Weblog | I don't like the word blog, it's ugly. Anyway, new content happens here. (Swedish dito)

About me and the site | Twenty-something male who likes text. Obsessed with things such as books, reality, communication, and one or two tv-shows.

Archives | Things written here since... well, 2001. Some of it is good, some is utter shait.

Books | Books read, not books written. So far I've struggled to maintain unpublished.

Photo | I like my camera and it likes me.

Links | Outwards, away, flee.

e-mail | J. Nicklas Andersson

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The House of Sleep

The first stone has been thrown. I have read the first book on the great 100 project.

Every person in Jonathan Coe’s The House of Sleep has a problem--more or less. It has four main characters. We have Sarah, who apart from falling asleep now and then also can’t tell dream from reality. Robert is in love with Sarah, head over heals, and is very insecure. Robert’s friend Terry doesn’t sleep at all, he watches movies instead. Gregory Dudden is obsessed with sleep, that is, he doesn’t want to suffer from this “disease” any longer. The supporting cast has their problems as well. I had trouble not laughing when Terry goes on and on about movies, the scene where he talks to a producer is sheer genius.

The pacing was a bit slow at first; some of the characters where hard to get a grip on but once I was past that everything just flowed on. At first, I thought it would be annoying with the changes of timelines, odd chapters 1983 while even was 1996. This assumption turned out to be faulty, much thanks to Coe’s writing style and well thought out chapter changes.

Recommended.

“Well, for one thing, I dream of having a ten-minute conversation with Terry where he doesn’t mention Ingmar Bergman. But that’s just my little fantasy.”
(Penguin 1998, p.85)