Customer Reviews

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To (Vintage Contemporaries)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Eric and Darren are two high school invisibles who bond over Darren's drawings and Eric's secret: Eric is the boy who couldn't sleep and never had to. Darren's observations and narrating voice are hilarious and spot-on as far as diction. The "voice" is as close to perfect as I can imagine for a teenage boy. All the side characters, in particular Darren's brother, are perfectly drawn; the high school students, the mother who just got tired of being a wife and mom and began to live as if she were neither while still married, the dad whose only real question of his sons is "Got your phone on you?", and the hectic older brother whose accents, drug use and sexual misadventures echo through his brother's life in a menacing but reassuring way.

Is it a funny book? It is an EXTREMELY funny book when Darren is commenting on his peers, or describing his own social awkwardness. I'd throw in some quotes but there are too many swear words for the review to be published in the passages I love most. And the universe Darren and Eric craft, while eye-rollingly absurd, is also very true-to-form for high school boys. I was more charmed by the drawings than the taxonomy of the created world, because the art is credibly the work of an untrained high school boy. In fact, Darren knows the limitations of his own skills. He draws people standing, looking straight ahead, and prefers to draw glasses on faces because the eyes give him trouble. But his drawings are enough to fuel and express his inner visions. When those inner visions take over his life, it's shocking and yet somehow believable.

This is a more complex novel than many of the reviews up here seem to suggest. I read it as a series of a young man's awakenings; first to the power of his own creativity, then to love and sex, then to the idea of manhood, then to his own capacity for cruelty and finally, and finally into a very sad understanding of just how corrupt the world can be. He can't awaken from this final revelation, and it makes this book tragic, not comic. There is a lot of humor, but this is not a madcap teen romp with science fiction overtones. This is a very sad story about a young man's complete loss of innocence, not because he does drugs and has sex, but because he is done a great injustice at the hands of the larger world and must do what it demands of him in order to stay alive. But telling his story is in its own way a subversive statement of bravery and faith, and offers the hope of change.

Very highly recommended.

DC Pierson's ambitious debut novel takes 153 pages (out of 228) to find a plot, but the real reward (if any is to be found) resides in its characterization and voice. Trouble is, a lot might depend upon the reader's age. The book is tailor-written for Generation Y (we haven't reached "Z" yet, have we?) and guys especially. In fact, though he is referring to the word "mech" at the time, the book's protagonist himself utters these prophetic words: "If you are a kid of a certain age and male you will know what I mean." Likewise, if you are 20-something or younger, male, and a self-described "nerd," then you'll probably appreciate the long conversations and inner ruminations of this protagonist -- Darren Bennett -- whose idea of a fun day is to get away from the madding high school crowd, go home to his room, and draw cyborgs.

OK, so now that you're prepared for 16-year-old characters saying "like" a lot, you should know that not much happens early on beyond Darren becoming best friends with a kid named Eric who's equally interested in science fiction, fantasy, and drawing. The hitch (or "angle" as it's called in the book business)? Eric doesn't sleep. Ever. By way of explanation, Eric tells Darren, "I've never said it out loud before, but it's like, there's me and there's everyone else in the world, and everyone else is in a constant state of joining me and leaving me. When they leave, it's sort of lonely, I suppose, but I have time to think and do things uninterrupted. I go for walks." Without the escape of sleep, the world is a prison of sorts for Eric -- but in Darren's science fiction-loving eyes, it makes him not just a fellow nerd, but a miracle of the universe to be treasured. That is, until he steals Darren's first girlfriend ever. That's when the plot finally kicks in. For revenge, Darren decides to reveal Eric's "secret" to some sketchy man who once showed up at the door inquiring about some kid who couldn't sleep. Is "The Man" from a church as he claims? The military? Another dimension?

