The Hazards of Sleeping Alone

Rating:
Summary: Knocked My Socks Off
Review: Elise Juska's characters are so real, so believable, so well developed that you feel like they are in the room with you as you read. Juska understands the complexities of the human condition and she never takes the easy way out. Her books are fun to read AND they make you think...a lot. You'll be blown away by this book. Each line pulls you into the next. It is graceful, stylish, true-to-life. Buy it. Read it. Give it to a friend as a holiday gift. Bravo, Elise Juska. This writer is a star.


Rating:
Summary: A rich, rewarding second book
Review: I don't know if I'm supposed to admit knowing the author here when I post a review...but it seems disingenuous not to.... So here goes. I've known Elise for a number of years and she's always surprising me with her writing. She has a number of powerful (dark yet elegant) short stories published in smaller literary journals-all of which probe the frailty of human connectedness. Her first novel, Getting Over Jack Wagner surprised me with its gentle, perceptive humor, and its ability to be entertaining, but never trivial. And her new novel, The Hazards of Sleeping Alone, surprises me with its delicacy, with its compassion for all its characters, and for the natural pace and rhythm of her prose. It has a frilly, purplish cover, but the book is serious without being stuffy, weighty without being leaden. The language is sharp, the characters definitive (and, at times, defiant). What I love most about her people is that Elise is able to get past the surface of her characters in ways a lot of authors are never able to do. Hazards' protagonist, Charlotte, for all her quirks and fears, is a character to be reckoned with-and a character to remember. Elise never cheats as a writer-she won't give way to sentimentalism, won't bend the story toward a happy ending if it isn't deserved, won't guide the story with an obvious authorial hand. I was privileged enough to be an early reader of this book about a year ago-and it is still fresh in my memory. I suppose if you think I'm just subjective because of our friendship, you might buy the book and put my comments to the test. I teach English at the University of New Hampshire, and have suggested Elise's books to my students for a semester long independent project we undertake-and my students invariably come back raving about the novels-and maybe more importantly, thinking deeply about the words. My wife and I highly recommend the book (and her first book too). You won't be disappointed. In fact, I think you'll find yourself wanting more-which is a good thing, because Elise will be around for a while, continually surprising her readers by inventing wise and perceptive stories.

-Clark Knowles

Rating:
Summary: A great read - not just for mothers and daughters
Review: I picked up this book to read because I loved Juska's first book, Getting Over Jack Wagner, and a friend said this one was just as strong. This book, although entirely different in tone, proves Juska's talent at creating fully-realized and richly complicated characters. While the strength of Getting Over... was the exacting humor and dead-on hip factor, Hazards' power comes from the honest portrait of her lead character and the diverse "family" that surounds her. The reader feels like a voyeur in the mind of a woman struggling with the hard things we all struggle with - insecurity, anxiety, longing, and most importantly, love. It is well-written, full of truths, imaginative and it handles tough issues with honesty and care, without judgement, without comment. I highly recommend this read, even for those who may not be a mother or a daughter.

Rating:
Summary: intriguing character study of a woman in trouble
Review: In her late forties, Charlotte Warren has become increasingly neurotic about life as she is a compulsive worrier. Unable to sleep at night and a bundle of nerves during the day, Charlotte has been divorced for fifteen years from Joe, who she sometimes misses in the lonely darkness. However, her biggest concern besides some imaginary thief breaking and entering her home is her passionate living twenty-two years old daughter who lives life with gusto.

Emily arrives home on a visit, but this time has brought with her Walter, the black man she plans to move in with. Charlotte is stunned but has a new reason to panic as she fears her daughter's "alternate living arrangement" selection as mixed relationships are difficult. However, the appearance of Walter and Emily does more than just turn Charlotte into a nervous wreck; that first weekend shatters the older woman's memories as events she buried in the furthest reaches of her mind has arisen like an avenging Phoenix.

This is an intriguing look at an individual struggling with a compulsive disorder that keeps her from fully functioning in society. Readers' hearts will go out to Charlotte whose palpitations and fears can be felt on almost every page of the tale. Of interest is how opposite her daughter who lived much of her life with her mother (Joe had visits and ultimately moved far away to Seattle) has turned out; sort of as if she has had a reaction formation to the phobic driven lifestyle of her mother. Though somewhat dark in tone, Elisa Juska paints a portrait of a woman in trouble from demons running amok in her head.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Amazing Mother-Daughter Story That You Shouldn't Miss
Review: This book tells the heartwarming, intriguing story of Charlotte, a divorced woman who has lived alone in New Jersey every since her free-spirited and passionate daughter went off to college. With her ex husband living in Seattle, Charlotte is just fine going about her life on her own. Although Charlotte misses her daughter Emily and is always wondering what she is doing, things are okay in her life. After all, she has her routines to occupy her time.

However Emily, who now lives in New Hampshire with her boyfriend and two eccentric roommates, pays her a visit one day and both of their lives are never quite the same again. Some rather shocking news gets revealed during her visit, and both Emily and Charlotte are faced with some difficult decisions and times. What with Emily's caring boyfriend Walter, Charlotte's ex-husband Joe, the uncertain feelings between them all, and Charlotte's paranoia, things hover quickly on the edge of disaster. Will they be able to work it all out? Find out in this wonderful and moving story.

I immensely enjoyed this novel for several reasons. The main thing about it was how well the author let the reader into the head of the main character. Charlotte comes across as a real, four-dimensional mother figure that you will instantly care about and root for. She has real flaws and issues, but is just so likeable somehow. This story is also very well-written with a splash of imagery thrown in. From the small condo that Charlotte occupies in New Jersey, to the woodsy house that Emily and Walter live in New Hampshire, the reader will be immersed in details so rich and real, they will be there themselves.

There were some delicate subjects tackled in this book, such as abortion issues, mother-daughter angst, love, and loneliness. Elise Juska did an absolutely amazing job with it - I couldn't have asked for a better story that captured real family emotions.

Overall, I highly recommend "The Hazards of Sleeping Alone" for anyone's reading collection, especially if you are a mother or a daughter!

Rating:
Summary: A must read!
Review: This book was great! The characters were very real to me and I loved her portrayal of the mother/daughter relationship. Not once did I get bored reading this!

Rating:
Summary: This book will keep you up at night...
Review: While the material isn't light and breezy enough for this to be considered chick lit and the story doesn't end with a stereotypical happy ending, I can honestly say that I really enjoyed this book. The story explores a mother-daughter relationship with such brutal honesty that it is hard not to like it. I could easily see this novel striking a cord with single mothers in particuluar. Charlotte (the mom) is a divorcee who tries her very best to watch over her daughter (Emily) and to keep her happy. In doing so, she sacrifices her own happiness and, over time, becomes an extremely anxious individual. Her anxieties are the focal point of the novel and I must say that the author did a tremendous job of giving this character really authentic anxieties. It blew me away really. I know people who are exactly like the character Charlotte -- so very afraid of living their own lives that they become absorbed with the lives of their children - trying desperately to protect them from the sorrow that they themselves have come to know. There is a line in a song I know that says "...we can talk and still say nothing. Stay together yet alone..." Those words are the essence of Charlotte. You won't get a happy ending that is packaged nicely, but I can promise you a good read for sure. This book is really a 4.5 in my eyes but only because after 300 plus pages I'm a sucker for a happy ending. I won't spoil it - I'll just say again that it's worth picking up.