Sleepwalking in Daylight [Paperback]

Elizabeth Flock (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2009

Once defined by her career and independence, stay-at-home mom Samantha Friedman realizes her life has become a routine of errands, car pools and suburban gossip. She deals with a husband who shows up for dinner but is too preoccupied for conversation, an increasingly moody daughter who won't talk at all, and wonders, Is this it?

Since finding out she was adopted, seventeen-year-old Cammy Friedman has felt like an outsider. Unwilling to reach out to the parents she once adored, she shields herself behind black clothing and begins to drift into dangerous territory with questionable friends and risky behavior.

Mother and daughter indulge in their own respective escapism— for Sam, clandestine coffee dates with a handsome stranger, fueled by the desire to feel something; for Cammy, a furtive search for her birth mother punctuated by sex, pills and the need to feel absolutely nothing—until a pivotal moment in an otherwise average day alters their relationships forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bestseller Flock's downer latest takes a glimpse inside a dysfunctional and affluent Chicago family. Samantha Friedman is an unhappy stay-at-home mother of three and wife to her distant and despondent husband, Bob. Their adopted 17-year-old daughter, Cammy, as unhappy as her mother, has found goth, drugs and sex. The unhappy flailings of the two provide the narrative momentum; Cammy's mopey journals (which include, for better or for worse, her poetry) document her pain and reckless behavior, and Samantha's narration explores her affair with a married man. When Cammy learns the truth about her birth mother and the circumstances of her adoption, she sinks further into despair, and Samantha attempts to connect with her while teetering on the brink of abandoning her marriage. Flock's plot is heavy on the sorrow, though there's a requisitely redemptive ending to lighten the familiar and melancholy arc. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

In her fourth novel, popular Flock once again focuses on a dysfunctional family, this time the Friedmans of Chicago: Bob, a sports-shoe designer; his wife, Samantha; and 16-year-old Cammy and her 8-year-old twin brothers. Bob and Sam adopted Cammy when they thought they were infertile; now in the midst of her rebellious teenage years, Cammy is cutting class, smoking pot, having indiscriminate sex, and, above all, feeling like an outcast in her own family. Flock draws astute parallels between the alienated Cammy and Sam—living in a sexless marriage, bored with driving to endless soccer practices, and “sick of being the devoted mom.” Sam falls into a somewhat trite relationship with a very attentive married man—consisting mostly of Starbucks coffee dates and “meaningful” conversations. Caught up in her new life, Sam fails to realize the extent of Cammy’s self-destructive behavior, with tragic results. Not quite as original a plot as Flock’s earlier novels, but still filled with perceptive, dead-on insights into both teenage angst and the common pitfalls of marriage in the middle years. --Deborah Donovan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Mira; Original edition (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0778327345
• ISBN-13: 978-0778327349
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #942,190 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The single best career decision I ever made was chosing to leave something safe to try something risky. I look back now and smile at how blissfully unaware I was of all that is involved with getting something published but I am grateful I didn't have that as my goal.
All I wanted was to see if I could write a book I had in mind. My wish for everyone would be to experience the joy of completing something they feel so passionate about.
Being a writer is the hardest job I have ever had but it is also the best, most gratifying job I could hope for.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book!!, March 11, 2009

By 

Isabel Murphy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sleepwalking in Daylight (Hardcover)

I stayed up late into the night for two nights in a row reading this book -- I couldn't put it down! it's excellent!

This book is about you and me and everyone we know. There were times throughout it where I actually wondered if the author somehow secretly taped conversations I have had with my girlfriends! I've read Elizabeth Flock's other books -- I loved Me & Emma, don't get me wrong, and But Inside I'm Screaming was GREAT but this book is FANTASTIC. I'm a stay-at-home mom and have been married for fourteen years and I could relate to SO MUCH of what Samantha, the main character, thinks or feels.
Hopefully I'll never have to deal with what she has to deal with but even when she's going through events I can't imagine, I felt like I could still relate to her.
Somehow Elizabeth Flock switches between the mother (Samantha) and the teenaged daughter (Cammy) so easily you forget one person wrote both of them. All the characters are REAL. Like people who live next door to you, or are in book club with you or share car pool...she slips into the heads of everyone so well!
I'm telling everyone I know about Sleepwalking in Daylight. And I already have my book club reading it for April.
You'll love it, too, I promise!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars From Linus's Blanket, March 19, 2009

By 

www.linussblanket.com (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleepwalking in Daylight (Hardcover)

Sleepwalking in Daylight is the story of mother-daughter duo Samantha & Cammy Friedman. Once a mother and daughter with a strong relationship and loving bond, the two have hit a rough patch. Samantha wakes up and finds herself in a passionless marriage where she can't connect with her husband. Though her husband was her best friend in college and they had done everything together, their relationship always lacked something and now, whatever common connections that they once shared have long since evaporated and they are lucky if they share intimacies once a year.

Another person with whom Samantha can't connect is her teenage daughter Cammy. Cammy was once a compassionate little girl who was her mother's confidante and comforter. Now her daughter is angry and bitter, with conflicting feelings over the fact that she was adopted. Cammy struggles, feeling like she is different and doesn't into her family or anywhere else. Samantha gets glimpses of the girl that Cammy used to be, but for the most part she finds her to be unrecognizable. Cammy, thinking that she would be better off if she finds her birth mother, forges documents to start the search to find her without her parent's knowledge or permission. What she finds out will have far reaching effects for her and her family.

This book has a deliciously pink cover; it's like cotton candy or something, but do not let that fool you. Elizabeth Flock has done a deep exploration into a familial world where communication has broken down, and self-involved family members miss opportunities to connect with each other. The novel is told from the alternating viewpoints of Samantha and Cammy, and both are extremely flawed, grappling with some of the same issues- like finding a place where they feel they belong. Samantha turns to an affair and Cammy to sex and drugs, each trying to anesthetize the pain they feel. Unfortunately neither Samantha or Cammy knows how to build on the relationship they once had to reach out to each other.

I equally felt for and understood these characters and was frustrated by them. I wanted to hop in the book and shake them. I wanted Samantha to ask her husband questions and make him answer, I wanted Cammy to give her mom a break and to talk to her. Samantha's deep self-absorption is troubling and the only thing that bothered me more was her husband's complacency and inertia.

Though this is her fourth novel, Elizabeth Flock is a new-to-me author, and suffice it to say that I am definitely interested in checking out her other work, and seeing what else she has up her sleeve. Sleepwalking in Daylight was no easy read for me. I didn't always like what I was reading and I was frustrated by the characters, but I have to say that they held my interest and involved me to the very end, even if it was only to scream at them to wake up. If you are looking for positive and upbeat, then don't read this book. But if you want a deeply realistic drama about what happens when a family falls apart at the seams, then this just might be the one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, February 21, 2010

By 

RavensGirl (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleepwalking in Daylight (Paperback)

Randomly picked this book up off a shelf, am glad I did. It's a well-written story of a suburban dysfunctional family. The chapters alternate between the unhappy wife/mom and the daughter, a dark Goth-dressed rebellious adopted teenager. The author shows us life through their eyes and it is so realistic and raw that I couldn't put the book down. There was never a dull moment and I've been thinking about the book even after I got to the last page and closed it shut.