Rating: 
Summary: Nice Surprise
Review: Small, taut, darkly comic gem of a novel that received no publicity. Balances bleak social satire with deeply empathatic characters, which most comic novels cannot do. Funny and smart about human relationships. Oddly enough, I also love a small, non-hyped, funny nonfiction book about fatherhood, "I Sleep At Red Lights: A True Story of Life After Triplets," by Bruce Stockler. Funny and compassionate and insightful, also, but delightful rather than dark.
Rating: 
Summary: Literary Excellence
Review: This book reads like a memoir,and I sop love real life stories of trial and tribulation, and yet has touchs of funniness within the pages. The dysfunctional family, trying to understand what went wrong and try and try and fix it...all leads up to a wonderfully well composed book. Also recommended: Nightmares Echo, Bastard out Of Carolina,Black and Blue
Rating: 
Summary: Another hit on Jews
Review: This book wasn't bad but having a major theme of Cathy's following Jew to Catholicism Edith Stein was another hit Jews didn't need right now.
Rating:
Summary: A Small Gem!
Review: This could be the surprise novel of the year. It's from a small publisher and has received almost no publicity. If not for a wonderful NY Times Review I would have never heard of it. It is a first rate black comedy about a contemporary dysfunctional family, about the absurdities of life in the early 21st century, and about timeless human foibles. Sharpe is brilliant at satiring characters he also clearly loves, not an easy feat. It is also a deceptively easy read, moves quickly, draws you in. and as another reviewer noted, it does alot of what DeLillo does, but funnier and warmer. Don't miss this one!
Rating:
Summary: Angst-happy in Connecticut
Review: This is a lovingly scathing account of contemporary suburban family life; it is also a story of that most unlikely of loves, between father and son. Matt Sharpe reminds me of a young American Roddy Doyle, for this book deftly leaps from funny-and I mean literally laugh-out-loud funny-to gaspingly dire and back again, tackling profound themes in a disarmingly facile way, all in magnificent prose. The Sleeping Father, like Sharpe's first novel (Nothing Is Terrible), is disturbing and provocative, and damned clever. A fabulous read. My mother would hate it; I love it.
Rating:
Summary: Three books
Review: Three books that you must read if you're interested in a good story, excellent writing, and a wonderful literary experience: THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET, THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, and THE SLEEPING FATHER. All three are excellent and worth the time spent. I'm not one to follow the trends, so when I saw that this was a Today Show book club pick, I ran the other way. But after hearing such great things about it from my friends I decided to try it. A great read with insight into the human condition (or lack thereof), this is a book you'll want to pass on to anyone who likes a great story. Also recommended: McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD and THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET
Rating: 
Summary: Sleeping Father
Review: UGHHHHH!
Don't Bother. This family and book is dysfunctional. I wanted to commit suicide after reading the first chapter. How many things can a family screw up on. First what school system would not check and follow up on a senoir that is suppose to graduate and have an invalid Father. What hospital /rehab would send a patient home to have his children take care of him with out help. What gives with the therapist that provides sexual favors to family members. I have never read a book with so many dysfuncyional people in my life. It was a big let down and if this is the type of book that gets recommended by the Today show, I would like to meet the person doing the reviewing
Rating: 
Summary: Not worthy of a National Book Club
Review: Very disappointed. Bought this book because of the Today Show Book Club award. Very sarcastic, mildly funny, but I am disappointed because the family structure here is completely simplified and unrealistic. I find Chris and Cathy to be spoiled and unlikeable. They have the rebel without a cause syndrome of rich spoiled kids who have never had a real tragedy in their lives. Not horrible, but definitely not worth the $14 I spent on it.
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