Sleep If You Dare (Insomnia - Stephen King)

Member Name: joannavos

Product:	Insomnia - Stephen King
Date:	21/06/01 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent read, Can be believable in a sci-fi kind of way!, Work of Art

Disadvantages: Bit slow to start

Ralph Roberts is waiting for his wife to die. She’s terminally ill and SK describes his suspicion and anger towards the doctor who failed to diagnose her early enough with great skill. Time ticks by and Ralph’s death-watch comes to an end. Shortly after his wife’s death, Ralph’s sleeping patterns start changing. He starts waking up earlier and earlier but at first just assumes it’s related to growing older as people tend to need less sleep as they get older. Presumably that’s why I see so many old folks out strolling at some un-Godly hour of the morning when I would happily be still in bed but instead have to prop my eyes open to drive to work!

He starts waking up earlier each morning, he’s tried hundreds of supposed remedies, which have all failed but he’s reluctant to see his doctor because of his anger over his part in his wife’s death.

King has built up the characters really well and even his wife plays a small part throughout the book by way of chirpy little comments in Ralph’s head. It takes a while to work out where the story is going (other than the insomnia of course!), but it starts to take on typical King characteristics when Ralph witnesses a scene involving one of his younger friend’s, Ed Deepneau. His wife Helen and baby Natalie are also central to the story although not main characters by any means.

When Ralph starts hallucinating, he puts it down to his lack of sleep, especially when he spots some little bald doctors coming out of the house of a chronically ill old lady across the road from him, in the middle of the night. This is where the story turns sci-fi. Ralph describes what he sees as auras. Lois, another main character, widow and friend of Ralph’s describes them as colours.

The story feels a little restricted and slow until the point where they both confide in each other and discover that they have both been experiencing the same sl
eepless nights, the same ‘hallucinations’ and team together. This is the point where you start to glean bits of information about the nature of what is happening to them. Higher forces of nature, random and purposeful forces. Fate, destiny, love, hate, anger. It’s all there. The central issue for all these people and forces is a right-to-life campaign and a beaten women refuge, who are looking forward to Susan Day coming to town to give a talk. There is huge friction between opposing sides in the weeks and months running up to the rally. Ralph and Lois find themselves to be the chosen ones to resolve the situation after a renegade random little bald doctor cuts the life string of someone he wasn’t supposed to take out. It seems there’s hell to pay from the higher entities and all forces, earthly or otherwise.

This book is gripping from the start even if it does start off a little slowly. I’ve found that King does have a tendency to do this but once you reach the point where you are immersed into King-land you appreciate the slow build up as you feel you know the characters intimately. It’s easy to empathise with King’s characters and this only adds to the suspense and nail-bitingly tense conclusions.

This is one of King’s better books although by no means his best (in my opinion!). It’s definitely worth reading for King fans and King beginners alike. If you haven’t read much of his work to date, don’t be put off, this is a great book to start with. After reading it, you will want to read more of his excellent stuff. If you didn’t like him before, you will after reading this.

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