Inspired Sleep : A Novel

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: 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: An intriguing read from a writer of gorgeous prose
Review: Robert Cohen has won numerous awards, and I can't quite understand why his
name and sales don't rank right up there with other contemporary writers
like Michael Chabon and Tom Perrotta. In INSPIRED SLEEP, Cohen examines the
public's dependence on/love affair with prescription drugs such as
anti-depressants. Chapters rotate between the perspective of two main
characters --Bonnie Saks, a divorced mother of two, and Ian Ogelvie, a
psychiatrist/researcher on a project designed to enhance REM sleep and
thereby elevate the subject's mood. Saks is an insomniac who becomes a
subject in Ogelvie's study at "Boston General" hospital. The novel explores
a lot of big issues -- such as the way today's medical researchers are in
bed with big pharma -- and all the room for corruption/lapses of ethics that
can create. The book also looks at the potential impact of placebos,
explained in detail by Ian as expectancy theory -- the idea that merely
wanting something to come true can bring about its fruition. It's
fascinating to watch the varied perspectives -- Bonnie's a cynic, who is
depressed about her life -- and Ian is an idealist, who has complete faith
in the medical model, believing that one day medicine can find a
drug-related cure for every human ailment -- emotional and physical. As much
as this book will get you thinking, though, the greatest joy comes from the
way Cohen writes. He drafts some of the most beautiful sentences I've ever
read. If you like this one, go back and read The Here and Now and The Organ
Builder. Both are terrific reads as well.