Rating: 
Summary: A Witty and Sophisticated Masterpiece of Satire
Review: I just finished reading this book and find myself quite simply having to write something about it. An absolutely superlative exercise in plot manipulation, it succeeds at almost every twist and turn, at times eliciting laughter, at others shock, sadness and finally, true romantic empathy in the least likely of ways. At the core of this novel is the connection between the 'real' and the 'imaginary' and the interplay between these different levels of consciousness through the passage of time. This novel is certainly reminiscent of Nabokov, and I would even venture to say Proust, in style and wit. Readers of Nabokov will also discern a certain similarity in the approach to multilayered realities, the world of dreams, and the ultimate joke unfolding as the narrative progesses-- Ada, being the closest novel I can think of. All this AND and extemely entertaining read! I recommend this book most enthusiastically, the only proviso being that it might induce insomnia on the part of the reader due to its highly addictive qualities ...
Rating:
Summary: The House of Sleep
Review: I think this book by Jonathon Coe is utterly fabulous. The book is extremely well written because it always made me want to turn the next page and move onto the next chapter. Overall, I feel this book to be more dramatic than comedic. However, when I read the article with the messed up footnotes I could not stop laughing!The novel is about a group of college students at Ashdown. They all know one another, and all seem to be friends with one another. They have problems and conflicts with each other which causes them to lose contact with one another. However, more than a decade later they all seem to meet again at Ashdown, which has become a sleep clinic. All of the characters seem to be interwoven with each other through other characters. Who knew that Sarah would meet someone who knew her beloved Veronica, and have the copy of their sacred book? Where exactly did Robert run off to, or did he even go anywhere? I never expected Sarah's former analysist to be the one to cause such emotion in Dr. Dudden, the doctor in charcge of the clinic. I must say that I love this book. I like how everything came together. The characters are so memorable that if I had to put down the book and come back later I would still remember everyone. If a character like Ruby showed up again 150 pages later, I would remember her and not think, "Who is Ruby?" I guess you can call me a sentimental freak, but the only part of this book that I really did not care for was all the rabbits, dogs, and rats in the basement. I never did like reading that part. Everything about this novel is excellent, and I think you should read it.
Rating: 
Summary: FunnyweirdcreepyAndYicky
Review: I've read a couple of this British author's books and I think I have a handle on his mode of operation. Coe writes witty well-crafted books full of odd characters in what's basically a fable told in the form of a mystery wrapped in black humor. And although that pattern was well established in the first book of his I read ("The Winshaw Legacy"), it really smacked me upside the head in this book.
"The House of Sleep" is essentially a love story told in form of a mystery with the denouement slowly revealed in often humorous and occasionally creepy scenes. There's some political wisecracks and what I think are multiple insults directed against the field of quacks. Oh, and an absolutely hilarious sentence toward the top of page 259. I put it to you, this is a fine fine book. HHD.
Rating:
Summary: Witty, clever and original
Review: It is not an easy task describing Mr Coe's novel in a few lines. This is not only due to the twisty nature of the plot - intermittently describing events nearly 10 years distant in time - but also to the great number of characters often involved in confusing situations resulting from witty misunderstandings. This is not in the least to say that the novel is confusing, on the contrary, the non-linear plot is an essential part of the originality of "The House of Sleep".
In the 1980s a group of students were studying at the imposing college of Ashdown on the English South Coast before drifting apart. A decade later, Ashdown has become the Dudden Clinic where the increasingly unstable Dr Dudden investigates the mechanisms of sleep, using both animals and human beings for his various experiments. Due to a series of coincidences involving various disorders in their sleep patterns, these students are drawn back together. Sarah is narcoleptic, she has dreams so vivid that she can't distinguish them from real events, Robert whose identity is about to change completely due to misunderstandings that come from his/her condition and Terry, the insomniac film critic who spends his nights with his obsessions with movies. And finally Dr Dudden who considers sleep as a disease shortening people's lives by a third.
A compelling novel about love, loss and obsession.
