Customer Reviews

Sleepwalking in Daylight

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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!!

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.

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.

...a book about empty people. Unfortunately, a couple of these people have created, and are supposed to care for, other people, their children. Also, unfortunately, I suspect, these people will remind the reader of the people they know, and, if they are honest, of themselves.

I am a sucker for angst which resolves into a modicum of knowledge or at least light at the end of a tunnel. The angst in this story resolves itself into terror and an acknowledgement of the darkness. Maybe that is something. This is the story of a self absorbed suburban middle class couple. Their self absorption is slightly relieved by their stories of procreation--one adoption, and one invitro 'miracle'. Immature and acquisitive they first acquired the adopted 'special needs' child and appear to be surprised that she needed them past toddler cuteness and into difficult adolescence. The miracle twins continue to be genetically designed perfection hurtling themselves toward their own demise, which would be another tale worth telling. Mother displaces her anxiety about duaghter into a commuter train/Starbucks/email pseudo-affair.Father has anxiety attacks, and appears to have never really landed in this family at all. I hated them.

Daughter drowns in a lonely, pharmaceutical induced, search for identity while her family seems unable to focus on her for more than fifteen minutes at a time. I love her.

All in all, so sad. This should be required reading for anyone considering adoption, or parenting in general. The moral might be that life, and family, is hard, just hard. And, if you don't have the guts for it, limit the damage to just yourself. And, if you've already GOT the kids, it really is about them, not you.

very insightful into the lives of "desperate housewives" and misunderstood youth. very well written, but not at all uplifting. alternates chapters between frustrated stay-at-home mom and goth & confused adopted teen; great book club choice

In Sleepwalking in Daylight, Samantha is a stay at home mom who lives in the suburbs, married her college boyfriend and has three kids - a sixteen year old daughter named Cammy and twin boys. Samantha is unhappily married and trying desperately to find meaning in her life. To say that her daughter Cammy is in trouble is a monumental understatement. And so Sleepwalking in Daylight unfolds and takes turns in both the voice of Samantha, the mother, and Cammy the daughter. Flock's ability to accurately depict the life of a suburban stay-at-home mom, happily or unhappily married, is worth the trip. Her description of the thoughts and feelings of Samantha are like a fictional version of Betty Friedan's "The Feminine Mystique."

Among the other provocative questions asked in the book, Samantha finds herself wondering, What am I doing with my life? Is this all there is? I take care of my family, drive everyone to everything, volunteer at school, buy groceries, try to come up with nutritional meals, while losing self-confidence, questioning every choice, feeling unappreciated for my efforts, and messing up my daughter life and probably my sons lives too. Her description of this all too familiar sentiment among today's mothers is uncomfortable to say the least.

Cammy's voice is even more uncomfortable, albeit worthwhile to hear. For those readers who suspect Cammy's dialogue is a figment of the author's imagination, think again. Flock is spot-on. Depressing as it may be, young women really DO feel the way Cammy does and tumble down endless pits in the exact same way with no one to save them. The book is a wake up call - to parents, to moms, to dads, to husbands and to wives. Get it together. You have choices. Don't continue to live in a dreamlike state. Wake up. Your children's lives may depend on it.

Sleeeping Walking in Daylight is a "nerves on the edge of your skin" but worthwhile read.

This is a deceptively simple, powerfully specific story about the troubled but rich inner lives of a mother and her daughter. These are all-too-human women, written with a poignant honesty. By turns funny, heartbreaking and hopeful, it's a book that's almost impossible to put down.

This book was one of the best books I've ever read. I couldn't put it down and when I did - I couldn't wait to get back to it. The characters are very likable - pretty much all of them except Sam's husband Bob - he was a waste of life. The book has twists and turns and you don't expect the ending that it has........although all the drug problems with Cammy, I would have took a different approach (we can all say what we would do but seriously - you don't know what you would do until you are actually in the situation) Overall excellent book - I cannot believe some gave this book only 1 star....how? It kept you wanting to read it to see what happens next. I highly recommend this book to anybody who likes to escape for a little while into someone else's life....

Have you ever overheard someone at a cafe, revealing very intimate details of their life? Ever thought,I really should not be listening, but this peek into their life sounds so much like mine...or like mine might be if I made other choices along the way?

This book was like being given a glipse into a dysfunctional family, first hearing what life was like for the mother, then alternately by the daughter, from their very different points of view. Had you been listening to either one of them tell their story, they might have appeared to be talking about completely separate lives since they are both a bit self-involved and have what they think is a clear picture, but it's never so simple.

The author does a fabulous job of presenting the voice of a middle-aged mother as well as a teenaged daughter. It was easy to get absorbed into the mother's experience, being a mother myself, but just as easy to feel the angst of the teenager.

How does a mother deal with a daughter who is going through a "phase" of dying her hair, wearing all black, doing drugs, having sex, and who knows what else? How do you make her see how dangerous this lifestyle is and, most importantly, how does she get her little girl back?

On the other hand, how does a daughter deal with a mother who does not seem to understand the anguish she feels and can't seem to do anything but critize rather than make her feel better? Why can't she just listen and stop trying to change her?

The story is all too realistic and sad, but certainly eye opening. Instead of glossing over infidelity, loss of identity and frustrations of life the author tackles the subjects as they would happen in "real life" and not as they are often portrayed in the movies...always wrapping up quite neatly. Life just does not happen that way and it was refreshing to see this played out more realistically.

This is an interesting, if not melancholy, book. Entertaining and relatively quick to read...and certainly recommended.

Elizabeth Flock has beautifully written a hauntingly realistic novel. "Sleepwalking In Daylight" tells of the implosion of a family through alternating the voices of Samantha, a stay-at-home mom whose marriage and life has become a routine, with her teen-aged daughter, Cammy, who is struggling with the knowledge that she was adopted.

Samantha's growing awareness that her marriage is not how it is supposed to be is exceptionally well written and will give many readers pause to compare and rate their relationships. Cammy's struggle to find her place in the world gives valuable insight to the struggles of modern high school life. I won't look at kids dressed in Goth style again without thinking about Cammy.

The book reads like a true story and it is easy to imagine it becoming a movie. The characters are very realistic with their strengths and weaknesses and the plot very believable. I hate to make comparisons to other authors, but if you like Jodi Picoult you will like this book. Even if you don't, try this novel. It is excellent and will keep you thinking about it for a long time.