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Sleep Donation
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Swamplandia!, and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, an imaginative and haunting novella about an insomnia epidemic set in the near future.
A crisis has swept America. Hundreds of thousands have lost the ability to sleep. Enter the Slumber Corps, an organization that urges healthy dreamers to donate sleep to an insomniac. Under the wealthy and enigmatic Storch brothers the Corps' reach has grown, with outposts in every major US city. Trish Edgewater, whose sister Dori was one of the first victims of the lethal insomnia, has spent the past seven years recruiting for the Corps. But Trish’s faith in the organization and in her own motives begins to falter when she is confronted by “Baby A,� the first universal sleep donor, and the mysterious "Donor Y."
Sleep Donation explores a world facing the end of sleep as we know it, where “Night Worlds� offer black market remedies to the desperate and sleep deprived, and where even the act of making a gift is not as simple as it appears.
A crisis has swept America. Hundreds of thousands have lost the ability to sleep. Enter the Slumber Corps, an organization that urges healthy dreamers to donate sleep to an insomniac. Under the wealthy and enigmatic Storch brothers the Corps' reach has grown, with outposts in every major US city. Trish Edgewater, whose sister Dori was one of the first victims of the lethal insomnia, has spent the past seven years recruiting for the Corps. But Trish’s faith in the organization and in her own motives begins to falter when she is confronted by “Baby A,� the first universal sleep donor, and the mysterious "Donor Y."
Sleep Donation explores a world facing the end of sleep as we know it, where “Night Worlds� offer black market remedies to the desperate and sleep deprived, and where even the act of making a gift is not as simple as it appears.
110 pages, ebook
First published March 25, 2014
250 people are currently reading
13417 people want to read
About the author
Karen Russell
57books3,170followersKaren Russell graduated from Columbia University's MFA program in 2006. Her stories have been featured in The Best American Short Stories, Conjunctions, Granta, The New Yorker, Oxford American, and Zoetrope. Her first book of short stories, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, was published in September 2006. In November 2009, she was named a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" honoree. In June 2010, she was named a New Yorker "20 Under 40" honoree. Her first novel, Swamplandia!, was published in February 2011.
She lives in Washington Heights, New York.
She lives in Washington Heights, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,196 reviews
September 29, 2020
NOW AVAILABLE as a print book, so i guess ignore all the parts of this review that are old-edition specific.
this is the first title from the newly-launched , which looks like it is going to be an e-publisher for cool novellas from authors i like and makes me really glad i have come around on the whole e-reader thing, albeit reluctantly.
it's a great piece of writing, about an insomnia epidemic that takes over the world, and slumber corps, a non-profit organization that forms to recruit sleep donors who try to cure the afflicted with their own sleep.
science, schmience. this is not that kind of book. it is instead a book about moral conflicts and the dread of a people confronted with a deadly epidemic that is unprecedented and whose origin and details of communicability are obscure. without sleep, the body is unable to repair itself, and ends up making the insomniac look like a meth addict as their bodies waste away and their minds shatter completely. this is what happened to trish's sister dori, one of the first casualties of the disease.
She died awake, after twenty days, eleven hours, and fourteen minutes without sleep. Locked flightlessly inside her skull.
trish is one of the most successful recruiters at sleep corps and has been working there for seven years, ever since her sister died. she uses her sister's story, and her still-potent grief over dori's death to emotionally manipulate people into donating their sleep. dori was a vivacious, beautiful, girl - Miss "Three jobs, Two College Majors, and There's a Flask in my Purse, and she wasted away into a stranger. trish feels conflicted about using her sister's memory as a tactic to strong-arm people into guiltily donating their sleep, but since the means justify the ends, she delivers her speech time and time again, with genuine tears and only a small twinge of guilt.
later, she finds herself in a larger moral dilemma; an amplification of her accustomed conflict between what feels right and what will do the most good, after forging a relationship with the parents of "Baby A," a universal sleep donor, after the disease takes a new and frightening turn, after she finds out some secrets her employers have been keeping.
it's a really tight and well-written story, the best parts of which are all the various responses to the epidemic; the cults that arise in its wake, the fear and misinformation, the enclaves that form to cater to those afflicted. she has created a very scary but all-too-real piece of speculative fiction, and trish is a lovely and nuanced character. way to rock that macarthur, karen russell!
i really look forward to more titles from atavist, if this is going to be their standard.
this is the first title from the newly-launched , which looks like it is going to be an e-publisher for cool novellas from authors i like and makes me really glad i have come around on the whole e-reader thing, albeit reluctantly.
it's a great piece of writing, about an insomnia epidemic that takes over the world, and slumber corps, a non-profit organization that forms to recruit sleep donors who try to cure the afflicted with their own sleep.
science, schmience. this is not that kind of book. it is instead a book about moral conflicts and the dread of a people confronted with a deadly epidemic that is unprecedented and whose origin and details of communicability are obscure. without sleep, the body is unable to repair itself, and ends up making the insomniac look like a meth addict as their bodies waste away and their minds shatter completely. this is what happened to trish's sister dori, one of the first casualties of the disease.
She died awake, after twenty days, eleven hours, and fourteen minutes without sleep. Locked flightlessly inside her skull.
trish is one of the most successful recruiters at sleep corps and has been working there for seven years, ever since her sister died. she uses her sister's story, and her still-potent grief over dori's death to emotionally manipulate people into donating their sleep. dori was a vivacious, beautiful, girl - Miss "Three jobs, Two College Majors, and There's a Flask in my Purse, and she wasted away into a stranger. trish feels conflicted about using her sister's memory as a tactic to strong-arm people into guiltily donating their sleep, but since the means justify the ends, she delivers her speech time and time again, with genuine tears and only a small twinge of guilt.
later, she finds herself in a larger moral dilemma; an amplification of her accustomed conflict between what feels right and what will do the most good, after forging a relationship with the parents of "Baby A," a universal sleep donor, after the disease takes a new and frightening turn, after she finds out some secrets her employers have been keeping.
it's a really tight and well-written story, the best parts of which are all the various responses to the epidemic; the cults that arise in its wake, the fear and misinformation, the enclaves that form to cater to those afflicted. she has created a very scary but all-too-real piece of speculative fiction, and trish is a lovely and nuanced character. way to rock that macarthur, karen russell!
i really look forward to more titles from atavist, if this is going to be their standard.
April 9, 2014
Man, I really, REALLY want to like Karen Russell's work. I mean, I found the plot of this e-novella (wherein what lies ahead for us is a world in which a strange, disturbing insomnia has gripped the nation, forcing people with healthy sleep patterns to donate their sleep to the less fortunate in a kind of futuristic blood bank of zzzs) to be fascinating.
But about mid-way through, I hit a snag of sorts with Russell's writing that reminded me of why, despite the hoopla that surrounded it, her "Swamplandia!" failed to stack up for me in EXACTLY the same way. And I think it's this: Russell's writing overreaches and, at times, can easily pass as being condescending to the reader. I mean, I'd like to think I'm a well-read person, someone with a more than average/decent vocabulary. But when I'm highlighting words on my phone, ones she's chosen to use as her adjectives of choice, searching for their meaning ('chitinous' shell of sarcasm? the actual 'ungulate'? 'nacreous' skin?), then enough already. I mean, WE GET IT. You're REALLY REALLY smart and you have the vocabulary to prove it (and I don't know..maybe hold degrees in biology and astrology and Greek mythology? Seriously, the girl knows her stuff in those departments or else no way would she be drawing from the banks of words she does to describe the everyday and mundane.)
It's just ... weird for me...I've yet to experience this phenomenon with any other writers I read, this disconnect of sorts in wanting to like the writer more than I do and feeling that the promise is there if she would just, I don't know, maybe get out of her own way a little bit (or have an editor to address this issue with her). And who knows, perhaps I'm the only one to feel this way about Russell's work (and it's likely I am, publishing darling that she is), but I just think if she would lose hold on her tendencies to overreach with all those descriptions of hers, then her books would be that much better——out-of-the-ballpark awesome even. Unfortunately, after two strikes, I'm not so sure I'm willing to find out.
But about mid-way through, I hit a snag of sorts with Russell's writing that reminded me of why, despite the hoopla that surrounded it, her "Swamplandia!" failed to stack up for me in EXACTLY the same way. And I think it's this: Russell's writing overreaches and, at times, can easily pass as being condescending to the reader. I mean, I'd like to think I'm a well-read person, someone with a more than average/decent vocabulary. But when I'm highlighting words on my phone, ones she's chosen to use as her adjectives of choice, searching for their meaning ('chitinous' shell of sarcasm? the actual 'ungulate'? 'nacreous' skin?), then enough already. I mean, WE GET IT. You're REALLY REALLY smart and you have the vocabulary to prove it (and I don't know..maybe hold degrees in biology and astrology and Greek mythology? Seriously, the girl knows her stuff in those departments or else no way would she be drawing from the banks of words she does to describe the everyday and mundane.)
It's just ... weird for me...I've yet to experience this phenomenon with any other writers I read, this disconnect of sorts in wanting to like the writer more than I do and feeling that the promise is there if she would just, I don't know, maybe get out of her own way a little bit (or have an editor to address this issue with her). And who knows, perhaps I'm the only one to feel this way about Russell's work (and it's likely I am, publishing darling that she is), but I just think if she would lose hold on her tendencies to overreach with all those descriptions of hers, then her books would be that much better——out-of-the-ballpark awesome even. Unfortunately, after two strikes, I'm not so sure I'm willing to find out.
August 29, 2023
2,5�
Lo mejor que puedo decir de este libro es que es corto. Se lee en una sentada, otra cosa es que nos quede claro exactamente qué hemos leído. Lo cogí prestado por eBiblio. En casos como este, la red pública de bibliotecas digitales se agradece más que nunca.
La idea de la que parte no es mala. Una epidemia de insomnio azota a EEUU, la gente muere. La única solución es "transfundirles" sueño extraído a donantes sanos. Hasta ahí bien. El problema es cómo lo desarrolla.