Darren's is an engaging voice and, if you like him, you should enjoy the ride in THE BOY WHO COULDN'T SLEEP AND NEVER HAD TO. For humor, there's Darren's older brother and his friends, who love to terrorize the neighborhood (and nerds, younger brothers, etc.); they are constantly high or drunk or swearing in horrible British accents while dressed as ninjas (you know, the usual teenage avocations, if some books are to be believed). If you're a plot enthusiast, "too old for this nonsense," or female, you might not take to the novel as quickly, especially when the narrator starts to play unreliable with you. Still, I was impressed with the young author's effort and ambition and, overall, give the book decent marks (reservations and fair warnings aside) for being witty in its desultory way. If it sounds your speed, then, it probably is!

I wasn't too keen on starting this book given its description, but it turns out whoever wrote that probably hasn't read the book. It's not the juvenile fiction the description makes it out to be, or the buddy story you'd expect.

The characters are in those odd years in high school where they they try on new things and drop them just as quickly, often for reasons they can't explain, even to themselves. They like this band one week when the object of their crush also likes it, but hate it when the crush also dissipates. They are still traveling from liking what the people around them like merely from exposure to figuring out their own tastes and desires.

Darren, a loner who fancies himself an artist but recognizes the pretention in it, reluctantly accepts the friendship of Eric, the weirdo kid, as they collaborate on Darren's trilogy of movies drawn from his serious of novels based on his drawings, which people think are really good. The drawings in the book are crude and two-dimensional, showing that these characters still sincerely think quite highly of their talents as well as being caught up in the idea of writing a novel or making a movie without the actual interest in novel writing or movie making. Darren, for the most part, doodles during his free time. He realizes this, but is afraid to admit it to himself.

Enter Christine, the theater chick, and also the worst archetype for a loner like Darren to adore. The slighest interest from her is enough of a hook. As he loses his virginity to her, more of his own identity starts to form. For him, it's a rite of passage and an important signifier. For her, it's just something to do because she's horny. She's in it not for Darren but for the experience. She's living in the moment while he's forming his identity around her. It's liberating to him: if he can have one girl, he can have another, but for her it's confining and limiting in new experiences. From there, the characters start to come into their own and the usual conflicts develop.

Darren makes may references to the music favored by most high schoolers from social pressure, the music favored by high schoolers with college friends as a reaction to social pressure, and the music college friends favor as a way to label themselves as unique. Their search for identity, or reaction to it, motivates their social fluidity. Darren's older brother acts out as an English football hooligan, a ninja, or hired muscle, despite spending most of his time with a church youth group. Not only is everyone looking for friends, but people from whom they can distance themselves. They still define their identities through associations and dissociations equally strongly.

Add to all of this the youthful tendency to give everything more importance than anything deserves and the child-like fantasy play where anything is possible. At the same time that the characters are developing into adults, they don't have the perspective to judge what is happening around them. Everything is an immediate crisis of the highest importance, just like kids in high school really think they are. Is it a secret government conspiracy complete with alien technology, and is the school so afraid of subversive experimental theater that they'll do anything to stop it? There are only a few interactions with adults, and every one is interpreted through these lenses.

They aren't the adult-like wise characters most stories would make them out to be. They don't have the insight or wisdom to understand what's going on or why they do anything. This is Holden Caufield or Adrian Mole. Every character is perfectly voiced and plays out their perspective well. The story doesn't moralize and avoids the common tone with such stories that are trying to illustrate some message or give insight to the teenager mind. Things don't end up well (do they ever in high school?), and the denouement, if one could call it that, is perfect for the story. It's not a neat little package, but it doesn't leave you wondering what happened either.

When I was a teenager, we were still writing down other people's phone numbers on our hands or a cocktail napkin at parties. So I am clearly the wrong target age for this book. Even so, I enjoyed it. I'm not sure what genre it fits into, but it's a coming of age story, like "King Dork," only more streamlined and with magical realism. The author also did the illustrations and, according to the jacket, made a feature film with his comedy troupe.

