Sleeping with Random Beasts [Hardcover]

Karin Goodwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1998

Bargain Books are non-returnable.

In this hilarious and touching gem of a first novel (discovered in a towering heap of unsolicited manuscripts -- yes, it happens!), Bean, otherwise known as twenty-nine-year-old Eleanor May Shank, is leaving Boston. A train trip across America stretches in front of her. Panting at her heels are too many years at a boring bank, three long years with a beer-swilling boyfriend, two years under able analysis, and an unfulfilled yearning to become a photographer. Traveling with a flask of whiskey and her camera, Bean visits old friends and family in one city after another -- Richmond, Chicago, Kansas City, Tucson, San Francisco, Portland -- facing her crazy past armed with a vicious wit and a penchant for one-nightstands. While trying to justify her aimlessness to her ex-Marine dad, loose and boozy divorced mom, and old friends who aren't what they used to be, she hurtles toward her own surprising fate. Laced with wry observations, this unrestrained, raucous debut is sharply insightful and impossible to put down.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At 30, Eleanor May "Bean" Shank, the loquaciously cynical narrator of this meandering novel, decides to leave her alcoholic, cheating boyfriend and boring bank job behind. Tucked into her suitcase are a bottle of Scotch and a camera, her prerequisites for finding herself and becoming a photographer. Ahead lies a year-long cross-country odyssey during which she revisits the family and friends who shaped her dysfunctional past, taking on lovers as she finds them. Despite Goodwin's obvious intelligence, this fictional travelogue holds all the fascination of slides from someone's else's vacation, since Bean's unremittingly glib observations?that Connecticut teens are too well-groomed, that Richmond induces catatonia, that being gay in Kansas would be no day at the prairie?quickly lose their charm. Even worse are her constant references to her fluctuating weight. A case of arrested development, she whines instead of photographing, has sex in her mother's bed, stays stoned as often as possible. By the time one character advises, "Have some backbone! You're not thirteen anymore," the reader has already been there, thought that.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Eleanor Shank ("Bean")?bright, 30, just out of a relationship with an unsatisfactory man, and bored with her job?dreams of becoming a photographer. So she quits her Boston job and embarks on a cross-country train trip that starts at her father's house, stops at the homes of her mother's friends, and ends up in Oregon. Along the way, she reveals her personal story: her insecure upbringing, her messed-up love life, and her sexual mistakes. Bean drinks too much, loves too easily (and not wisely), and doesn't know what she wants or why others behave as they do. The dialog in Goodwin's first novel is so real that it sometimes sounds like talking out loud. Bean lives and loves honestly and wants the world to do the same. At the book's end she is pregnant (and doesn't know who the father is) and living with the boyfriend (so she thought) of her youth. Bean is still expecting the silver lining, and the reader is left wondering, is this all there is? Recommended for larger public libraries.?Barbara Maslekoff, Ohioana Lib., Columbus, Ohio
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (January 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811819892
• ISBN-13: 978-0811819893
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,130,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Put it Down!, June 5, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Germantown, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleeping with Random Beasts (Hardcover)

I started reading this book on a Friday night, and didn't stop until early Saturday morning when I finally finished it. The characters, especially Bean, are so real and funny that I missed them when I finished the book. Anyone who is in their mid-twenties to early thirties (and has felt "like an alien who has been dropped onto Earth and can't learn the customs") should read this book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could not put this one down, January 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sleeping with Random Beasts (Hardcover)

A well written, light and easy read with characters that are interesting and likeable. Bean's struggle with weight, relationships, and career all hit the mark. Really loved the book and am looking foward to Ms. Goodwin's next novel. If you liked this book, I highly recommend Jennifer Egan's Invisible Circus.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pathetic character, December 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Sleeping with Random Beasts (Hardcover)

I found Bean to be a pathetic character, with no reason to be pathetic. She blames all of her problems on her relationship with her parents and other people. However, these people weren't despicable. She is really just a normal person with normal problems who blows them into something larger than they should be. She really annoyed me. Even though the premise of the story is good, Bean never really seems to learn from any of her mistakes which was a disappointment.

Ms. Goodwin's writing style if funny and real. She did tend to jump around from present to flashback with no warning, which was a bit confusing. However, her writing style of giving Bean's thoughts was so humorous that it made up for it.

I liked the book okay. I don't know if I would recommend to a friend.