Trata de todo y de nada. Una captadora de donantes que utiliza el caso de su hermana muerta para convencer. Una agencia "sin ánimo de lucro", que transfunde el sueño a los insomes por riguroso orden de prioridad. Un socio fundador de esa agencia que se corrompe. Una bebé, donante universal, cuyo sueño curativo es compatible con todo tipo de receptores. Un donante que contagia una pesadilla terrible. La subcultura social que engendra la enfermedad. Los escrúpulos de conciencia de la captadora y un final en el que no me queda claro nada de nada.
En fin, que le doy el aprobado justito porque a punto estuve de abandonarla, pero me pudo la curiosidad y la leí de un tirón. Algo debe de tener, aunque no sepa precisar el qué y no la pueda recomendar
Lo mejor que puedo decir de este libro es que es corto. Se lee en una sentada, otra cosa es que nos quede claro exactamente qué hemos leído. Lo cogí prestado por eBiblio. En casos como este, la red pública de bibliotecas digitales se agradece más que nunca.
La idea de la que parte no es mala. Una epidemia de insomnio azota a EEUU, la gente muere. La única solución es "transfundirles" sueño extraído a donantes sanos. Hasta ahí bien. El problema es cómo lo desarrolla.
Trata de todo y de nada. Una captadora de donantes que utiliza el caso de su hermana muerta para convencer. Una agencia "sin ánimo de lucro", que transfunde el sueño a los insomes por riguroso orden de prioridad. Un socio fundador de esa agencia que se corrompe. Una bebé, donante universal, cuyo sueño curativo es compatible con todo tipo de receptores. Un donante que contagia una pesadilla terrible. La subcultura social que engendra la enfermedad. Los escrúpulos de conciencia de la captadora y un final en el que no me queda claro nada de nada.
En fin, que le doy el aprobado justito porque a punto estuve de abandonarla, pero me pudo la curiosidad y la leí de un tirón. Algo debe de tener, aunque no sepa precisar el qué y no la pueda recomendar
November 24, 2020
Beautiful prose. Fascinating concept. Felt like it ended too soon though.
March 24, 2014
Three stars means "I liked it," right? Well, I liked it. So three stars. Bam.
Synopsis all up in yo' face: America has fallen under the dark spell of insomnia, and we follow a worker at the Sleep Corps. The Corps siphon nice, peaceful sleep from thems than can, and inject it or something into thems that can't. A great idea for a story, yes? I concur.
But the execution didn't "do it" for me. First-of-ly, the narration is the dialog kind of narration, which is I always find incredibly hit-or-miss. There were moments of beauty and genius, I won't lie. It just wasn't consistently gripping. Towards the end (and it was only 120 pages) I had to really work to finish it.
So I liked it, and I'm glad I read it, but it wasn't totally my cup of tea. One of those books that are better as a memory of a story, rather than the book you're actually reading.
(Did that make sense?)
Synopsis all up in yo' face: America has fallen under the dark spell of insomnia, and we follow a worker at the Sleep Corps. The Corps siphon nice, peaceful sleep from thems than can, and inject it or something into thems that can't. A great idea for a story, yes? I concur.
But the execution didn't "do it" for me. First-of-ly, the narration is the dialog kind of narration, which is I always find incredibly hit-or-miss. There were moments of beauty and genius, I won't lie. It just wasn't consistently gripping. Towards the end (and it was only 120 pages) I had to really work to finish it.
So I liked it, and I'm glad I read it, but it wasn't totally my cup of tea. One of those books that are better as a memory of a story, rather than the book you're actually reading.
(Did that make sense?)
January 27, 2014
Sleep Donation is the first book from a new publisher Atavist Books that appears to be publishing predominantly e-books, with some of the titles being available in print format, too. They've got an impressive looking group of authors lined up for their first wave of releases, they have some people from interesting parts of the publishing world running things and even more importantly it looks like they are going to be giving some time to pushing each book to try to help build careers and not just quick flash in the pan sales. This publisher looks like it could be something awesome.
Before I go any farther, because I'll probably forget to mention this if I don't say it now. I received this book free from Netgalley. I'm writing this review like every other review I've ever written for this website without any kind of compensation.
I know that there are books on insomnia out there, but until recently I hadn't read any. But now there are two that will be coming out in the early part of 2014. This one and Black Moon. I recommend them both and while this book isn't technically a dystopia it does point to another possibility of the whimper the world might end in.
The main character of the story, Trish, is part of a group that collects sleep from donors to give to people suffering from a lethal insomnia. Unlike the insomnia we have now, where suffers still manage micro-sleep that keeps them from completely breaking down from the stress of being constantly awake, this is full fledged, no sleep, no rest no matter how hard you try and if you don't sleep in about three weeks you will die type of insomnia.
Sleep from healthy sleepers can be given to the insomniacs, and there is a fair chance that they may break free from the clutches of sleeplessness and return to normal sleep. Trish is the top recruiter for Slumber Corps., a non-profit organization that is like a blood bank, but instead of going around collecting blood, they hook up healthy sleepers to some machines and harvest their sleep to be given to those in need.
Trish's sister was the first known victim of lethal insomnia, and the way that Trish can transfer the story of her sister to others is the secret to her success at getting people to donate their sleep.
Karen Russell in the past has kind of reminded me of someone coming out of the George Saunders style of fiction writing. Her books had that same kind of absurd edge mixed with compassion that Saunders does so well. This story I see her adding some of the abstract qualities of Ben Marcus to her writing. Like Marcus's Flame Alphabet, Sleep Donation is about a world in crisis over something relatively abstract. In Marcus it was language that was a poison. Here it is sleep, something we can know physically, but which it's kind of tough to wrap your head around what it would mean to donate sleep.
Besides being an interesting although fairly unlikely eschatology, the story is also an interesting look into what the nature of exchange relationships are. At the center of the story is the gift exchange. People donating expecting nothing in return except that knowledge that they may be helping someone out. The reality that they are helping anyone isn't necessarily true. Adults are recruited to donate sleep that Slumber Corps., knows is worthless just to get access to their child's sleep which could be beneficial. Only thirty percent of people who receive sleep donations recover their regular sleeping patterns. What you are donating, your gift may be worthless. It may never be given to anyone. You'll never know, but you are donating. You are giving.
It's a tricky business thinking about gifts. I no longer have some of the necessary brainpower to process what I want to think and put it into words, but this book stirred some of the rusted bits of my memory and tried to get them moving again.
A large part of Trish's success is that she gives the prospective donors the story of her sister. She channels her dead sister (in a manner of speaking) to emotionally move the prospective donor and get them to give. This makes the donation not a pure gift, what they expect in return is alleviation from the feelings that Trish's sister could have been saved if there had been sleep donations available then. They are exchanging their sleep for relieving an uncomfortable state of mind.
But what about the children of the parents who are emotionally manipulated into entering in this exchange economy? They are the real targets, they have the more valuable sleep, but they aren't giving freely. If a parent takes some of their kids toys when the kid isn't looking and hands them out to less privileged kids is the child giving the gift they don't know they are giving? Can someone give something that isn't theirs? And what if what you give is shitty and your gift ends up harming someone? And what if money enters into this 'gift' exchange economy?
Putting some of the scenes in this book against some of the late things that later Derrida wrote about gifts (oh god, I really just wrote that), or with the ideas in Lewis Hyde's The Gift (a book I've kind of sort of read but never read cover to cover) I think you start to get some interesting abstract depth to the story.
I hope I haven't scared off any potential readers with these last few paragraphs. This isn't one of those cold novels that you can only enjoy if you play around with some theory to make it interesting. It's good, and you should probably give it a try and support a new publisher that has some interesting ideas in changing the way books are published and promoted.
Before I go any farther, because I'll probably forget to mention this if I don't say it now. I received this book free from Netgalley. I'm writing this review like every other review I've ever written for this website without any kind of compensation.
I know that there are books on insomnia out there, but until recently I hadn't read any. But now there are two that will be coming out in the early part of 2014. This one and Black Moon. I recommend them both and while this book isn't technically a dystopia it does point to another possibility of the whimper the world might end in.
The main character of the story, Trish, is part of a group that collects sleep from donors to give to people suffering from a lethal insomnia. Unlike the insomnia we have now, where suffers still manage micro-sleep that keeps them from completely breaking down from the stress of being constantly awake, this is full fledged, no sleep, no rest no matter how hard you try and if you don't sleep in about three weeks you will die type of insomnia.
Sleep from healthy sleepers can be given to the insomniacs, and there is a fair chance that they may break free from the clutches of sleeplessness and return to normal sleep. Trish is the top recruiter for Slumber Corps., a non-profit organization that is like a blood bank, but instead of going around collecting blood, they hook up healthy sleepers to some machines and harvest their sleep to be given to those in need.
Trish's sister was the first known victim of lethal insomnia, and the way that Trish can transfer the story of her sister to others is the secret to her success at getting people to donate their sleep.
Karen Russell in the past has kind of reminded me of someone coming out of the George Saunders style of fiction writing. Her books had that same kind of absurd edge mixed with compassion that Saunders does so well. This story I see her adding some of the abstract qualities of Ben Marcus to her writing. Like Marcus's Flame Alphabet, Sleep Donation is about a world in crisis over something relatively abstract. In Marcus it was language that was a poison. Here it is sleep, something we can know physically, but which it's kind of tough to wrap your head around what it would mean to donate sleep.
Besides being an interesting although fairly unlikely eschatology, the story is also an interesting look into what the nature of exchange relationships are. At the center of the story is the gift exchange. People donating expecting nothing in return except that knowledge that they may be helping someone out. The reality that they are helping anyone isn't necessarily true. Adults are recruited to donate sleep that Slumber Corps., knows is worthless just to get access to their child's sleep which could be beneficial. Only thirty percent of people who receive sleep donations recover their regular sleeping patterns. What you are donating, your gift may be worthless. It may never be given to anyone. You'll never know, but you are donating. You are giving.
It's a tricky business thinking about gifts. I no longer have some of the necessary brainpower to process what I want to think and put it into words, but this book stirred some of the rusted bits of my memory and tried to get them moving again.
A large part of Trish's success is that she gives the prospective donors the story of her sister. She channels her dead sister (in a manner of speaking) to emotionally move the prospective donor and get them to give. This makes the donation not a pure gift, what they expect in return is alleviation from the feelings that Trish's sister could have been saved if there had been sleep donations available then. They are exchanging their sleep for relieving an uncomfortable state of mind.
