my time. I'm not coming in."
But I guess lucid dreaming is a more realistic alternative until I rise ...more

Fantastic -- a little silly, a little serious, and ultimately incredibly helpful if you want to try to take more control of your sleep. Jesse's just fucking brilliant, y'all.
...more

"When I say that life is an illusion, I mean that many people end up constructing a barrier between themselves and the actual life that is passing by. A barrier is a wall. In this case, the wall prevents them from feeling the life that is actually happening. You don't want that to happen to you! You don't need to remember all of what I just said. The main thing is, to try not to be afraid, and to try not to regret things that have happened. Instead, just look around you. See what there is to do
...more

This is an important book for children to read. When a person feels trapped by circumstances, there is a way out. Knowing that is the beginning of the trip. Jesse Ball is your guide at the threshold, and he is the best of all possible guides, for he took his gifts of perception and elocution across the oneiric divide and forfeited that paradise to return, Chicago Boddhisattva, to share his maps with those assaulted by normativity.

I'll increase it to 4 stars if it works.
...more

"an instruction manual on dreaming for children or incarcerated persons" - which really means that it is for everyone. The picture of the dead guy with arrows in him is a nice touch.
...more
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Jesse Ball (1978-) Born in New York. The author of fourteen books, most recently, the novel How To Set a Fire and Why. His prizewinning works of absurdity have been published to acclaim in many parts of the world and translated into more than a dozen languages. The recipient of the Paris Review's Plimpton Prize, as well as fellowships from the NEA, the Heinz foundation, and others, he is on the fa
...more
News & Interviews
Readers have a lot to look forward to this year! Just feast your eyes upon all of these debut books to check out and emerging authors to...
188 likes · 48 comments
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »