Sleep

by Stephen Dixon

Book Overview

Contemporary short stories about edgy, urban, obsessive characters by one of America's best writers of experimental fiction.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566890810
• ISBN13: 9781566890816
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Coffee House Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

I mean, I'm cool with run on sentences some of these go on paragraphs within the sentences, once you

This guy grows on you, Stephen Dixon. At first I was pretty turned off by the odd syntax of Dixon's writing. Sentences run on and on, spiraling off tangents, intermixed with fragments, strange little stops and stutters where words just seem to drop out. I had trouble with it because, hate to sound like a rules person, but those rules of grammar exist to help us understand the meaning of the of what we hear or read. I would read Dixon, laboring, confused, which person did he say did that, or was that a description of the hallway...? I started a couple of his novels, recommended to me by someone whose taste I respect, but I never got too far into them. I didn't just lose interest, I was actually annoyed. The short stories work for me though. I like them, short and linear enough to keep me reading through them despite my discomfort with the style. And then suddenly, I got it. The problem was my attitude, not Dixon's lack of precision. It's like a painting that draws you in, you can get lost in the detail, focusing in on brush strokes and splashes of paint. But then you stand back and view it at a distance, and you see what the picture is. Dixon's work makes a kind of sentence when you just read through it and don't let the little twists and turns of the language snag you. Don't get stuck in the stabs of non sequiturs, side-streams of consciousness. The moment of revelation, and it was funny and poignant and honest and infectious as you can see, and there I was, back ten, twelve years ago rock climbing. Stuck in a spot, sewing machine legs giving out underneath me, fighting to stay focused and plan my path, tuning out the wind and the birds and the rushing creek underneath you, loud water stifling communication but that's why the canyon wall is there is the first place so who could complain, and then I got it, that you just keep your feet moving, that you just grab anything, lean on anything, push off any tiny thing you can plant a toe on, but don't stop, just keep moving and you can climb out of a canyon. Good stories, the perfect length. I particularly enjoyed Sleep, To Tom, Hand, and the Hairpiece. I may even go back and attempt one of his novels, but I don't want to ruin a good thing for now.