But what about the children of the parents who are emotionally manipulated into entering in this exchange economy? They are the real targets, they have the more valuable sleep, but they aren't giving freely. If a parent takes some of their kids toys when the kid isn't looking and hands them out to less privileged kids is the child giving the gift they don't know they are giving? Can someone give something that isn't theirs? And what if what you give is shitty and your gift ends up harming someone? And what if money enters into this 'gift' exchange economy?
Putting some of the scenes in this book against some of the late things that later Derrida wrote about gifts (oh god, I really just wrote that), or with the ideas in Lewis Hyde's The Gift (a book I've kind of sort of read but never read cover to cover) I think you start to get some interesting abstract depth to the story.
I hope I haven't scared off any potential readers with these last few paragraphs. This isn't one of those cold novels that you can only enjoy if you play around with some theory to make it interesting. It's good, and you should probably give it a try and support a new publisher that has some interesting ideas in changing the way books are published and promoted.
December 11, 2024
3 stars
short review for busy readers:
This sci-fi novella has a brilliant premise and some very interesting, and correct!, things to say about charity work and the general public.
What is truly altruistic, and are some people just too good for this (generally speaking) egotistical and greedy world? How does the desire to get a (marketable) result make people lie about the safety of products, medications and technologies? How do charities commodify suffering and death into a sales strategy that works?
These are just some of the important questions raised.
Unfortunately, a little over half-way through, Russell increasingly loses control of her material and the novella begins to wander in circles like a semi-lost tourist trying to find their way back to their hotel. The ideas become repetitive, scenes apropos of nothing are added, our protag seems to not be able to see her way out of the predicament she finds herself in, and the prose becomes even more opaque.
Excellent foundation, world building and choice of topic -- but less than sterling execution. Should have been a short-ish story.
short review for busy readers:
This sci-fi novella has a brilliant premise and some very interesting, and correct!, things to say about charity work and the general public.
What is truly altruistic, and are some people just too good for this (generally speaking) egotistical and greedy world? How does the desire to get a (marketable) result make people lie about the safety of products, medications and technologies? How do charities commodify suffering and death into a sales strategy that works?
These are just some of the important questions raised.
Unfortunately, a little over half-way through, Russell increasingly loses control of her material and the novella begins to wander in circles like a semi-lost tourist trying to find their way back to their hotel. The ideas become repetitive, scenes apropos of nothing are added, our protag seems to not be able to see her way out of the predicament she finds herself in, and the prose becomes even more opaque.
Excellent foundation, world building and choice of topic -- but less than sterling execution. Should have been a short-ish story.
March 29, 2014
Really enjoyed this but the ending was so abrupt. That works for short stories (those being Russell's strength), but when I invest in a novella-length story that is so engrossing, I want a little more resolution.
June 30, 2014
I want to preface this review by saying that I was very excited to read this novella. I have heard so many great things about Karen Russell, and I thought this would be a nice little introduction to her writing style. So I happily paid the $3.99 on Amazon, thinking I was in for a special treat. Boy was I wrong.
Here’s the thing about Russell’s writing- its good. It is obvious to the reader that she is an intelligent woman and an accomplished writer in the mechanical sense. However, “Sleep Donation� fails to tell an appealing story- in fact, it doesn’t really tell a story at all. Russell attempts to throw the reader into this fictitious world with overly convoluted language and lengthy descriptions of the insomniacs that go on and on and ON. It’s like the story keeps saying the same thing, over and over again, with more and more words, without really bringing any new insight to the reader. We get it, these people can’t sleep and it’s terrible. I don’t need to be told that in ridiculous detail 10,000 times over. She does all of this, explaining every little detail about the insomnia epidemic, to the point that you have no idea what point she’s trying to make. It becomes an absolute mess and any meaning or heart to the story gets thrown out of the window. The characters are not relatable or interesting- whether deemed good or evil, they all vaguely resemble one another. There is no differentiation here. She knows how to write, its mechanically well put together, but story wise, it falls short on so many levels. There are a few moments of brilliance, but they are few and far between. Another reviewer said that they feel like Russell “gets in her own way�, and I agree 100% with that assessment. If she just relaxed and wrote what she was feeling, rather than over-analyzing everything, this would be a great short novel. I am an extremely patient person and will continue reading books that others have long ago given up on, but this one, at a mere 110 pages, really tested me. The ending was absolutely ridiculous as well. I LOVE ambiguous endings; I’m one of those individuals that loves when things are not wrapped up in a neat little bow. However, the ending for this was absolutely terrible. The whole novel was aimless and the ending matched that perfectly. Once it ended I just sat there going, “What? You’ve got to be kidding me?�
On top of all of this, Russell spends a ridiculous amount of time explaining the misery of the insomniacs, but spends very little time explaining how the sleep donation process works. Russell basically states that the donors are put to sleep with a helmet on, which sucks the sleep out of them. Then that sleep is bottled or harvested, and donated to insomniacs. As a scientist, this explanation was a piss-poor one in my opinion. You can write a fantasy sci-fi novel where the science defies our understanding of the physical world, but you need to come up with a good, logical, albeit fictitious, explanation for it. For example, human cloning is not (yet) possible, but TV shows like Orphan Black do an AMAZING job of explaining the fictitious science behind the clones� existence. The fictitious science behind human cloning is fantastically done and is completely believable. Frankly, “Sleep Donation� would have been more believable if the author stated that they wave a magic wand rather than using pure science to extract the sleep. The whole premise was completely unbelievable and ultimately, boring and hard to get through. I am not averse to reading other things by Russell, but “Sleep Donation� is going to make it very hard for me to ever want to pick up anything written by her again.
Here’s the thing about Russell’s writing- its good. It is obvious to the reader that she is an intelligent woman and an accomplished writer in the mechanical sense. However, “Sleep Donation� fails to tell an appealing story- in fact, it doesn’t really tell a story at all. Russell attempts to throw the reader into this fictitious world with overly convoluted language and lengthy descriptions of the insomniacs that go on and on and ON. It’s like the story keeps saying the same thing, over and over again, with more and more words, without really bringing any new insight to the reader. We get it, these people can’t sleep and it’s terrible. I don’t need to be told that in ridiculous detail 10,000 times over. She does all of this, explaining every little detail about the insomnia epidemic, to the point that you have no idea what point she’s trying to make. It becomes an absolute mess and any meaning or heart to the story gets thrown out of the window. The characters are not relatable or interesting- whether deemed good or evil, they all vaguely resemble one another. There is no differentiation here. She knows how to write, its mechanically well put together, but story wise, it falls short on so many levels. There are a few moments of brilliance, but they are few and far between. Another reviewer said that they feel like Russell “gets in her own way�, and I agree 100% with that assessment. If she just relaxed and wrote what she was feeling, rather than over-analyzing everything, this would be a great short novel. I am an extremely patient person and will continue reading books that others have long ago given up on, but this one, at a mere 110 pages, really tested me. The ending was absolutely ridiculous as well. I LOVE ambiguous endings; I’m one of those individuals that loves when things are not wrapped up in a neat little bow. However, the ending for this was absolutely terrible. The whole novel was aimless and the ending matched that perfectly. Once it ended I just sat there going, “What? You’ve got to be kidding me?�
On top of all of this, Russell spends a ridiculous amount of time explaining the misery of the insomniacs, but spends very little time explaining how the sleep donation process works. Russell basically states that the donors are put to sleep with a helmet on, which sucks the sleep out of them. Then that sleep is bottled or harvested, and donated to insomniacs. As a scientist, this explanation was a piss-poor one in my opinion. You can write a fantasy sci-fi novel where the science defies our understanding of the physical world, but you need to come up with a good, logical, albeit fictitious, explanation for it. For example, human cloning is not (yet) possible, but TV shows like Orphan Black do an AMAZING job of explaining the fictitious science behind the clones� existence. The fictitious science behind human cloning is fantastically done and is completely believable. Frankly, “Sleep Donation� would have been more believable if the author stated that they wave a magic wand rather than using pure science to extract the sleep. The whole premise was completely unbelievable and ultimately, boring and hard to get through. I am not averse to reading other things by Russell, but “Sleep Donation� is going to make it very hard for me to ever want to pick up anything written by her again.
March 12, 2017
4 stars
What if insomnia was an epidemic? And sleep could be donated to those in need?
karen has written a stellar review for this novella which initially led me to pick this one up for my kindle.
This book tells the tale of an insomnia epidemic, and Karen Russell writes very vividly what happens to our bodies when we don't sleep. Or we could just watch Christian Bale.
But as we smart people know, going a year without sleep is physically and scientifically impossible. Trish's sister Dori only lasted twenty days without sleep before she died.
Trish is our narrator and she works for Slumber Corps, an independent nonprofit organization working on soliciting sleep donations from those who haven't been afflicted with the horrible disease. Trish is very very good at her job, using her sob story of her dead sister to emotionally manipulate people into giving up something that they probably take for granted anyway. But Trish doesn't see it that way. She views her job as doing a service to the community, to the world. She sees what she does as a beautiful hope that came out of a horrible tragedy. If she can use what happened to her sister as a way to save more lives, then she is making the world a more beautiful and less tragic place. However, the more times she tells the tale, the more she is haunted by it, by Dori herself, and the harder it is for Trish to get over it.
Sometimes I think the right doctor could open my chest and find her there, my sister, frozen inside of me, like a face in a locket.
The story takes a sudden turn when Trish's bosses discover the first universal sleep donor. Finally. Unadulterated sleep. Because just like any other kind of transfusion or transplant, some people do not accept other people's sleep well. Sleep that is not your own comes with another's thoughts, dreams, desires, their life inside it. And just like antibodies and antigens in blood and body tissues, rejected a sleep transfusion could cause a horrible and sometimes fatal reaction. Finding a human being whose sleep is completely devoid of anything that might cause a reaction in another is a huge find. Something that could eradicate the disease and bring things back to normal. Her bosses put Trish in charge of bringing this donor on board.
