I Sleep at Red Lights: A True Story of Life After Triplets

by Bruce Stockler

Book Overview

Bruce Stockler captures the chaos, joy and challenges of becoming the father of triplets in this hilarious, fast-paced, and refreshingly honest memoir. From the moment Stockler and his wife ,Roni, learn they have hit the fertility jackpot, their lives are turned upside down. The day the babies are born--in an operating room bustling with 30 doctors, nurses and technicians--is the first jolt in a physical and emotional roller-coaster ride. And every day following continues to reveal one unpredictable twist after another. Just going to the supermarket and keeping the kids--and the store--safe from disaster is like an episode from an adventure story. When the triplets start to walk, and explode in three directions at once, they quickly learn to exploit their newfound freedom at every possible turn.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312315295
• ISBN13: 9780312315290
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

This is real life

I'm an older, working, single mother of twins and this is a TERRIFIC book. I think Bruce self-effacingly doesn't convey how even harder it is than his descriptions. Please DO WRITE A SEQUEL -- I am dying to know, as my own children are growing up, how everyone turns out. Highest praise for a wonderful look at a situation much like my own -- this is what books are for: to give one an honest and deep look at another's reality for insights about our own life. Thank you, Dear Bruce and Roni and all four dear children.

Cheap title/soulful book. A classic.

Oh my God. You'll laugh, you'll cry. You will think YOUR life is easy and manageable. You will count your blessings, because the author shows you how. This guy is honest (example: he states that he loves his son more than he loves his wife early on in the book), can really turn a phrase, and loves, loves, loves his (older son) Asher and his babies. I would love to meet him at Starbucks and have a cup of coffee. He is a man who gets it! How about a sequel or two? The kids are only about 7 and 3 when it ends. God bless this lovely, human man.

All Men Are Not Created Equal

I heard the author on public radio, talking about his crazy marriage and his book, and so I just bought it. It's a riot! I've never read anything by a man that's at once so funny and observant, but also so touching, emotionally revealing and meaningful. The best part is his brutal honesty--while still being funny--about how difficult marriage is. It's about being a man, being married to a man, juggling marriage and kids--and the chapters on taking his kids to the ladies' room and the supermarkets are classics. My only complaint is--no pictures! Except for the author--and the bags under his eyes tell me this is DEFINITELY a true story.

Under My Xmas Tree

I'm a sucker for those old-fashioned, big-family stories like "Cheaper By The Dozen" (now a Steve Martin movie, I see) and "Please Don't Eat The Daisies." This book turns out to be a real-life version that's wonderfully funny and warm and elegantly written, but it's also a deep and illuminating look inside the serious issues of what being a parent means in relation to career, marriage, ego, friends and family, and all the other complications of life. It's great to stumble across a book that really breaks new ground and I'm giving it to my husband and my girlfriends. Great details about the craziness of day-to-day life and wonderfully-drawn characters, too. Also a great book to read out loud.

Funniest Book of 2003!

Wow, I can't remember the last time I laughed out loud when reading a book. I was reading this out loud to my wife and my brother. Stockler's book works on three levels--first, it's just a hilarious adventure story. The chapters on taking the kids to the ladies room (because the men's room is filthy, which he compares to The Andromeda Strain) and going to the supermarket, where the kids cause mayhem, are classics. But underneath all the comedy is a really incredible intelligence, always taking a step back and analyzing how his life works, what's important, and what it's like to be a man. It's also an incredibly honest look at marriage. Stockler admits that he ie emotionally closer to his kids than hiw wife, and, in his own quiet way, it's kind of a revolutinoary statement. He basically says that being married is harder than being a Dad. That takes a lot of guts--but this is one honest book. He also writes about the dynamics of the kids--they way the four of them have a whole spider-web of interlocking relationships--the the eyes for detail that Graham Greene had for his characters. And the third level is the journey he takes--how he folds in his parents and his childhood to deliver us to a discovery of who he is and where he came from. So it's also a very serious book. Much more serious than the cover would have you think. It's a more important memoir than any memoir I've read. While it's not as "important" or post-modern or self-conscious as Dave Egger's masterpiece, I think it is more honest and compelling, and much more true. It's also more insightful than the two Augusten Burroughs books. It's really a one-of-a-kind book and I'm glad I discovered it. Read this book. It will stay in your mind for weeks.