Sleeper'S Wake

by Alistair Morgan

Forty-six-year-old John Wraith regains consciousness after a car accident to learn that his wife and five-year-old daughter died in the same accident. What is all the more traumatic for him is that he was driving the car. At the urging of his sister, John decides to recuperate in her holiday chalet in Nature's Valley, on the South African coast. It is winter and Nature's Valley is mostly deserted - except for a disturbed young woman of twenty one called Jackie, her equally strange brother and her father, who is a born again Christian. John's uneasy yet intense involvement with this trio, particularly with Jackie, to whom he is sexually attracted, provides the novel with its driving narrative and extraordinary, shocking denouement. Written in lucid, often beautiful prose, "Sleeper's Wake" is a haunting study of man at his most naked and vulnerable.

Genres: South Africa

180 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[Stuart · Rating 1 out of 5]

This books starts off well. John wakes from a coma and finds his wife and child have been killed in coma. He leaves town to stay somewhere remote to get away from everything. He falls in with a family who are going through a massive trauma themselves. He is not particularly likeable, but it's understandable when considering what happened to his family.

Then he makes some disturbing decisions, when he didn't have to, and all sympathy for him disappears. A couple of chapters are uncomfortable to read, and John doesn't seem to have any self awareness about what he is doing.

Well written but I would not recommend it.

[Cheresa Naudé · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for ages, so I'm glad it was a quick read. Besides the occasional literary positive, I absolutely hated this book. The protagonist was impossible to like - he's self-absorbed, narcissistic, paedophilic, removed from reality and absolutely unable to take responsibility for his actions. If the author's goal was to paint John as a shallow, unevolved predator with the EQ of a doorknob, he succeeded.

[Rosemary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book at a backpackers and read it in one day...

Though this book went off the boil a bit towards the end, but the beginning is truly outstanding. The evocation of grief - with the sickly-smelling flowers around the house, the narrator's reaction to the coffins at the funeral, etc. - was absolutely brilliant.

Trying to find this writer's other book, but it's proving tricky

[Jean-Louis Rossouw · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think this book is under rated. the end gets a bit hard to follow, but the beginnings sections are really fantastic

[Sergio GRANDE · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have liked this book a little more than I did had I read it in chronological order, before "The Land Within' -which Mr. Morgan wrote afterwards. The improvement from one book the next is quite apparent; I loved "The Land Within" but I only liked "Sleeper's Wake" very much. I'm sure you understand.

Alistair Morgan has a simple, fluid narrative that belies the writer's craft. Like Tiger Woods playing golf, he's not the world's #1 but he makes it look easy. He is my NBFSAW (New Best Favourite South African Writer), although the classification as 'South African' is too narrow. He is a good writer on his way to becoming a great writer.

A movie based on "Sleeper's Wake" opened this week in South Africa and I know some of the people involved. But I'll give it a miss. I enjoyed the book too much to have someone else's interpretation interfere with the images Morgan's writing painted in my mind. Sorry.

This is actually a very bad review. All over the place. Quite incoherent at times. Sandals.

[Ricardo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This tiny novel I randomly picked from the library has just managed to become one of the most disturbing I've read. I might need a longer digestion for this one.
Surprisingly, it was not a dull, bleak, monotone novel about grief. I thought I was in for a delicious awfully sad and depressing novel but ended feeling I was rewatching "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". I felt totally out of control -maybe that's the version of grief intended to showcase?

Some sneaky great lines, though the writing got monotonous. It seemed like the author was addicted to finding punchlines to most of his paragraphs. Okay, it's nice when you have nice ideas, but don't force it. Not everything has to be methapored.
A bit too excessive with all the tacky tragedies (couldn't help rolling my eyes when the worst case scenario always happened). Anyhow, I couldn't put it down and enjoyed it! I can see how it isn't for everyone, specially since it shifts so much and with such a gradually unlikeable protagonist.

I am curious to read more stuff from the author.

[Ana Raquel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A personagem principal é John que foi marcado profundamente pela perda da sua esposa e da sua filha de 5 anos. A dor e o sofrimento do mesmo, são transmitidos ao longo de toda a narrativa ao leitor.

A escrita é acessível e o conteúdo envolvente, potenciando uma leitura fácil.
Quando ao desfecho final, achei um pouco superficial, pois faltou detalhes que eu gostaria de saber.

De uma forma em geral, achei o livro interessante e recomendo.

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been trying to figure out what to say about this book. It swept me up at first. And it disturbed me in many ways. Now that I have some distance from it, I'm not impressed. And, I won't give it away to say what disturbed me but I'm tired of gender and power issues making books "good." I believe it is a movie now. You'll have to decide if you're going to see it or read it or neither.

[Hazel McHaffie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went to hear this author speak with the Edinburgh International Book Festival so decided to read his book. The subject matter appeals (a man awaking after a accident to learn that his wife and child died in the car he was driving), the writing is good but the story line was disappointing to me.

[Frank Hinton · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really depressing, and I wanted to slap the protagonist more than once.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

easy read

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but heavy going in parts

[Andria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Depressing book with an irritating main character. Well written, but painful to read.

[Lorraine Mathewson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did I miss something in this book? Most of the book was fairly upseeting to me. I could not connect to any of the characters in the book.

[Paige Nick]

an astonishingly good book.

[Rhyll Biest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, both the language and the exploration of emotion.