Rating: 
Summary: A snooze
Review: Jonathan Coe's books are usually vividly witty, biting and occasionally outright scathing, with characters that are usually either very human or distant and weird. "The House of Sleep" is a morbidly snoozy exception, with an unbalanced plot and characters as gray and forgettable as a dream. It centers on the sleep disorders of a bunch of students: Sarah, a narcoleptic who thinks her dreams are the reality. Gregory, her boyfriend, who has some kinky sexual practices involving her eyes. Terry, a movie snob who used to have idyllic dreams, and who is seeking the "perfect" arthouse film. As time goes on, Sarah still feels an odd attraction for Robert, even though she is now dating the dripping-with-joie-de-vivre lesbian Veronica; Robert, in turn, is desperately seeking her. Terry's weird movie obsessions alienate those around him, and Gregory has since become a man obsessed with eradicating sleep itself. Some of the problems with "House of Sleep" lie in the plotting. Coe falls back on cliches unworthy of his writing, like the letter-tucked-in-a-book, something more worthy of shlockmaster Nicholas Sparks rather than a writer of Coe's caliber. Not to mention Robert's method of reconciling his love for Sarah, which was both unexpected and, in context, more than a little silly. It felt slapped in, as if Coe were thinking, "How can I fix this whole situation with a guy in love with a lesbian? I know!" Much of the character interactions ultimately hinge on psychobabble, where all of them (especially Sarah) are picked apart. Ultimately, the arguments just aren't that convincing. And without the arguments, the character interactions make no sense. That same psychobabble also sucks the book dry of wit, humor, or acerbity. The writing is undeniably poetic and vivid, and Coe's usual delicacy with words, descriptions and dialogue save this from being a fiasco. Sarah is a lifeless character, who doesn't connect with anyone and just sits in a corner staring at her knees. She's apparently supposed to be sensitive, but seems instead to feel nothing. Robert is a dead fish; Gregory descends into near-madness, and Terry is just a jerk. Feminist/lesbian banker Veronica is the most likable, vivid and well-written character in the book. Despite the witty turns of "Rotter's Club" and "Winshaw Legacy," Coe's second novel seems like Sarah wrote it in her sleep. Lame, pallid and not really worth it except as a study of wordcraft.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting, but yet... not?
Review: Once again, I find myself trying to recommend a book I recognize as good, but somehow did not enjoy to a very large extent. I know that I couldn't put the book down; I know that I had a vague fondness for some of the characters, I know that the plot was constructed well and the wit is honed razor-sharp. But somehow, I came away from this book feeling impressed but not satisfied. The book makes you think hard about sleep; I myself had quite the insomniac experience while reading it and for a few days after. While that was not very pleasant, it does point to the power of suggestion the book possesses. (Either that or my own suggestibility.) It wasn't what left me with the nonplussed feeling I had. The setting Coe creates is marvelous; I very much enjoyed the small town college feel, and while the book does center around a few specific people and places, it's not a vacuum, with no sense of scope or of the surrounding world. The house itself is a compelling focus and large enough to be a world to itself. The plot is intricate, and with the exception of a few nearly ridiculous coincidences, suspends disbelief and keeps one riveted to find out how it all works. Ultimately, I think the failing of the book is the lack of depth of emotion, or realism, of the characters. Some might argue that Robert, for example, exhibits passion and emotion, at least, but somehow because of the focus or style, it all came across to me very cold. Perhaps there was a lack of optimism to the book; perhaps it was my own perception, either way, I think the book is worth a read from a purely craft perspective.
Rating:
Summary: A resoundingly okay read
Review: The descriptions of college life and young love are well done, though no more dicey or cutting-edge than "St. Elmo's Fire." The "surprise" that the narrative hinges upon, however, is not much of a surprise -- the only reason my jaw dropped in astonishment was because Mr. Coe actually had the cojones to employ such a hoary conceit. (He also uses the letter-stuck-in-a-book-and-reappearing-at-a-pivotal-moment-twenty-years-later trope, with greater result; but without a trace, a smidgen of the wicked irony that dripped from "What A Carve Up!")
Rating:
Summary: A beautifully written British narrative
Review: The House of Sleep is a well-written novel that is hard to find these days, especially in Asian bookstores where variety is confined to books with Hollywood plots. This book stirs the mind like no other novel I have encountered in the recent past. I was in awe about how the writer was able to spin a most interesting and insane story about old friends in a college boarding house in Britain. The characters are very intriguing. And the book, which goes back and forth through time alternately per chapter, was seamlessly written. Writer Jonathan Coe manages to make the story move forward with his brilliant and very imaginative writing. Truly worth your time! A refreshing read for people who enjoy wild surprises!
Rating: 
Summary: House of Sleep - - no kidding!
Review: The title says it all! This book completely put me to sleep. I read it because of the amount of great reviews that it got, but I think I must have been reading a totally different version than everyone else or something because this was definitely a ZONKER! The characters were totally under-developed, none of them had any dimension to them which made it totally impossible to become absorbed in the story. This was a worthless read. I had to struggle to keep reading it in hopes of it getting any better, only to be bitterly disappointed at the way that it ended. The ending was way to abrupt considering the slow pace that the rest of the book took.
Rating:
Summary: not the best by Coe
Review: This book is obviously pleasant to read and even captivating. However the slightly cheesy romantic undertone and some very obvious, easy-to-guess, twists of the plot are truly disappointing; the witty political criticism that enlights 'what a carve up' or 'the rotter's club' is diluted here, reduced to the caricatural Dr Dudden, a too-gross-to-be-true maniac character. Also here the subtle intertwining of histories and timeframe so typical of Coe's style appear heavy and systematic. If you're new to Coe, I'd recommand his more ambitious first novel.
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