Plagued by insomnia for twenty years, Marie Darrieussecq turns her
attention to the causes, implications and consequences of
sleeplessness: a nocturnal suffering that culminates at 4 a.m. and
then defines the next day. In Sleepless, she recounts her own
experiences alongside those of fellow insomniacs, mostly writers
– ‘as if writing were not sleeping’ – Ovid, Marcel Proust,
Virginia Woolf, Marguerite Duras, Franz Kafka, Georges Perec and
others. With her inimitable humour, she describes her dealings with
a somnologist and her attempts to find a remedy – trying sleeping
pills, cannabis, alcohol, bedtime rituals, acupuncture, yoga,
hypnosis, psychoanalysis, a gravity blanket and a range of
sleep-aid devices. Darrieussecq considers bedrooms, beds,
clinophilia (‘the tendency to remain in a prone position without
sleeping for prolonged periods of time’), her need to be alone in
bed, those without beds, the homeless, refugees, trauma and
capitalism’s role in sleeplessness, our constant wakefulness
online, the forest as a hypnagogic zone and how our relationship
with animals is connected to our sleep, or lack of it. Ranging
between autobiography, clinical observation and criticism,
Sleepless is a graceful, inventive meditation by one of the most
daring, inventive novelists writing today.
General
Imprint: |
Fitzcarraldo Editions
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
August 2023 |
Authors: |
Marie Darrieussecq
|
Translators: |
Hueston
|
Dimensions: |
197 x 125mm (L x W) |
Pages: |
272 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-80427-065-3 |
Subtitles: |
French
|
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
1-80427-065-2 |
Barcode: |
9781804270653 |
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!