Rating: 
Summary: Good potter; needs better clay.
Review: Don't be fooled by the jacket blurb or the other reviews -- this is a faculty novel in disguise with all the shortcomings and defects of that genre. To wit: Childish and unappealing characters. Very little action which is always preceded by endless talk and indecision and followed by endless analysis and reflection (especially when they have sex). No character to the right of George McGovern. Stakes too small to bear the weight of the prose. Almost no one in this book actually works for a paycheck; everyone is a grad student, an adjunct professor or applying for a grant. Setting the book in Boston/Cambridge does not help; it is just a Middlebury professor's idea of idea heaven. The heroine's two chilren are rather revolting as is she and her lawyer-lover. The ideas are confused as is the plot and theme, and the ethical issues and dramatic conflict are never fully realized or adequately discussed.The only saving grace of this book is that the author writes quite well. He can even do good dialogue which is rare in over-narrative academic novels. What he needs to do is work on a tramp steamer or spend a year in Tijuana or in a factory or something to get away from the bloodless overanalytical tepid world of academia. If he had something good to write about he'd be an excellent writer. A big disappointment; hope he will keep writing and do better next time.
Rating: 
Summary: Keep on playing those mind games ...
Review: Extremely successful novel that takes the premise - whether prescribed mind drugs have any useful purpose - and explores it in a compelling fashion. Cohen writes in a way that gets under the characters' skins. Quite unusual in contemporary literature, this one is so well researched, so relevant, it was impossible to put down. It did however leave me feeling as if I too had taken the drugs and experienced the highs and lows together with Bonnie and Eddie. By the end I was emotionally drained, wrung out, but in a good way!
Rating: 
Summary: Very good but would have liked more Bonnie and less Ian
Review: First, I agree with all of the reviewers who commented on how well-written the book was. Cohen is simply an excellent writer who really can string words together beautifully. I was particularly impressed by little touches such as Cress' book report on Macbeth, where he has to write as a 15-year old like Cress might write, and the E-mail exchanges, and the E-Mail exchanges. The dialogue is great too. I really admire his talent. In addition, I don't necessarily agree with those who criticized the entire cast of characters in the book, as if to throw them all in a pot together. However, I did find all the chapters about Bonnie and her world (Larry Albeit, Cress, her kids etc.) to be much more interesting than the chapters about Ian and his world (Heflin, Marisa Chu, Erway, Eddie, etc.). And therein lies a problem: As the novel went on, while there is obviously some intersection between Bonnie's life and Ian's life, it seemed that Ian and his world took center stage more and more while Bonnie and her group got pushed to the sidelines. Not completely of course, but enough to annoy. I would have enjoyed more about Bonnie & Co. and less about Ian & Co. It also seemed to me as if, except for one twist, the ending seemed to fizzle out a little, as if the author lost some of his focused edge. Nevertheless, still a fine novel.
Rating:
Summary: Very good but would have liked more Bonnie and less Ian
Review: First, I agree with all of the reviewers who commented on how well-written the book was. Cohen is simply an excellent writer who really can string words together beautifully. I was particularly impressed by little touches such as Cress' book report on Macbeth, where he has to write as a 15-year old like Cress might write, and the E-mail exchanges, and the E-Mail exchanges. The dialogue is great too. I really admire his talent. In addition, I don't necessarily agree with those who criticized the entire cast of characters in the book, as if to throw them all in a pot together. However, I did find all the chapters about Bonnie and her world (Larry Albeit, Cress, her kids etc.) to be much more interesting than the chapters about Ian and his world (Heflin, Marisa Chu, Erway, Eddie, etc.). And therein lies a problem: As the novel went on, while there is obviously some intersection between Bonnie's life and Ian's life, it seemed that Ian and his world took center stage more and more while Bonnie and her group got pushed to the sidelines. Not completely of course, but enough to annoy. I would have enjoyed more about Bonnie & Co. and less about Ian & Co. It also seemed to me as if, except for one twist, the ending seemed to fizzle out a little, as if the author lost some of his focused edge. Nevertheless, still a fine novel.
Rating:
Summary: Long on prose; short on plot
Review: I agree with all those who have stated that Robert Cohen is eloquent and his characters well explored, but that is where my admiration for this novel ends. It seems the prose and character exploration are done at the expense of, or in place of, plot. I noted another reader commented that Cohen should be next to Chabon in sales. Chabon uses his prose as a vehicle to move plot and action. Cohen uses it in a reflective way that doesn't move his novels along the way Chabon's do. My issues with the plot in a nutshell are: We must read over 200 pages before the protagonist begins taking the drug and we see its effects. Foreshadowing abounds but there never is much follow-through on it. Issues foreshadowed include the dangerous nature of the drug, Howard Heflin's lack of forthrightness, Bonnie's lovers' deterioration, so on and so forth. They seem to add up to something sinister that never really quite surfaces. In short,the subject of the book is rich. His prose is beautiful but not enough to make up for a poorly executed plot.
