Sleepwalking

by Julie Myerson

Susan finds her year-old marriage to Alistair less than ideal. Just as she contemplates leaving him, she discovers that she is pregnant with his child. As she grapples with this news, she learns that her loathed father has killed himself. Left confused and bereft by these developments and haunted by visions of a little boy, she meets a seductive young painter and, despite knowing it could lead to crisis, begins an affair with him in her eighth month of pregnancy.Told with an eye for startling details and an unerring sense for psychological truth, this harrowing, passionate, obsessively compelling literary debut captures the reality of a young woman's inner landscape while spinning a tale that will hypnotise readers to its last satisfying pages.

Genres: Fiction, British Literature

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Julie Myerson is the author of nine novels, including the internationally bestselling Something Might Happen, and three works of nonfiction. As a critic and columnist, she has written for many newspapers including The Guardian, Financial Times, Harper’s Bazaar, and the New York Times.

Reviews

[Fiona MacDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most books don't really work as slow burners. But something about 'Sleepwalking' made it almost impossible to be anything else.
Susan is contemplating leaving her kind but unemotional husband Alistair when she find thats she is pregnant. She has also recently lost her odious father to suicide, started an affair with her best friend's mate Lenny and seen visions of a small boy around her house. All thse things come together gradually, as Susan starts wondering what the line is between truth and insanity. It's strange and eerie, but sad and nostalgic more than anything else.
I have never read anything by Julie Myerson, but was recommended this story after reading Helen Dunmore's 'The Greatcoat' and can definitely see some similarities in both symbolic and spiritual moments. For such a slow book I sped through it in 2 sittings.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this debut novel from one of my favourite authors. When Susan falls for Alistair and marries him to get away from home she lives to regret it - just over a year in, she feels her husband doesn't really appreciate her and that they are both just going through the motions. However, her decision to leave him is stopped in its tracks when she finds she is pregnant. Shortly afterwards, her loathed father kills himself. These two events spin Susan out of control and she eventually finds herself falling for a young artist called Lenny and, despite being 8 months pregnant, has a passionate affair with him. Susan is also haunted by strange visions of a malevolent child, who the reader will recognise from a series of flashbacks to the life of her father, raised in a family by a drunken father and a mother who detests him. Despite her betrayal of her husband, Susan is a character who I felt empathy for and at least when her son is born she finds it easy to love him as she and her father were not loved by their respective parents. The prose is often dark and haunting even though often understated and I really found myself captivated by the story. 8.5/10.

[Chris Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
This is two stories in one, and even now I cannot be sure which is the primary one, both are narrated by Susan a thirty plus pregnant woman. Plus some flashbacks in third person narrative

As a ghost story, it doesn't quite "hit the spot", there are so many writers who do it better. The other element to this book is the affair that Susan embarks upon at eight months pregnant.

I like the way the author writes the earthy reality or everyday life, warts and all, and the descriptions paint detailed pictures in your head. The narrative jumped about a bit, but I always felt something was about to "happen". Something sinister..............!

The conclusion is realistic and predictable, but satisfying too.

[FoodxHugs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giving this a generous 3 stars. Women's literary/domestic fiction. I fancied a change from the crime noir books I've been reading. This was an OKish macabre-mopey-housewife story. I preferred the first 100-125 pages. Started with the main character Susan processing her dad's suicide. Susan is very much a woman who is stuck. We get back story on her life as a single person. She is a struggling artist. She marries Alistair, a cold, controlling middle class guy who can not understand her. They have a whirl-wind relationship and marriage. Alistair saves her from a really crap situation in her life; she is unwell and faints in his office when she is trying to sell shirts.

She can not seem to communicate her feelings towards him, or he just dismisses her any time she tries.

This was a weird book, for plenty of reasons. There is the mystery of Susan seeing a spooky ghost of a boy around her home. Then, in her 8th month of pregnancy, she has an affair with an American artist called Lenny. Lenny is taken with her and is the one to instigate the affair. Susan thought about leaving Alistair after a year of marriage, but discovers she is pregnant by him. She is torn and resentful.

All though this book, I wanted Susan to grow a backbone. Alistair was arrogant but Susan was just as bad by moping through the book. Why the hell did she marry this guy??? The author does not make this clear, other than Susan was too timid (dumb?) to actually communicate with Alistair after his proposal. OMG! She could have delayed the engagement before marrying him or just told him it was too soon. Really?! This is what normal people do.

But Susan is just really dopey. In fact, Alistair is also stupid- when she confessed she had been having an affair to him near the end, he was like "Haha, you must be joking!" And Susan lets him believe this. Urgh. This is just really crappy storytelling.

The Queenie subplot running parallel to the Susan plot was meh. I feel like Queenie was a miserable bitch who got her comeuppance, when Susan's dad Douglas put her in the old people home.

This book was crazy and tense at the beginning but the story just got boring. The writing is readable and evocative in some sections. That is what got me through the book, otherwise I might have given up...

Myerson is a new writer for me but I think she just dragged this story out after a certain point. At first, it was interesting in a horror story way, seeing this helpless woman having to deal with a different set of circumstances. Domestic bliss is definately not all it is cut out to be when you have a husband who you realise you don't like all that much. It was a cautionary tale. The man tries to mould the woman into someone she doesn't want to be.

Yeah, not bad, but not really the greatest either. Good beginning, unsatisfying conclusion with crappy, thin characterisation. Any intrigue to the plot waned, and ended on a flat note.