The book itself is about a teen artist (not "draw-er") named Darren, who with his new friend Eric, decide to collaborate on a movie trilogy and a series of novels, and spend hours on desgning extras like the soundtrack and movie merchandise. Eric is a pretty typical nerd, Darren thinks, until he reveals a secret, which is already revealed in the book title. Throw in a girl that both of them like, as well as sinister government officials who want to study Eric, plus yet another "superpower" and you have a quirky, original story. Unlike so many books, it kept me in suspense until the very end.

If this was a CD, there would likely be a warning: Explicit Lyrics on it. The crude language and references to casual sex didn't bother me (though it's amazing how nothing has to be censored anymore), but might be offensive to someone else. It depends; after all, that's how kids really talk.




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When I heard they synopsis, it sounded perfect for me. While no longer officially a young adult, I love YA fiction, and this story about two teenagers working on a great space-trilogy-universe-complete-with-marketing was right up my alley. I unwrapped it from the box and actually started reading it before I even sat down, a flashback to my young days of insatiable reading thirst. I was quite hooked on the first page and settled in for what I expected would be a quick, fabulous read.

I enjoyed the character of Darren, and I liked his stream-of-consciousness style, where he manages to tumble out all the conflicting thoughts and emotions. His account about his drawing was so impressively insightful - how it is important but you can't let anyone think it is too important, and the delicate balance of it all - classic teen. Then one day, Eric is the person who asks Darren about his drawings, and they come to be best friends, working on their great TimeBlaze adventure. This is good too, though the novel only gives us the most superficial and boring bits about TimeBlaze in this section... at the end, there's far better detail that might have been better introduced earlier. Even more drawings might have been neat - here they are telling us that they've worked out every detail, but we see no evidence of it. Why not blueprints of some of these amazing machines, with good labeling like you might use for your set designer/storyboarder?

The problem is that right about this time, Darren becomes obsessed with Eric's "thing" - his superpower, really, which is that he has never slept in his entire life. That he is weirded out and skeptical is believable. But then he is somehow obsessed with 'beating it' - constantly wondering if it can be overcome with drugs, or maybe even a crack on the head. I found this obsession both creepy AND boring, two bad things that are worse together, and I had to put the book down for a few days. I would have loved to see them actually pursue the 'making the franchise real'... perhaps in a more conventional sense than they do. Let them send out proposals, work with the theater group in some way. Use Eric's talents to advantage. Something more than sitting around drawing and obsessively wondering why Eric doesn't sleep.

The book is described as funny, but I think that's an overstatement. There's wry humor in it, but it's not laugh-out-loud funny. More the kind of, "Dude. I am so glad that is not me any more!" And in places, it is quite dark. Darren's brother is pointless and depressing.

Some of the best writing is just hanging out in the teenage mind. Darren meets a cute girl, and impulsively answers, "Yeah, I'm on NameTag" when not only is he not on NameTag but also has sworn that he will NEVER be on NameTag. So of course, he has to cut class to make an account and fill it up with enough detail so it doesn't look like he just made one... only to be foiled by "New member since TODAY!" appearing on his profile. Or, when at a party, when asked if he has to leave, lines to himself like:

"I don't have to anything except not watch kids my own age play-fight to swing music. I have to not watch that."

By the novel's own admission, the adventure doesn't get started until page 160 (of 226), and for me that was too long. I'm skeptical that teenage boys will be that patient. There's good stuff there, but maybe some of that could have come along sooner.

So, where do I stand on this? I am glad that I read it, and I would definitely give this author a try again. It's a book that may resonate with some people very strongly. A reedit of this story - so original, and with some excellent prose - could easily be 5 stars. Parts of it are 5 stars. As presented, though, I have to rate it at 3 1/2. Perhaps if my expectations had been different I would have rated it at 4 stars. I'd be very interested to see some reactions from actual teenage boys.

As for content: this is definitely high school and up: it contains the full measure of sex, drugs, violence, language, rock and roll, and unsolicited high school musicals.

Fantastic title? Check. Great cover art? Check. Interesting narrator? Check.