The donor is an infant. Dubbed Baby A. An infant who has no concept of what sleep donation or insomnia are. An infant who hasn't even had a chance to live yet. And her parents (especially her father) are very hard sells. And Trish finds herself for the first time questioning everything she's been taught and everything she herself has been preaching to others. She has used her sister's story to emotionally manipulate others, but has it also been the tool by which Trish herself has been manipulated?
Karen Russell writes this world very convincingly. Almost too convincingly. Scary convincingly. Everything in her world building has scientific references and backbone.
Sleep has been chased off the globe by our twenty-four-hour news cycle, our polluted skies and crops and waterways, the bald eyeballs of our glowing devices. We Americans are sitting in an electric chair that we engineered.
Nightmares have become outbreaks, dreams like blood-types. Things that need to be tracked by government agencies like the CDC. The whole realm of epidemiology has shifted from viral infections to dream parasites. And she writes it in a way that seems so effortlessly realistic. It sucks you into this world and makes you believe it. And that's a hard thing to pull off, especially in a novella just over 100 pages.
Another thing this book does is it creates conflicts that are ugly. They are the inner emotional conflicts that make us all a little uncomfortable. Because it delves into the ugliness of things that actually exist for real and the little lies we tell ourselves to convince us otherwise. This book explores those thin lines between business and ethics, and that whole "good for the whole rather than the individual" mentality. I decided to finally review this book because of the short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas I read recently which tackles these same themes. As much as I like to believe in the goodness of humans, sometimes the badness becomes a disease itself, infecting and spreading the "good intentions" that nobody bothers to investigate.
The thing that made me drop a star is the writing itself. It is obvious that Karen Russell is a writer. She knows her vocabulary and she knows her craft. However, she embodies a writing style that makes her books hard to digest whole. Very clinical. Very scientific. Lots of big words. Weird pacing. And these stylistic choices made the story a little clunky for me. It wasn't fast paced nor was it as thrilling as I wanted it to be. I felt a bit alienated as though I was reading a scientific journal at times and not a fictional story. I found it hard to read more than a few pages at a time. And so it took me a month to read this 110 page novella.
Bonus points for the Dune reference in a last name though.
Thanks karen for putting this little ditty on my radar. I will be sure to check out this author's other books.
September 28, 2023
Dormi bene la notte?
E se la tua insonnia, condizione debilitante e con ragioni a volte sconosciute, fosse mortale?
E se diventasse un' epidemia mondiale, dove c'è chi non riesce a dormire e chi invece ha paura di dormire.
Dove i loro corpi, dopo giorni, settimane, mesi o anni fossero ridotti all'agonia?
Dove una trasfusione di sonno potesse salvare delle vite, tu doneresti?
Daresti ore del tuo riposo o di un membro della tua famiglia?
Se tutto ciò diventasse merce di scambio?
Saresti disposto lo stesso a diventare donatore?
Anche contro la tua morale?
Bene, tutto questo è quello che puoi trovare in " i donatori di sonno" ma....già c'è un ma, non si arriva ad una quadra, manca qualcosa nel finale che ti faccia sentire soddisfatto della lettura.
Ci sono riflessioni sul dolore e sul senso di colpa, ma nessuna riesce a farti arrivare ad una conclusione di pensiero.
Molti argomenti li avrei approfonditi meglio, dettagli che avrebbero dato quel qualcosa in più alla storia, ad esempio il mondo psichedelico della Nottopoli, con pozioni e rimedi bislacchi per dormire o star svegli.
Ma questa è una mia opinione.
È una lettura scorrevole e piacevole, se siete tentati o l'avevate in programma io, fossi in voi, leggerei della piccola A.
Ah e di horror nulla nulla nulla, forse solo la paura che un giorno possa essere io quella in fin di vita per causa dell' insonnia.
E se la tua insonnia, condizione debilitante e con ragioni a volte sconosciute, fosse mortale?
E se diventasse un' epidemia mondiale, dove c'è chi non riesce a dormire e chi invece ha paura di dormire.
Dove i loro corpi, dopo giorni, settimane, mesi o anni fossero ridotti all'agonia?
Dove una trasfusione di sonno potesse salvare delle vite, tu doneresti?
Daresti ore del tuo riposo o di un membro della tua famiglia?
Se tutto ciò diventasse merce di scambio?
Saresti disposto lo stesso a diventare donatore?
Anche contro la tua morale?
Bene, tutto questo è quello che puoi trovare in " i donatori di sonno" ma....già c'è un ma, non si arriva ad una quadra, manca qualcosa nel finale che ti faccia sentire soddisfatto della lettura.
Ci sono riflessioni sul dolore e sul senso di colpa, ma nessuna riesce a farti arrivare ad una conclusione di pensiero.
Molti argomenti li avrei approfonditi meglio, dettagli che avrebbero dato quel qualcosa in più alla storia, ad esempio il mondo psichedelico della Nottopoli, con pozioni e rimedi bislacchi per dormire o star svegli.
Ma questa è una mia opinione.
È una lettura scorrevole e piacevole, se siete tentati o l'avevate in programma io, fossi in voi, leggerei della piccola A.
Ah e di horror nulla nulla nulla, forse solo la paura che un giorno possa essere io quella in fin di vita per causa dell' insonnia.
February 1, 2021
Insomnia has become a rampant epidemic but luckily the Slumber Corps have crafted a device that harvests the sleep from others. The downside is that any dreams or nightmares that occur also get plugged into their new recipient's mind. The most apt source material are the very young. Their innocence allows for a depletion of nightmare activity to occur, but it makes Trish Edgewater's job a living one when forced to confront the ethics of her actions.
This proved such a fascinating concept to explore and it was intriguing to be provided with an insight to Trish's inner-anxieties over whether her role is saving the sleepless or condemning the sleepers to their inescapable, life-long role. None know the long-lasting effects for the process they are meddling with, or if they are saving a few now only to plague the many with future similar instabilities.
Whilst this remained engaging throughout, I ultimately wanted more from it. The very short page count ensured the reader became aware of the epidemic, felt the horror, understood the temporary cure, and learnt of the protagonist's role, but I wanted to garner a deeper understanding for how it had impacted other inflicted members and the more far-reaching implications of this new technology.
This proved such a fascinating concept to explore and it was intriguing to be provided with an insight to Trish's inner-anxieties over whether her role is saving the sleepless or condemning the sleepers to their inescapable, life-long role. None know the long-lasting effects for the process they are meddling with, or if they are saving a few now only to plague the many with future similar instabilities.
Whilst this remained engaging throughout, I ultimately wanted more from it. The very short page count ensured the reader became aware of the epidemic, felt the horror, understood the temporary cure, and learnt of the protagonist's role, but I wanted to garner a deeper understanding for how it had impacted other inflicted members and the more far-reaching implications of this new technology.
June 25, 2017
Sleep Donation is the story of an American nation increasingly unable to sleep. We are never told the year, but the cultural references and the dollar sums made it appear to this reader to be in the not so distant future. Rarely at first, but now with steadily increasing frequency, Americans are afflicted with an insomnia so total, that death results. Our narrator, Trish Edgewood is a recruiter for Slumber Corp., the nation's non-profit sleep bank. Through science, sleep has taken on a blood like quality in that it can be collected from healthy donors and transfused to the suffering. As the process is fairly new, and there is much fear about the condition and how it spreads, donors are difficult to come by. Ms. Edgewood, we discover, is among the best recruiters of donors because of her ability to relate the story of her own sister's death. Her sister, Dori, was the first to die on the East Coast, and through Trish's skillful retelling of the events of her death, Dori has become the most famous victim, and the face of the sleep donation program.
It is Trish's gift for recruiting that lands the Harkonnen family as donors, and more specifically their daughter, known as Baby A. It turns out that Baby A is the worlds only known "universal donor", in that her sleep is so pure that all can be helped by her donations. Because Baby A is so unique, there is an incredible demand on her donations. Adding to that demand is the one time donation from a Donor Y who corrupts the nations sleep supply with a viral nightmare that spreads rapidly. It is a nightmare so awful, that many who so desperately sought sleep, now do anything to remain awake, even though it will eventually cost them their lives. It is the reactions to these two poles, the purity of Baby A, and the contagion of Donor Y that drive the story.
Sleep donation is an excellent read that poses many interesting questions about identity, sincerity, honesty, exploitation and whether or not the ends justify the means. It is another fantastic offering from one of America's great young novelists. I highly recommend it.
I should also note that I did not have any of the formatting problems experienced by some of the reviewers. Perhaps those issues have been fixed?
It is Trish's gift for recruiting that lands the Harkonnen family as donors, and more specifically their daughter, known as Baby A. It turns out that Baby A is the worlds only known "universal donor", in that her sleep is so pure that all can be helped by her donations. Because Baby A is so unique, there is an incredible demand on her donations. Adding to that demand is the one time donation from a Donor Y who corrupts the nations sleep supply with a viral nightmare that spreads rapidly. It is a nightmare so awful, that many who so desperately sought sleep, now do anything to remain awake, even though it will eventually cost them their lives. It is the reactions to these two poles, the purity of Baby A, and the contagion of Donor Y that drive the story.
Sleep donation is an excellent read that poses many interesting questions about identity, sincerity, honesty, exploitation and whether or not the ends justify the means. It is another fantastic offering from one of America's great young novelists. I highly recommend it.
I should also note that I did not have any of the formatting problems experienced by some of the reviewers. Perhaps those issues have been fixed?
April 18, 2014
Ok, so I finally finished this one. It was only about a hundred pages or so, but for some reason, it took me several days to get through. The writing was very good, so it wasn't that, just a pretty deep material to consider as I read through it.
There's a lot of pragmatism and the whole "do the ends justify the means" going on in this story. Do we really have the right to force people to donate in order to help others stay alive? That's the heart of this story, with pure sleep as the necessary item for survival. There's a insomnia epidemic, and those that can sleep are asked, at first, to donate hours of sleep, at the risk of losing sleep themselves, as well as potentially shortening their life. The recruiters are increasingly becoming more and more forceful as the epidemic continues, and one recruiter, a "star recruiter" starts to question the means at which they are obtaining the sleep hours.
