Nothing about this book is ordinary. It is an exceptional story and without a doubt one of the best books I’ve read in ages.
Vanessa (Ness) works for a pharmaceutical company that develops drugs, one drug in particular is in the trial phase: Morpheum, the magic sleeping pill which gets you to sleep 8 hours solid and have the best dreams you’ve ever imagined. Ness could use this miracle pill. Ever since her husband, Pete, shook up her marital bliss by wanting to start a family, Ness has been plagued by nightmares fuelled by the trauma of an awful experience in her past. Instead of confiding in her husband, Ness ends up talking to her slightly irritating, but still cute co-worker, Altan, who has been struggling in the aftermath of his divorce. Altan has a secret, too. He has a stash of Morpheum tablets and offers Ness some to help her get some sleep. When Ness takes the pill they discover an unexpected side-effect of the drug: people who know each other can experience the same dream when they both take Morpheum. While sharing the dream world, Ness and Altan get to know each other... Meanwhile, in the waking world, Pete is swamped with work and is rarely at home, while Ness faces continuous harassment from her immediate superior, Malcom, and escapes further and further into the world of her dreams where the truth comes more easily and Altan makes for a supportive companion.
Ness is the classic character stuck in limbo. She has a job she hates. She is comfortable in her marriage, but doesn’t get any memorable experiences out of it. Although she loves Pete very much, her past and her own thoughts about herself hold her back continuously, stopping her from moving forward and growing together with the man she loves. Ness also has a passion. She loves photography and has always dreamed of traveling, but she lacks the courage to do what she loves and instead sticks with the job she hates in an environment where she is regularly harassed, on many counts, because she believes this is how things are and she cannot do anything about it. Pete is the picture-perfect husband, a steady guy who wants to spend his life with the woman he loves and their children, providing for his family. He is the epitome of safety. His only problem is the taxing nature of his job as a divorce attorney with big-shot clients who make his firm work really hard, forcing him to sometimes stay at work for days on end. Altan has suffered a blow to his ego and his heart from the divorce with his wife. He covers up his sensitivity with a hard shell of insolence and brittle humour. He is essentially a kind and considerate individual who wants to help those around him, but ends up getting in too deep. The way things look, he’s headed straight for getting another burn out of his efforts.
Let’s continue with what I love about this book—and there’s so much to love! Kitty Cook’s style is awesome. It is light-hearted and easy to read, making the at times tough subject matter fun to get through. It is an experience to remember, just like a Morpheum dream... The whole book has a great flow, it drags you right into the maelstrom. I, for one, got sucked right in, deeper and deeper, and the whirlpool spat me out with a gurgle at the end. And yes, it is also funny! Brownie points for the funny.
From a social perspective, it is high time we have something like this novel. In the wake of the #metoo movement, this book explores really powerful ideas of what sexual harassment does to people and the problem of people who don’t (or can’t) experience it not knowing what it’s like and trivialising the experience. This book provides an excellent opportunity for men and women to take a step back from where the discussion on sexual harassment brought on by me too movement has been heading, and instead shift things into a different direction which is more understanding. I really love this! Furthermore, there is a very good message of empowerment. We cannot help the things that are done to us, but we can help how we let them affect us. We can push back in terms of how we look at a scenario and the thoughts about ourselves we allow it to incite about ourselves. We can overcome our trauma and grow as people, and we can go out and make our dreams come true because we are worthy and we don’t need to spend time and energy pulling ourselves down all the time. Ness’s story of empowerment goes even further because it shows that we can get out of situations that are not acceptable, we don’t have to live with harassment in the workplace, for example. Although Kitty Cook does point out that the men doing the harassing don’t get much more than a rap on the knuckles for their transgressions, women can stand up for themselves and find another workplace where they are appreciated instead. Knowledge is power, and knowing you are not bound to stay in a place where you are disrespected, abused, harassed etc, is so empowering because it underpins a change in the way we think about ourselves and our own worth and what we are willing to put up with. Power comes with speaking out, telling the truth, and being able to take control of one’s own life. So, thank you to Kitty Cook for putting such an empowering message into her novel.
From a psychological perspective, the message surrounding psychological trauma is also very beautifully put. I love the way Kitty Cook describes Ness’s journey of development coming to terms with what happened to her and healing her trauma. She most certainly doesn’t end the novel a picture of health and beauty, but she does confront her trauma and begin the process of healing her soul. I liked this focus because it is rare that a novel will take such heavy psychological material and engage with it. I found the message of how one can overcome the scars left behind from traumatic experiences quite uplifting.
Unfortunately not everything about this novel is perfect... Perfection is so hard to achieve. I have one pet peeve about Sleeping Together and that is the cultural references. They are excellent, but it is implausible that people who will be in their thirties 25 years from now will reference cultural artefacts from the 80s and 90s. Honestly, does Kitty Cook believe no culture will flourish in the decades to come? Furthermore, she changes nothing about the culture. Everyone is as we are. Considering the huge changes in lifestyle which have occurred in the past twenty years, I sincerely doubt our lives are going to go static. If Kitty Cook didn’t want to project a possible future for 2045, it would have been better and more believable to set the book into a closer future, say 5 years from today. The whole thing would have fitted so much better if it had been set in our own age and been about people in their early thirties right now, not our children who will be in their thirties in the era she picked. Well, it is a small detail, but still, a pet peeve.
To finish on a positive note, and yes, there is more! From a literary perspective, I loved the way Kitty Cook drew parallels to The Great Gatsby, that paragon of American literature. Of course, in terms of the story, she could have even rubbed it in further by referencing Casablanca, but hey, I suppose Gatsby is enough. I thought that literary thread was very cleverly done. Totally loved it, and the extra twist at the end—which I’m not going to reveal! All I’ll say is this: Sleeping Together updates the issues we might have with The Great Gatsby in this day and age, engages with a similar situation and finds a different outcome. More brownie points!
If there’s one book you should treat yourself to this year, let it be this one! (And no, I am not doing this for any reason other than I actually really enjoyed this book!)
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