This should be a five-star enterprise, right? And it is interesting and engaging and evocative of what it feels like to be a kid in high school--right up until the big reveal (spoiled by the title, but a secret for almost half the book). Before that happens, the little framing narrative at the beginning seems like a cryptic curiosity; afterward the expectation that somehow the other half of the frame will provide some closure grows and grows as things take several madcap turns. These madcap turns, and the second half of the frame's failure to provide closure, make it impossible for me to give this book more than three stars. Too bad--the materials were definitely there for something better. I'd definitely give Pierson another shot--I just hope he can sustain the same level of quality for the whole book next time.

"The boy who couldn't sleep and never had to" had a very interesting premise. Darren Bennett befriend Eric Lederer, an outcast, who reveals his secret: he can't fall sleep, ever.

The novel deals with three main plot lines: the teenager's coming of age (mostly about Darren), the fact that Eric can't sleep, and an elaborate universe they imagined.

Darren and Eric experience very real teenage issues such as school: social pressure, drugs, girls and sex. In this aspect, the novel is very realistic and seems to capture teenage angst and general behavior. Not perfectly, but pretty well. As the boys go through the dilemmas of being a teenager, they try to figure out why Eric is not able to sleep. They also concentrate on the side-effects that of not being able to sleep that Eric experiences. This was the most interesting part of the book and I wish it would have been explored more.

The boys create and develop an elaborate alternate universe to be told through movies, graphic novels, drawings, etc. The writer D.C. Pierson shows that he has a lot of imagination and skill when he explores this elaborate universe and intertwines it with the main story.

The plot was generally ok although I felt bored at times. The problem with the novel lies at the end, when the book becomes even more outlandish. The problem with this is that a tone for this was never set. The novel could have done away with all the fantastic elements. Or, it could have concentrated more on them and set the stage early on for what was going to happen a little better. As it stands, I think the end came a bit out of left field.

Although I don't like the end, I can understand how it could have happened and how Darren could have behaved as he did. He was a teenager after all.

Overall, interesting premise but lacking in execution.

This book was nothing like I expected, but it was so much better than anything I anticipated. It was a coming of age story meets science fiction with hilarious adolescent humor and a distinctly clever voice. Eric and Darren become fast best friends, developing a science fiction movie trilogy/graphic novel. Eventually Eric confesses his most guarded secret - he doesn't sleep. Darren is amazed by Eric's "power," and the two boys deliberate over its causes and advantages. When a conflict causes a rift in their friendship, Darren feels betrayed and lets slip Eric's secret. The consequences are more sinister and imaginative than anything I could have predicted. This was really a fun book that I consumed in a single day. Darren's narration was amusing, the dialogue was genuine and the premise was engaging. It was a singularly creative and clever debut novel.

I know some people may disagree with me but I hate reviews that tell me the entire plot before I read the book, I want to read the book not someone elses synopsis.

So here it is I enjoyed this book, funny, quirky, interesting characters and different type of story. Well written as well. Read it for yourself to make your own opinion. Short and sweet review.

The Good: This book was excellent. It is REALLY funny. The characters were incredibly realistic, the dialogue was perfect, the unrealistic parts somehow seemed just on this side of crazy that they weren't so outlandish.

The Bad: The book dates itself (and is best for the 15-25 age group) because of the cohort in-jokes. There were a few parts in the last seventy pages or so that I had to re-read because they were written in a kind of confusing way.

The In-between: The ending. It's absolutely perfect for the story and the circumstance. This book is all about what would happen if you really were in the situation, how real people would react, and the ending is really quite congruent with that. But in a way, it is totally unfulfilling because you want more or at least something different, a further exploration of the next few years of the characters lives. That being said, the ends are tied up well so you aren't left hanging.

All in all, a great first novel with strong writing, characters, and plot. A great read, totally recommended (to people with a quirky sense of humor, non-prudes (because the sexually-based circumstances are very BAM in your face), and probably to people on the younger end of the spectrum).