As I said, this was a well-written story, just had to stop to think about the courses of action we all take as we strive towards our goals. Impacting, highly recommended.
There's a lot of pragmatism and the whole "do the ends justify the means" going on in this story. Do we really have the right to force people to donate in order to help others stay alive? That's the heart of this story, with pure sleep as the necessary item for survival. There's a insomnia epidemic, and those that can sleep are asked, at first, to donate hours of sleep, at the risk of losing sleep themselves, as well as potentially shortening their life. The recruiters are increasingly becoming more and more forceful as the epidemic continues, and one recruiter, a "star recruiter" starts to question the means at which they are obtaining the sleep hours.
As I said, this was a well-written story, just had to stop to think about the courses of action we all take as we strive towards our goals. Impacting, highly recommended.
March 17, 2014
This was an extremely quick read, and the amnesia mythology was extremely interesting. Unfortunately, I didn't find myself connecting to any of the characters or their stories. Having no investment in them definitely overshadowed my enjoyment of the worldbuilding.
August 4, 2023
Una distopía aterradora y recomendada por King.
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A terrifying dystopia recommended by King.
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A terrifying dystopia recommended by King.
September 28, 2023
Appena letta l'ultima frase e conseguentemente finito di leggere questo libro, l'ho chiuso, me lo sono posizionato sul petto e chiudendo gli occhi, ho tirato un profondo respiro.
King sulla copertina recita che questo libro ha fatto venire gli incubi perfino a lui. Sinceramente le varie frasi che pongono sulle copertine o sul retro dei romanzi, mi fanno sempre sorridere, quel sorriso di compatimento, anche perchè, che motivo ci dovrebbe essere nello scrivere i pensieri di un altro essere umano (famoso), su un altro libro? Per vendere di più, no! Mi risponderanno in molti, se King dice così, chissà quanti milioni di persone lo dovranno leggere!!
Comunque i protagonisti incontrastati di questo breve romanzo sono i sogni e gli incubi. Presi questo libro dalla biblioteca appena ne ebbi a conoscenza, il mondo onirico mi ispira da sempre e con questo libro, non so perchè, ma mi faceva riandare ad un cult del cinema dell'orrore: Nightmare e leggendolo, questa sensazione si è fatta sempre più concreta(eheheheh certo che accostare concreto con Nightmare e gli incubi è davvero straniante!). Gli incubi e la loro controparte, i sogni, sono entità che l'essere umano non considera granchè, eppure sono parte integrante e soprattutto ricoprono una fetta della vita considerevole, al pari del sonno, ci accompagnano per circa un terzo della vita. E allora perchè sono presi così poco in considerazione?
Parto con la lettura con una curiosità alle stelle, l'argomentazione è così curiosa ed intrigante. Leggo il primo capitolo con tale smania di saperne di più, ma poi non leggo per qualche giorno. Non so, avevo bisogno di una pausa di riflessione su quel primo capitolo che mi ha instillato una tale angoscia e premeditazione verso i sogni? Sta di fatto che dopo la pausa forzata o involontaria di questi giorni, riparto e lo finisco in un vortice di apprensione e coinvolgimento. Alcuni passaggi mi son parsi nebulosi, forse, anzi sicuramente volutamente nebulosi. La scrittura è straordinaria, una capacità di creare coinvolgimento rara... ora capisco le parole di King!
Cosa potrebbe succedere se un giorno iniziasse a svilupparsi il "virus" dell'insonnia?
Che poi l'insonnia non è una delle malattie del nostro secolo? E quali saranno le cause? L'uso spropositato degli smartphone o schermi luminosi vari ed eventuali? Quindi questo libretto non mi pare poi una storia così impossibile, ma un resoconto possibile della società e questo lo rende ancora più inquietante!!
King sulla copertina recita che questo libro ha fatto venire gli incubi perfino a lui. Sinceramente le varie frasi che pongono sulle copertine o sul retro dei romanzi, mi fanno sempre sorridere, quel sorriso di compatimento, anche perchè, che motivo ci dovrebbe essere nello scrivere i pensieri di un altro essere umano (famoso), su un altro libro? Per vendere di più, no! Mi risponderanno in molti, se King dice così, chissà quanti milioni di persone lo dovranno leggere!!
Comunque i protagonisti incontrastati di questo breve romanzo sono i sogni e gli incubi. Presi questo libro dalla biblioteca appena ne ebbi a conoscenza, il mondo onirico mi ispira da sempre e con questo libro, non so perchè, ma mi faceva riandare ad un cult del cinema dell'orrore: Nightmare e leggendolo, questa sensazione si è fatta sempre più concreta(eheheheh certo che accostare concreto con Nightmare e gli incubi è davvero straniante!). Gli incubi e la loro controparte, i sogni, sono entità che l'essere umano non considera granchè, eppure sono parte integrante e soprattutto ricoprono una fetta della vita considerevole, al pari del sonno, ci accompagnano per circa un terzo della vita. E allora perchè sono presi così poco in considerazione?
Parto con la lettura con una curiosità alle stelle, l'argomentazione è così curiosa ed intrigante. Leggo il primo capitolo con tale smania di saperne di più, ma poi non leggo per qualche giorno. Non so, avevo bisogno di una pausa di riflessione su quel primo capitolo che mi ha instillato una tale angoscia e premeditazione verso i sogni? Sta di fatto che dopo la pausa forzata o involontaria di questi giorni, riparto e lo finisco in un vortice di apprensione e coinvolgimento. Alcuni passaggi mi son parsi nebulosi, forse, anzi sicuramente volutamente nebulosi. La scrittura è straordinaria, una capacità di creare coinvolgimento rara... ora capisco le parole di King!
Cosa potrebbe succedere se un giorno iniziasse a svilupparsi il "virus" dell'insonnia?
Che poi l'insonnia non è una delle malattie del nostro secolo? E quali saranno le cause? L'uso spropositato degli smartphone o schermi luminosi vari ed eventuali? Quindi questo libretto non mi pare poi una storia così impossibile, ma un resoconto possibile della società e questo lo rende ancora più inquietante!!
May 8, 2023
Me cuesta mucho dormir. Duermo poco y mal. Y por eso este libro me ha impactado tanto.
Imaginad una epidemia de insomnio en el que no se duerme nada de nada. Imaginad cómo acaba la gente. Muriendo.
Ante semejante panorama han aparecido las Brigadas Duermevela, una organización sin ánimo de lucro que realizan transfusiones de sueño, sii, como si fuera de sangre pero de sueño. Las personas que todavía pueden dormir bien ceden altruistamente horas de su sueño a personas que de otra manera morirían.
Trish Edgewater es la mejor captadora de donantes porque su hermana Dori fue una de las primeras víctimas mortales de esta epidemia y relata su muerte con tanta emoción que nadie se resiste a ceder su sueño para salvar a otra persona . Cree en su trabajo y lo realiza eficazmente hasta que en su vida se cruzan la Bebé A y el Donante Y.
La Bebé A es una donante universal de sueño. Es compatible con todo el mundo porque no hay rechazo, su sueño es el más puro. Imaginad cuanto sueño se le extrae e imaginad el dilema ante el que se encuentran los padres.
EL Donante Y ha donado mucho sueño, pero resulta que su sueño está contaminado de pesadillas terribles. Imaginad el escándalo y las terribles consecuencias.
Una historia corta, impactante y contundente contada de manera sencilla pero que te hace reflexionar sobre muchas cosas. Somos generosos porque sí o buscamos algo más, nos comprometemos para ayudar desinteresadamente o porque nos sentimos culpables, hasta dónde se puede llegar para hacer frente a una crisis tan grave, hasta cuando se hacen las cosas altruistamente y cuándo entra en juego la ambición y qué nos contamos para hacernos creer que lo hacemos por el bien general, hacia donde nos lleva y en qué nos convierte la lucha contra el contagio y la lucha para conseguir un remedio...
Como veis muchos temas tremendamente interesante en un libro que me ha encantado y que os recomiendo mucho.
Imaginad una epidemia de insomnio en el que no se duerme nada de nada. Imaginad cómo acaba la gente. Muriendo.
Ante semejante panorama han aparecido las Brigadas Duermevela, una organización sin ánimo de lucro que realizan transfusiones de sueño, sii, como si fuera de sangre pero de sueño. Las personas que todavía pueden dormir bien ceden altruistamente horas de su sueño a personas que de otra manera morirían.
Trish Edgewater es la mejor captadora de donantes porque su hermana Dori fue una de las primeras víctimas mortales de esta epidemia y relata su muerte con tanta emoción que nadie se resiste a ceder su sueño para salvar a otra persona . Cree en su trabajo y lo realiza eficazmente hasta que en su vida se cruzan la Bebé A y el Donante Y.
La Bebé A es una donante universal de sueño. Es compatible con todo el mundo porque no hay rechazo, su sueño es el más puro. Imaginad cuanto sueño se le extrae e imaginad el dilema ante el que se encuentran los padres.
EL Donante Y ha donado mucho sueño, pero resulta que su sueño está contaminado de pesadillas terribles. Imaginad el escándalo y las terribles consecuencias.
Una historia corta, impactante y contundente contada de manera sencilla pero que te hace reflexionar sobre muchas cosas. Somos generosos porque sí o buscamos algo más, nos comprometemos para ayudar desinteresadamente o porque nos sentimos culpables, hasta dónde se puede llegar para hacer frente a una crisis tan grave, hasta cuando se hacen las cosas altruistamente y cuándo entra en juego la ambición y qué nos contamos para hacernos creer que lo hacemos por el bien general, hacia donde nos lleva y en qué nos convierte la lucha contra el contagio y la lucha para conseguir un remedio...
Como veis muchos temas tremendamente interesante en un libro que me ha encantado y que os recomiendo mucho.
November 10, 2021
Apocalypse, the insomnia edition. A world where a certain percentage of the population is being driven mad, or even dead, by inability to sleep. A world where one can donate sleep and dreams that go with it. The scariest thing in the world like that is…what kind of dreams can be donatied? What if some of them are nightmares?