Rating:
Summary: Inspired but ultimately trite
Review: I had to push myself complete this book. The author is intelligent and has many keen observations and mind opening views -- however this doens't add up to a good novel. The plot (did I miss it?) went nowhere. The characters were one dimensional -- they never felt true to me. Instead they seemed only representative of a certain life situation. The one redeaming quality of this book is the "truth in advertising" nature of the title -- it did indeed inspire me to sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Was It All A Dream?
Review: I read this lovely book on vacation and was, as a result, a little dubious of its true merit. After all, what isn't a great book when you are on the beach reading it? However, I reread it in my own habitat and am convinved that Robert Cohen is on to something. Bonnie is neither cute nor evil. She is frustrated, disappointed, and anxious about her children, her unplanned pregnancy, her husband's flaky departure to South America and all the other imperfect aspects of her life in Cambridge. On top of all this, she can't get to sleep. She thinks everything else would recede in importance if only she could get 40 winks. Ian Ogelvie is the quintessential academic rising star. Fellowships and grants have rained down upon him since he started school and now, facing 30, he is on the brink of a pharmaceutical breakthrough that could seal his fate...and save Bonnie's neck. So, Cohen has them meet and the results are insightful, funny, critical, and real. It is neither love story nor thriller. It is merely the story of a handful of characters whose desires and fears blind them to simple solutions their lives offer. This novel was witty in the way our own lives would be clever if we weren't desperately trying to figure out where they were going. I don't think it's necessary to rebut the one harsh review written of this book, but I would encourage anyone with the slightest bit of interest in seeing what the fuss is about to click and order. This book will interest you. You know people like these. Some of you, perhaps the most honest ones, realize that you are people like these.
Rating:
Summary: Was It All A Dream?
Review: I read this lovely book on vacation and was, as a result, a little dubious of its true merit. After all, what isn't a great book when you are on the beach reading it? However, I reread it in my own habitat and am convinved that Robert Cohen is on to something. Bonnie is neither cute nor evil. She is frustrated, disappointed, and anxious about her children, her unplanned pregnancy, her husband's flaky departure to South America and all the other imperfect aspects of her life in Cambridge. On top of all this, she can't get to sleep. She thinks everything else would recede in importance if only she could get 40 winks. Ian Ogelvie is the quintessential academic rising star. Fellowships and grants have rained down upon him since he started school and now, facing 30, he is on the brink of a pharmaceutical breakthrough that could seal his fate...and save Bonnie's neck. So, Cohen has them meet and the results are insightful, funny, critical, and real. It is neither love story nor thriller. It is merely the story of a handful of characters whose desires and fears blind them to simple solutions their lives offer. This novel was witty in the way our own lives would be clever if we weren't desperately trying to figure out where they were going. I don't think it's necessary to rebut the one harsh review written of this book, but I would encourage anyone with the slightest bit of interest in seeing what the fuss is about to click and order. This book will interest you. You know people like these. Some of you, perhaps the most honest ones, realize that you are people like these.
Rating:
Summary: NEW England, not England
Review: I'd like to add my 2 cents and 5 stars to the debate our reviewer from across the sea seems to have spawned. To put it quite simply, he apparently just doesnt get it. Robert Cohen,with a keen wit and kind heart, takes an ax and expertly chops up a New England slice of life. There is good humor in each paragraph. The characters are like the people one meets every day with some extra quirks thrown in for good measure. Perhaps the man from over there has come down with that foot and mouth disease that we are hearing about. My advice to him is- take a bunch of Zoloft every day for 6 weeks and reread Inspired Sleep. For anyone else who needs a good laugh and has no particular "beef" with a piece of fiction set in Boston, you will thoroughly enjoy this upbeat& high spirited comedy of modern middle class America.
Rating:
Summary: offsetting prose
Review: If I were rating Robert Cohen's Inspired Sleep on prose alone, it would get all the stars in the sprawling, twinkly-lit galaxy. In fact, the prose is so grandiose and asthetically appealing that I am prepared to shelve my criticisms of the plot, the shaky narrative ebb and flow. I guess it all boils down to this: If you are a reader who enjoys reading gripping, plot-driven novels that immerse you fully into the story and move along quickly and to the point, than forget about Ispired Sleep. But, if you are a reader who likes a good, relevent story and who is a sucker for the sublime written word, then look no further: here is your sought-after treasure.
And not that the plot is bad.
Robert Cohen gives us three-dimensional vistas into different characters' lives, their messy human heads. Bonnie Saks is a single, middle-aged mother with a merciless and incomplete dissertation thundering about her subconscious, teaching adjunct intermittently at a Boston college, and helplessly restive at night. Ian Ogelvie is a young and ambitious research scientist who may have just what she needs, the pharmaceutical answer to her prayers. No, the plot isn't bad, per se, and it certainly is relevant. Cohen has adeptly painted a cogent panorama of the pharmacological industry in the dawn of the new century, and his ruminations on the ethical, moral, and humanistic questions inherent within its inexorable progression are well-thought and appreciated. So he tends to get carried away here and there, and some chapters may be tedious and cause the reader to slog, but in the end it's all completely worth it. Check it out and see what I mean.
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