https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F84BD7S9/
Editorial Review For The Importance of Sleep
What starts as a quiet reflection on the so-called “importance of sleep”
unravels into a dense, messy, and oddly compelling look inside one man’s
thoughts, obsessions, grudges, and inability to forget a breakup.
The book doesn’t follow a tight plot. Instead, it drifts with Dan, a
motel clerk in off-season Maine who avoids daylight and embraces solitude like
it’s his job. He reflects on failed relationships, high school humiliations,
imaginary romantic triumphs, and a deeply entrenched sleep schedule that’s
either impressive or tragic. Memory, identity, masculinity, and rejection come
up often. So does the temperature in his apartment. And don’t forget about his
long-standing beef with someone named Ami. If you want closure or a character
arc, this isn’t that kind of book. But if you want to watch someone mentally
pace around regret and loneliness with surgical precision, welcome aboard.
What works is the voice. It’s bitter, sharp, and often hilarious in a
low-key, annoyed-with-everyone kind of way. The narrator is self-deprecating
without begging for pity and smart without trying to sound like he’s smarter
than everyone. The writing thrives in its contradictions. Dan claims not to
care, then obsesses over every perceived slight. He pushes people away, then
dreams up entire relationships with them. The strongest parts are when the book
stops pretending to be about sleep and just admits it’s about being haunted.
This isn’t your usual coming-of-age novel. It leans hard into
introspection, skipping the typical life lessons. It shares DNA with outsider
lit, the kind that doesn’t ask to be liked. The narrator probably wouldn’t like
you either. But readers who enjoy stream-of-consciousness fiction and
unreliable narrators who don’t believe in therapy will find this satisfying. If
you’ve ever clung to a grudge like a weighted blanket or thought about writing
a love letter you’d never send, The Importance of Sleep will feel
uncomfortably familiar.
The plot’s loose. The mood swings. The narrator’s not always likable. But
that’s the point. There’s a strange honesty in how stuck he is. Sometimes all a
book has to do is tell the truth, even if it doesn’t get you anywhere. The
Importance of Sleep tells the truth. Then it shuts off the light and tries
to go back to sleep.