Intriguing concept, literary execution, even excellent art panels…and yet, it didn’t quite work for me. I’m not sure why, being no stranger to nightmares, I should have probably found it more engaging. There’s just something about the style of the narrative that didn’t quite work for me. It was almost as if the book was entirely too self-aware of being an experiment. It’s almost…precocious, in a way.
This is an acclaimed author writing a book bound to produce acclaim in that ‘look how daring, look how original� way and sure enough, some of it might be deserved, but in the end for me this was a somewhat credulity stretching plot with too bathetic of a resolution. A different, more definitive ending, might have elevated this, but as is, it was just decent enough, conceptually interesting, but underwhelming in execution. Love that it was a novella, any more time investment might have proved frustrating. User mileage is certain to vary with this one.
This and more at
Intriguing concept, literary execution, even excellent art panels…and yet, it didn’t quite work for me. I’m not sure why, being no stranger to nightmares, I should have probably found it more engaging. There’s just something about the style of the narrative that didn’t quite work for me. It was almost as if the book was entirely too self-aware of being an experiment. It’s almost…precocious, in a way.
This is an acclaimed author writing a book bound to produce acclaim in that ‘look how daring, look how original� way and sure enough, some of it might be deserved, but in the end for me this was a somewhat credulity stretching plot with too bathetic of a resolution. A different, more definitive ending, might have elevated this, but as is, it was just decent enough, conceptually interesting, but underwhelming in execution. Love that it was a novella, any more time investment might have proved frustrating. User mileage is certain to vary with this one.
This and more at
March 9, 2022
ASV ir piemeklējusi Bezmiega epidēmija. Daudzi cilvēki vairs nevar aizmigt. Vispār nekādi. Un mirst mokošā “Pēdējā dienā�. Šai slimībai nav zāles. Vienīgi var veikt donoru miega “pārliešanu�. Trish Edgewater strādā Miega Donoru vervēšanas centrā, un ir īpaši veiksmīga cilvēku pierunāšanā ziedot kaut stundu sava miega, kas tik daudziem vitāli nepieciešama.
Epidēmija. Miega traucējumi. Viss ir ļoti aktuāli šobrīd. Ļoti atmosfēriska grāmata, kas, lasot tev rada mēnesērdzīguma vai sapņa sajūtu, kur realitāte saplūst ar sapni.
Epidēmija. Miega traucējumi. Viss ir ļoti aktuāli šobrīd. Ļoti atmosfēriska grāmata, kas, lasot tev rada mēnesērdzīguma vai sapņa sajūtu, kur realitāte saplūst ar sapni.
March 15, 2014
"It is a special kind of homelessness to be evicted from your dreams."
When I saw this on the list of anticipated books in 2014 from , I was shocked to find I had not heard of this novella by a favorite author or of the new , a new digital-first publisher that has some exciting titles coming out soon.
In Sleep Donation, people have randomly started developing insomnia so bad they die from it. A company has discovered that people with pure sleep can sometimes jumpstart an insomniac back into regular sleep, but most people have tainted sleep unusable in a transfusion. One of the sleep donor recruiters finds Baby A, and a family is thrown into a pattern of guilted donations that are "most likely not harmful" to the child.
I love Russell best when her worlds are slightly outside of normal, and Sleep Donation fits the bill. There is an entire culture developing of Orexins (people who don't sleep) in Night Worlds outside of most cities, and there is an underlying feeling of unrest and change. The novella doesn't fully explore the story or the world that I sense is there, and I'm actually hoping she writes more about it.
When I saw this on the list of anticipated books in 2014 from , I was shocked to find I had not heard of this novella by a favorite author or of the new , a new digital-first publisher that has some exciting titles coming out soon.
In Sleep Donation, people have randomly started developing insomnia so bad they die from it. A company has discovered that people with pure sleep can sometimes jumpstart an insomniac back into regular sleep, but most people have tainted sleep unusable in a transfusion. One of the sleep donor recruiters finds Baby A, and a family is thrown into a pattern of guilted donations that are "most likely not harmful" to the child.
I love Russell best when her worlds are slightly outside of normal, and Sleep Donation fits the bill. There is an entire culture developing of Orexins (people who don't sleep) in Night Worlds outside of most cities, and there is an underlying feeling of unrest and change. The novella doesn't fully explore the story or the world that I sense is there, and I'm actually hoping she writes more about it.
January 27, 2022
My first impression is that this is a great premise, a “why didn’t I think of that!� premise, and one that could be written many different ways. So far, as I’m on page 50, I’m enjoying the author’s particular execution. The back of the book has very fun, in-world cultural materials that vibe somewhere between the board game Pandemic Legacy and the video game CONTROL. This one will be of interest to anyone who likes stories with dream/sleep settings and themes.
July 22, 2023
El tipo de libro trepidante que le pido al verano. Cuánta imaginación. Ojalá fuera un poco más largo, es un universo tan bien creado y descrito que me gustaría saber más de cada uno de los espacios y personajes. Pido un spin-off.
August 16, 2023
Negli Stati Uniti moltissime persone si ritrovano a combattere con l'insonnia, che in tanti casi risulta talmente feroce da portare addirittura alla morte. Tra queste c'è anche la sorella di Trish, la protagonista di questa storia inquieta. Trish lavora in un'azienda che ha messo a punto una sofisticata tecnica per accumulare il sonno di chi ancora riesce a dormire e poterlo donare a chi soffre di insonnia. Non tutte le donazioni risultano compatibili, almeno fino a quando Trish non scopre l'esistenza di una neonata il cui sonno non viene mai rigettato dagli insonni.
La storia è davvero innovativa, mi ha conquistata fin dalla prima pagina e mi sono sentita inghiottita da questa ansia che aleggia in tutto il libro, domandandomi quanto sia giusto sacrificare qualcuno di assolutamente innocente in nome della collettività. Tuttavia ho la sensazione che manchi qualcosa a questo romanzo, avrei preferito uno sviluppo della trama più accurato e alcune dinamiche tra i personaggi mi hanno lasciata perplessa, infatti quando l'ho finito ho sentito una punta di delusione.
La storia è davvero innovativa, mi ha conquistata fin dalla prima pagina e mi sono sentita inghiottita da questa ansia che aleggia in tutto il libro, domandandomi quanto sia giusto sacrificare qualcuno di assolutamente innocente in nome della collettività. Tuttavia ho la sensazione che manchi qualcosa a questo romanzo, avrei preferito uno sviluppo della trama più accurato e alcune dinamiche tra i personaggi mi hanno lasciata perplessa, infatti quando l'ho finito ho sentito una punta di delusione.
June 11, 2022
You don't talk about the dreams. They're too personal. No one else could possibly be having the same nightmares. No one else is being kept awake this way, night after night—by the jellyfish from space—by your old sex tape being screened for every worshiper in the cathedral—by the monkeys' faces mocking you from every rose bush in the garden... Those dreams are yours alone to bear. They're not contagious.
But what if they were?
The bad ones always leave you wide awake and panting, sweat-soaked, staring at your four A.M. ceiling. Might as well get up; you aren't getting back to sleep before the alarm goes off. It's okay, though. You can stumble through the day, make an early evening of it, catch up on your lost sleep the next night. The nightmares don't make you ride them every night.
But what if they did?
*
Swaying tendrils reach up from the bathtub drain, pulling you under...
A new plague has swept the Americas. In 's novella , the Insomnia Crisis steals sleep from its victims, making them fear slumber—a silent contagion affecting millions.
And as we all know: if you can't sleep, eventually, you die.
*
The car drives itself, right through the guard rail and off the high bridge. The river comes rushing up at you, so far below, so you have plenty of time to remember that you cannot really die from a dream. Right before�
Trish Edgewater is on the Slumber Corps' front lines. Her sister Dori was one of the first victims of the Insomnia Crisis, before the extent of the problem was even suspected. Before any treatment existed. Before it had a name. And when Trish retells the story of Dori's tragic death during Corps recruitment drives, her ever-reliable tears bring in donor after donor.
Because the news isn't all bad. Victims of the syndrome can (usually) be helped by donations extracted from healthy sleepers. A whole infrastructure has sprung up around this fact, to collect healthy sleep and dispense it to the needy. Trish's tale of Dori's woe was even responsible for bringing in Baby A—the only known Universal Donor, whose blissful infant sleep always works.
's urgent prose reads like nonfiction—autobiography, journalism, live reports from a timeline that may be even worse than our own...
*
Your plane is crashing into the Andes, but your seatmate just laughs as he gnaws at the arm of the man from two rows ahead, in an act of preemptive cannibalism...
was originally published online in 2014, then brought out in physical form in 2020. Which is both great timing and terrible bad luck, as I think everything else going on during our own plague year might've kept this book from receiving the attention it deserves. I myself just happened to notice it on the shelf of my local branch library in June 2022, and stayed up late for a couple of nights reading it.
The physical package (credited to Debbie Glasserman) is great, too, with bonuses tucked away inside like the illustrations by Ale + Ale, and a graphical "Slumber Corps Alert" at the end, with details about the nightmare outbreaks known so far.
*
You could do a lot worse than to let into your dreams. Think of it as an inoculation—a vaccine, if you will—against the many terrors of the night.
But what if they were?
The bad ones always leave you wide awake and panting, sweat-soaked, staring at your four A.M. ceiling. Might as well get up; you aren't getting back to sleep before the alarm goes off. It's okay, though. You can stumble through the day, make an early evening of it, catch up on your lost sleep the next night. The nightmares don't make you ride them every night.
But what if they did?
*
Swaying tendrils reach up from the bathtub drain, pulling you under...
A new plague has swept the Americas. In 's novella , the Insomnia Crisis steals sleep from its victims, making them fear slumber—a silent contagion affecting millions.
And as we all know: if you can't sleep, eventually, you die.
*
The car drives itself, right through the guard rail and off the high bridge. The river comes rushing up at you, so far below, so you have plenty of time to remember that you cannot really die from a dream. Right before�
Trish Edgewater is on the Slumber Corps' front lines. Her sister Dori was one of the first victims of the Insomnia Crisis, before the extent of the problem was even suspected. Before any treatment existed. Before it had a name. And when Trish retells the story of Dori's tragic death during Corps recruitment drives, her ever-reliable tears bring in donor after donor.