[James Fountain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good friend and flatmate lent this to me nearly ten years ago and I thought it was amazing. It took a while to get into it, the tale of a pregnant woman in her thirties who has a secret affair, but the narrative is so delicately handled, and the characters beautifully described that it is well worth this effort. Myerson is rightly tipped for greatness.

[Thea · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I liked it and the way it talked about love and sex was incredible, although I felt so disconnected from the characters, I just couldn't quite figure them out.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was Julie Myerson’s first novel, published in 1994. I’d never heard of her until a couple of weeks ago when I heard her Radio 4 interview on ‘My Teenage Diary’ on BBC Sounds. It’s meant to be a comedy series, but some episodes, including this one, are quite sad and deeply moving – especially the last part where Julie reads a (hypothetical) letter back to her teenage self.

In the interview and in the extracts from her diaries, Julie painted a picture of a very sad, neglected and (psychologically) abusive childhood. Intrigued, I downloaded ‘Sleepwalking’ as she sounded like the sort of writer I wanted to read. I was not disappointed. This is dark and upsetting novel but strangely enjoyable and gripping.

It is obvious that there is a large amount of autobiographical material about her own childhood in this story. It deals in part with the suicide of an uncaring and abusive father (Myerson's own father committed suicide and as depicted above; she too had a very difficult childhood).

The main character Susan rushed into marriage and is unhappy with her relationship. At the point where she contemplates leaving her husband, Alistair, she falls pregnant. Frustrated, confused and tormented by this turn of events, she meets Lenny and begins an affair with him. The book is largely about her relationship with these two men and her, as yet unborn, child and the conflicting emotions she feels as she forces herself to decide between them. There is also a supernatural element to the story (I’m not usually a fan of ghost-stories, but willingly made an exception for this one). Susan feels she is haunted by the ghost of her father as a child, reliving the neglect that made him abusive to her in turn. It’s quite a simple plot, mainly played out in Susan’s head with very little action – aside from the birth of child, of course! Poor Alistair is completely perplexed by the strange behaviour of his complicated self-absorbed and wife. He’s not painted very sympathetically, but I felt rather sorry for him. Lennie is a bit too good to be true really. And Susan is a strange, complicated and somewhat lost figure trying to make her way.

[Sally Edsall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the scenes of Susan's "haunting" were excellently handled. Would love to have a little more fleshed out about her relationship with her sisters in the wake of her father's suicide. But, as to one of the main "events' - the affair, I'm afraid I just didn't buy it. The juxtaposition of the heart-on-sleeve emotionalism of the American, with the reserved coolness of the Briton wasn't enough for me to feel that this affair was 'real', and the passion just wasn't there for me. Lennie seemed to lack a dimension or something!

The novel is written in a very spare style, and we never are sure whether the 'hormones' of late pregnancy ARE a factor or not - Susan rails against this possibility.

Husband Alistair does seem a little bit of a Central Casting cliched husband, dismissive of his wife's trauma, shallow and patronising.

This book was a reasonable read to fill in some idle hours, but I wouldn't rave about it. For a more elegantly written, and ultimately more hopeful story of childhood emotional abuse, I prefer Jenny Diski's 'Skating to Antarctica', which I read at the same time.

[Kristi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disturbing. Perhaps because I have left a husband with whom I have had children. And Perhaps because the 'ghosts' of my deceased child and parents are with me. My past, my ancestors, do shape who I am.

[Jacqueline Chimes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short but powerful and well written novel with a surprising amount of depth for just over 200 pages. Susan’s relationship with her father has damaged her life and she only begins to come to terms with his treatment of her and her sisters after his suicide. This ‘tragedy’ happens while she is pregnant with her first child and as she is ‘sleepwalking’ through life. Susan’s relationships with her birth family, her husband, with her unborn child and with her lover (she embarks on a love affair while she is pregnant) are explored. Other pivotal characters include Queenie, her father’s abusive mother and a ghostly child, a little boy who is haunting her.

[Persephone Abbott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Strong beginning, but I felt the end floundered a bit.

[Laura Burns · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had some really strong points - and I really enjoyed the style of writing. However, the last chapter certainly wasn't necessary and altered the tone of the whole book.

[Geri · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright. Hated the long chapters and the ending was rushed and confusing. Enjoyed the story up to the end though.

[Maritina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Actual rating is 2.4 🌟


I feel like this book was emotionally heavy from the very first page. You can always tell that the protagonist doesn’t get a moment of happiness throughout the story and the whole plot is devastating.

Now, I get that it could be someone else’s cup of tea, though for me, the ending was vague, badly written and the story itself poorly executed.

We never learn what her hallucinations about the young boy were about. I never actually understood why she didn’t like her husband or why she stopped seeing Len. Yes I get that it was an affair and it ought to have ended for the good of both their sakes but since the deed was already done then why not come clean about it and start a life with the man she actually seemed happy to with, rather than wallowing in misery?

Would not recommend. 🦢🥀

[Henna Muliyana]

A vivid dark manifestation of unconscious mind !! Thoroughly dreadful and yet lucid and arresting in narrative.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susan has drifted through her life perplexed and despairing. Marriage to the unimpeachable Alastair and then pregnancy strike her simply as further evidence of her inability to take control. Her estranged father commits suicide. She then embarks on a destructive affair. What next. Excellent read.

[Judita Drake]

Interesting perspective.

[Amanda Garrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favourite Myerson's book, so far. Brilliantly written, in her usual evocative yet functionally disjointed way. Have keep this aside for a re-read. Yes, it was that good.

[June Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing good to say.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Borrowed from our beach house - a drama that takes place in England