Because the news isn't all bad. Victims of the syndrome can (usually) be helped by donations extracted from healthy sleepers. A whole infrastructure has sprung up around this fact, to collect healthy sleep and dispense it to the needy. Trish's tale of Dori's woe was even responsible for bringing in Baby A—the only known Universal Donor, whose blissful infant sleep always works.
's urgent prose reads like nonfiction—autobiography, journalism, live reports from a timeline that may be even worse than our own...
{...}the governor's budget cuts in the Sunshine State have meant that Floridian sleep scientists remain stalled at the "dang"/"go figure" stage of their research{...}"
—p.5
*
Your plane is crashing into the Andes, but your seatmate just laughs as he gnaws at the arm of the man from two rows ahead, in an act of preemptive cannibalism...
was originally published online in 2014, then brought out in physical form in 2020. Which is both great timing and terrible bad luck, as I think everything else going on during our own plague year might've kept this book from receiving the attention it deserves. I myself just happened to notice it on the shelf of my local branch library in June 2022, and stayed up late for a couple of nights reading it.
The physical package (credited to Debbie Glasserman) is great, too, with bonuses tucked away inside like the illustrations by Ale + Ale, and a graphical "Slumber Corps Alert" at the end, with details about the nightmare outbreaks known so far.
*
You could do a lot worse than to let into your dreams. Think of it as an inoculation—a vaccine, if you will—against the many terrors of the night.
August 7, 2015
I really wanted to love this. The "voice" of the story was good, and I enjoyed the flow, but there were also a lot of issues I just couldn't overlook.
First, the set up. The idea that these Storch brothers would give up their million dollar business to perform a public service was a bit ridiculous. You know there's a catch. I guess I wanted the catch to be more original.
The premise was good. I compared it to the need for blood and the idea of blood banks and mobiles. I remember when AIDS first came about when I was in high school (remember, it was called GRID first?) and the process for donating blood became much more intense. It was no longer, "You are willing to give, we are willing to take." It became much more intensely monitored. That part of the story I enjoyed. What I didn't enjoy was the almost flip way the possible dangers of sleep donation were dealt with.
I also wanted an ending. This just didn't cut it for me.
First, the set up. The idea that these Storch brothers would give up their million dollar business to perform a public service was a bit ridiculous. You know there's a catch. I guess I wanted the catch to be more original.
The premise was good. I compared it to the need for blood and the idea of blood banks and mobiles. I remember when AIDS first came about when I was in high school (remember, it was called GRID first?) and the process for donating blood became much more intense. It was no longer, "You are willing to give, we are willing to take." It became much more intensely monitored. That part of the story I enjoyed. What I didn't enjoy was the almost flip way the possible dangers of sleep donation were dealt with.
I also wanted an ending. This just didn't cut it for me.
September 8, 2024
3.5/5 🌟
baš uznemirujuć koncept, jedva se probih kroz ovako malo knjigče
baš uznemirujuć koncept, jedva se probih kroz ovako malo knjigče
September 30, 2023
Da convinto e impenitente nottambulo, mi sono sentito subito chiamato in causa. Un libro che parla di un'epidemia letale di insonnia? Bisognava approfondire!
Purtroppo però, alla fine della fiera, di ciccia se n'è trovata poca. Non posso dire che sia un pessimo romanzo, ma è un libro che non sfrutta nemmeno lontanamente al massimo quelle che sono le potenzialità di un'idea di fondo interessante (e che, a conti fatti, evidentemente meritava ben altro respiro, rispetto a un romanzo di poco più di un centinaio di pagine).
Il libro esamina una società in cui, a causa di una misteriosa epidemia, molte persone hanno cominciato a perdere del tutto la capacità di dormire. Viene quindi studiato un procedimento per cui è possibile "estrarre" una parte di sonno da donatori sani, in modo da donarlo ai malati. Della raccolta di questo sonno si occupa un'associazione no-profit, che si pone come obiettivo anche quello di trovare autonomamente persone disponibili al prelievo. Per questa associazione lavora la protagonista del romanzo, Trish. Il metodo di cura, ormai consolidato, rischia però di entrare in crisi quando dal sonno di un donatore specifico prende il via una nuova epidemia, questa volta di incubi.
Un'idea molto bella, giusto? Il problema è che, secondo me, questa società viene tratteggiata solo superficialmente e in maniera in definitiva troppo ingenua: nemmeno per un momento sono riuscito a trovarmi calato al 100% in quello che stavo leggendo.
Il libro cerca di ritrarre questo mondo in cui l'insonnia è diventata un'emergenza sanitaria impellente e per cui la scienza è riuscita a trovare una risposta, cercando di rimanere in un ambito tutto sommato realistico. Allo stesso tempo, però, molti passaggi sono lasciati nebulosi, solo accennati, mentre si arriva a una parte anche relativamente corposa in cui viene descritta più nel dettaglio la società costituita da questi malati, con tratti quasi ottimistici e mistici. Questa scena l'ho trovata piuttosto fuori fuoco. Voleva essere una critica dell'autrice verso la società "normale"? Voleva far vedere che gli emarginati sono gli unici a essere veramente "liberi"? Non è ben chiaro. Ma, comunque sia, stona abbastanza col tono del resto del libro, a mio parere.
La situazione iniziale è incrinata da un esordio veramente centrato, che crea ulteriori aspettative e potenzialità per il romanzo. Ma tutto ciò che riguarda questa rottura dell'equilibrio resta poi sullo sfondo, non viene analizzato a dovere e di conseguenza perde progressivamente di efficacia.
Il problema principale che ho riscontrato, però, è un altro ancora: i personaggi. Non so se fosse voluto o meno, ma mi sono parsi tutti descritti con una piattezza e un'impersonalità che non mi hanno permesso di entrare in empatia con nessuno di loro.
La protagonista è dipinta come molto traumatizzata dal suo passato, ma ci si ferma lì. Si batte sempre sullo stesso tasto, tra l'altro in modo anche un po' irrealistico, a mio parere: la tragedia che dovrebbe influenzare così tanto il suo presente viene infatti sfruttata come se niente fosse per il suo lavoro, "pubblicizzata" per spingere le persone a donare il proprio sonno. Una discordanza che non è necessariamente improbabile e che anzi avrebbe potuto portare a una caratterizzazione molto complessa e interessante. Solo chel'autrice avrebbe dovuto esplorarla ben più in profondità, per farla risultare credibile.
Invece il passato di Trish viene buttato lì per creare artificiosamente un background emotivamente significativo, ma poi a conti fatti questo disagio non arriva mai a condizionarla davvero.
Anche il "cattivo" del libro è solo appiccicato lì con due frasi qua e là. Non ha un vero sviluppo caratteriale, non vengono approfondite le sue motivazioni. Se si vuole creare della tensione emotiva, i personaggi vanno curati, vanno resi vivi. E questi non lo sono. Per di più, alla fine della fiera non si sa nemmeno cosa ne sarà del "piano" di questo antagonista.
Già, perché, per concludere in bellezza, la storia resta con un finale aperto. Non che questo sia un difetto di per sé, ma in questo caso lascia un profondo senso di insoddisfazione, visto il poco che effettivamente è stato dato in mano al lettore nelle pagine precedenti.
Essendo un romanzo breve e con una buona idea di fondo, non mi sento di non consigliarvelo, anche perché molti dei difetti che ho riscontrato sono tali forse più per un gusto personale che per un'effettiva carenza del testo. Tra l'altro, anche fra le persone che conosco, questo libro ha generato giudizi abbastanza eterogenei. Quindi, se siete curiosi, buttatevi e date un tentativo a questo mondo alla ricerca del sonno perduto!
Purtroppo però, alla fine della fiera, di ciccia se n'è trovata poca. Non posso dire che sia un pessimo romanzo, ma è un libro che non sfrutta nemmeno lontanamente al massimo quelle che sono le potenzialità di un'idea di fondo interessante (e che, a conti fatti, evidentemente meritava ben altro respiro, rispetto a un romanzo di poco più di un centinaio di pagine).
Il libro esamina una società in cui, a causa di una misteriosa epidemia, molte persone hanno cominciato a perdere del tutto la capacità di dormire. Viene quindi studiato un procedimento per cui è possibile "estrarre" una parte di sonno da donatori sani, in modo da donarlo ai malati. Della raccolta di questo sonno si occupa un'associazione no-profit, che si pone come obiettivo anche quello di trovare autonomamente persone disponibili al prelievo. Per questa associazione lavora la protagonista del romanzo, Trish. Il metodo di cura, ormai consolidato, rischia però di entrare in crisi quando dal sonno di un donatore specifico prende il via una nuova epidemia, questa volta di incubi.
Un'idea molto bella, giusto? Il problema è che, secondo me, questa società viene tratteggiata solo superficialmente e in maniera in definitiva troppo ingenua: nemmeno per un momento sono riuscito a trovarmi calato al 100% in quello che stavo leggendo.
Il libro cerca di ritrarre questo mondo in cui l'insonnia è diventata un'emergenza sanitaria impellente e per cui la scienza è riuscita a trovare una risposta, cercando di rimanere in un ambito tutto sommato realistico. Allo stesso tempo, però, molti passaggi sono lasciati nebulosi, solo accennati, mentre si arriva a una parte anche relativamente corposa in cui viene descritta più nel dettaglio la società costituita da questi malati, con tratti quasi ottimistici e mistici. Questa scena l'ho trovata piuttosto fuori fuoco. Voleva essere una critica dell'autrice verso la società "normale"? Voleva far vedere che gli emarginati sono gli unici a essere veramente "liberi"? Non è ben chiaro. Ma, comunque sia, stona abbastanza col tono del resto del libro, a mio parere.
La situazione iniziale è incrinata da un esordio veramente centrato, che crea ulteriori aspettative e potenzialità per il romanzo. Ma tutto ciò che riguarda questa rottura dell'equilibrio resta poi sullo sfondo, non viene analizzato a dovere e di conseguenza perde progressivamente di efficacia.
Il problema principale che ho riscontrato, però, è un altro ancora: i personaggi. Non so se fosse voluto o meno, ma mi sono parsi tutti descritti con una piattezza e un'impersonalità che non mi hanno permesso di entrare in empatia con nessuno di loro.
La protagonista è dipinta come molto traumatizzata dal suo passato, ma ci si ferma lì. Si batte sempre sullo stesso tasto, tra l'altro in modo anche un po' irrealistico, a mio parere: la tragedia che dovrebbe influenzare così tanto il suo presente viene infatti sfruttata come se niente fosse per il suo lavoro, "pubblicizzata" per spingere le persone a donare il proprio sonno. Una discordanza che non è necessariamente improbabile e che anzi avrebbe potuto portare a una caratterizzazione molto complessa e interessante. Solo chel'autrice avrebbe dovuto esplorarla ben più in profondità, per farla risultare credibile.
Invece il passato di Trish viene buttato lì per creare artificiosamente un background emotivamente significativo, ma poi a conti fatti questo disagio non arriva mai a condizionarla davvero.
Anche il "cattivo" del libro è solo appiccicato lì con due frasi qua e là. Non ha un vero sviluppo caratteriale, non vengono approfondite le sue motivazioni. Se si vuole creare della tensione emotiva, i personaggi vanno curati, vanno resi vivi. E questi non lo sono. Per di più, alla fine della fiera non si sa nemmeno cosa ne sarà del "piano" di questo antagonista.
Già, perché, per concludere in bellezza, la storia resta con un finale aperto. Non che questo sia un difetto di per sé, ma in questo caso lascia un profondo senso di insoddisfazione, visto il poco che effettivamente è stato dato in mano al lettore nelle pagine precedenti.
Essendo un romanzo breve e con una buona idea di fondo, non mi sento di non consigliarvelo, anche perché molti dei difetti che ho riscontrato sono tali forse più per un gusto personale che per un'effettiva carenza del testo. Tra l'altro, anche fra le persone che conosco, questo libro ha generato giudizi abbastanza eterogenei. Quindi, se siete curiosi, buttatevi e date un tentativo a questo mondo alla ricerca del sonno perduto!
July 18, 2023
“I Donatori di sonno� di Karen Russell è un libro che ci porta in piena distopia pandemica (si può dire?), con uno spunto potenzialmente pazzesco (un mondo dove l’insonnia è diventata letale) ma che, personalmente, mi ha lasciato piuttosto freddo sotto molti aspetti. Proviamo a entrare insieme nella storia e nei motivi di questa recensione che, lo dico subito, non mi ha coinvolto particolarmente.
La storia ci racconta di un America colpita da un’epidemia senza precedenti, in cui molte persone smettono improvvisamente di dormire e non c’� nulla che si possa fare per salvarli. Almeno finchè non si scopre una sorta di “cura� che, pur non risolvendo il problema, riesce in qualche modo a prolungare l’esistenza degli infetti grazie a “donazioni di sonno� che permettono al cervello di trovare almeno un briciolo di riposo.
La situazione cambia drasticamente quando si scopre una bambina che, unica al mondo, è capace di infondere in questa trasfusioni un sonno ristoratore miracoloso. Cosa rara e preziosa, soprattutto quando, invece, un donatore sconosciuto infonde un’ulteriore epidemia in queste trasfusioni, causato terribili incubi ai già martoriati pazienti.
C’� secondo me da fare una doverosa distinzione su questo romanzo. Perché da una parte c’� lo spunto della storia, che è indubbiamente coinvolgente e interessante, con potenzialità di sviluppo incredibili. Un mondo senza sonno apre prospettive di vario genere nella società e nello spirito degli uomini, figuriamoci se inseriamo la possibilità di “donazioni� con tutte le problematiche che ne conseguono.
Dall’altra però c’� la stesura de libro, e qua secondo me nasce qualche problema. A parte il non spiegare e approfondire in alcun modo le origini e i motivi d questa epidemia, forse la colpa più grave è non sviluppare meglio questo confronto (interiore ed esteriore) tra le donazioni miracolose della bambina e gli incubi inflitti dal donatore misterioso.
Non solo non capiamo bene il meccanismo stesso di queste donazioni, ma il personaggio misterioso viene confinato in una descrizione molto superficiale e poco approfondita, venendo così a mancare sia tutta la parte informativa (perché sta succedendo questo? perché le donazioni sono così pericolose? e via dicendo) sia tutta la parte empatica del “conflitto�.
In generale, tutti i personaggi non mi sembrano approfonditi benissimo, così come la storia che dopo una partenza molto promettente, si incaglia in un costante “nulla di fatto� fino ad un finale francamente poco originale e poco completo.
Restano tante domande e poche emozioni. Ed è un vero peccato perché appunto, gli spunti c’erano tutti e in alcuni momenti si ha quasi l’impressione di poter spiccare il volo, per poi però non alzarsi mai da terra. Certo, c’� qualche passaggio altamente ansiogeno, ma l’impressione è che sia più per un costante riferimento alla pandemia realmente accaduta in quel periodo (il romanzo non a caso è uscito nel 2020 in originale), che non per altro.
La storia ci racconta di un America colpita da un’epidemia senza precedenti, in cui molte persone smettono improvvisamente di dormire e non c’� nulla che si possa fare per salvarli. Almeno finchè non si scopre una sorta di “cura� che, pur non risolvendo il problema, riesce in qualche modo a prolungare l’esistenza degli infetti grazie a “donazioni di sonno� che permettono al cervello di trovare almeno un briciolo di riposo.
La situazione cambia drasticamente quando si scopre una bambina che, unica al mondo, è capace di infondere in questa trasfusioni un sonno ristoratore miracoloso. Cosa rara e preziosa, soprattutto quando, invece, un donatore sconosciuto infonde un’ulteriore epidemia in queste trasfusioni, causato terribili incubi ai già martoriati pazienti.
C’� secondo me da fare una doverosa distinzione su questo romanzo. Perché da una parte c’� lo spunto della storia, che è indubbiamente coinvolgente e interessante, con potenzialità di sviluppo incredibili. Un mondo senza sonno apre prospettive di vario genere nella società e nello spirito degli uomini, figuriamoci se inseriamo la possibilità di “donazioni� con tutte le problematiche che ne conseguono.
Dall’altra però c’� la stesura de libro, e qua secondo me nasce qualche problema. A parte il non spiegare e approfondire in alcun modo le origini e i motivi d questa epidemia, forse la colpa più grave è non sviluppare meglio questo confronto (interiore ed esteriore) tra le donazioni miracolose della bambina e gli incubi inflitti dal donatore misterioso.
Non solo non capiamo bene il meccanismo stesso di queste donazioni, ma il personaggio misterioso viene confinato in una descrizione molto superficiale e poco approfondita, venendo così a mancare sia tutta la parte informativa (perché sta succedendo questo? perché le donazioni sono così pericolose? e via dicendo) sia tutta la parte empatica del “conflitto�.
In generale, tutti i personaggi non mi sembrano approfonditi benissimo, così come la storia che dopo una partenza molto promettente, si incaglia in un costante “nulla di fatto� fino ad un finale francamente poco originale e poco completo.
Restano tante domande e poche emozioni. Ed è un vero peccato perché appunto, gli spunti c’erano tutti e in alcuni momenti si ha quasi l’impressione di poter spiccare il volo, per poi però non alzarsi mai da terra. Certo, c’� qualche passaggio altamente ansiogeno, ma l’impressione è che sia più per un costante riferimento alla pandemia realmente accaduta in quel periodo (il romanzo non a caso è uscito nel 2020 in originale), che non per altro.
August 12, 2023
“El sueño se extinguirá. Y finalmente, a menos que encontremos una manera de sintetizarlo, también nosotros nos extinguiremos� ~ Donantes de sueño de Karen Russell.
Nos situamos en una sociedad con una epidemia: la falta de sueño. Parte de la población sufre la incapacidad de dormir lo que después de varios días les lleva a la muerte. En esta sociedad distópica nos encontramos con unas brigadas del sueño y con habitantes que son donantes de ese sueño que a algunos les falta.
Nuestra protagonista Trish es una joven, que aprisionada por el recuerdo de su hermana Dori que falleció víctima de la falta de sueño, trabaja en una de las brigadas captando donantes. Además, se encarga personalmente de la donación de sueño de la Bebé A, primera donante universal, con una calidad de sueño que es incluso capaz de sanar a muchos enfermos. Al mismo tiempo, se enfrenta al donante Y que se ha colado entre los donantes y cuya calidad de sueño es totalmente la contraria y sus transfusiones provocan graves pesadillas.
Un libro cortito, diferente. Un mundo distópico que pone el ojo en la donación, en este caso de sueño pero que se podría extrapolar a otras situaciones. Como el enfermo necesita de esa donación, el control de los donantes y la impotencia del sistema por encontrar quien pueda salvar la vida de estos enfermos.
A pesar de ser una historia super interesante me ha resultado un poco plano, me ha parecido que el juego que da este libro está poco aprovechado. Aún así, es recomendable.
Nos situamos en una sociedad con una epidemia: la falta de sueño. Parte de la población sufre la incapacidad de dormir lo que después de varios días les lleva a la muerte. En esta sociedad distópica nos encontramos con unas brigadas del sueño y con habitantes que son donantes de ese sueño que a algunos les falta.
Nuestra protagonista Trish es una joven, que aprisionada por el recuerdo de su hermana Dori que falleció víctima de la falta de sueño, trabaja en una de las brigadas captando donantes. Además, se encarga personalmente de la donación de sueño de la Bebé A, primera donante universal, con una calidad de sueño que es incluso capaz de sanar a muchos enfermos. Al mismo tiempo, se enfrenta al donante Y que se ha colado entre los donantes y cuya calidad de sueño es totalmente la contraria y sus transfusiones provocan graves pesadillas.
Un libro cortito, diferente. Un mundo distópico que pone el ojo en la donación, en este caso de sueño pero que se podría extrapolar a otras situaciones. Como el enfermo necesita de esa donación, el control de los donantes y la impotencia del sistema por encontrar quien pueda salvar la vida de estos enfermos.
A pesar de ser una historia super interesante me ha resultado un poco plano, me ha parecido que el juego que da este libro está poco aprovechado. Aún así, es recomendable.
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