When She Sleeps [Hardcover]

Leora Krygier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2004

Two years after the fall of Saigon, half-sisters Lucy and Mai find one another in the world of dreams. Mai is the Amerasian child of a former U.S. Army surgeon and a Vietnamese linguist. In the chaos of the American evacuation, Linh and her child were left behind.

Bereft of a father, Mai lays claim to what she believes is rightfully hers - her mother's memories of the doctor, locked away in dreams. She steals them away, and sends them out into the night to her half-sister Lucy, the doctor's West Coast daughter by his American wife. A teenager who escapes from her parents' secrets into her darkroom and the photographs she transforms into dreamscapes, gradually Lucy finds herself mystically transported to the half-sister she's never met, dreaming the lush landscape of her father's infidelity.

In prose as uncompromising and sinewy as that of Faulkner, Leora Krygier's When She Sleeps is vibrant with poetic sensuousness. She traces Mai's real and nocturnal wanderings from Saigon to Paris, and on to LA - which her mother had so desperately tried to reach. The sisters' dreams implode as Krygier's linguistic spell carries us to the riveting finale.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In Ho Chi Minh City, Mai waits for her American father to come back to get her and her mother, but it is already two years since the last Americans left. In Los Angeles, Lucy hears her parents' bitter quarrels as her Jewish physician father, a Vietnam vet, insists he must return to Vietnam. The narrative switches between the two teenage half sisters, Lucy and Mai: Lucy always knows that her home is haunted with lies and secrets, and Mai, determined to find her father in California, leaves Vietnam with her mother and grandmother on a boat, finds refuge with relatives in Paris, and eventually reaches her destination. Both girls dream their mothers' stories, and the magical realism, set off in long sections in italics, seems contrived. But there is a real plot here with surprising revelations and connections. Krygier's clear prose brings close the drama of survival, the weight of it, "of those left to sweep up what is left when war is done." Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"A lyrical gem of a novel, about dreams and like a dream. Krygier enchants and entraps the reader." -- Andrew Nagorski, author of “Last Stop Vienna,” and senior editor, Newsweek.

"An engaging, lyrical, dreamlike duet between two complex young women, whose lives are connected through love and history" -- Janet Fitch, author of “White Oleander.”

"Beautiful. Krygier has a perfect sense of place, relationships, and emotions. ." -- Bob Stone, author of “Confessions of a Civil Servant

"Krygier has penned that rarest of literary jewels, imaginative literary fiction.Truly the stuff dreams are made of." -- Carolyn Howard Johnson, author of “This is the Place” and “Harkening.”

"Krygier's clear prose brings close the drama of survival of those left to sweep up when war is done." -- Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 205 pages
• Publisher: Toby Press (November 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592640869
• ISBN-13: 978-1592640867
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,523,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a writer, gobbling up books, and penning poems and micro-autobiographies from the age of seven. Life intervened, however, and sent me on some other interesting paths. I grew up in suburban Philadelphia, went to law school and then spent two years in Paris and the South of France, studying French and photography.
It was in a little hotel on the left bank in Paris where I rediscovered my love of writing. In a tiny room overlooking Rue Montalembert, only steps away from the Seine, I found inspiration in a place that had once been the stomping grounds of authors such as Sartre, Camus, Truman Capote and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dreaming in Fiction, November 21, 2004

By 

Ivy Marwil - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When She Sleeps (Hardcover)

No one is immune from war, no matter the outcome. Countries may shake hands, sign treaties and make peace, but human beings are left with scars, harsh memories and frail emotions-complicated legacies of war that settle into bodies, hearts and souls and are often passed down through the generations.
Such is the case in Leora Krygier's stunning new novel. When She Sleeps, where each character is touched by war in ways that change who they are and who they become. As a therapist, I am fascinated by the way Krygier lets the reader into the psyches of her characters, especially the two 15 year old half sisters, Mai in Vietnam and Lucy in Los Angeles. The story, of their lives and families and how they eventually find each other, speaks in the voices of these two young women. Peripherally, we enter the minds of the other family members, especially Linh, the mother of Mai, a beautiful and brillant linguist whose life and love blossomed in the sixties only to have it yanked away from under her feet. Her once steady mind, takes a downward spiral not unlike the fall of Saigon. But juxtaposed to this fall, is Mai's hope and strength and resolve to find her American father. We pull for Mai and for Lucy, her half-sister and we are not disappointed in the real outcome of a journey that began with a dream.

When She Sleeps is a beautifully written and compelling story, one thaat leaves an indelible mark, not only in the world of good literature, but in this reader's mind as well.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book, November 15, 2004

By 

Susan Levy (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When She Sleeps (Hardcover)

We often hear of the macro consequences of the Vietnam War, but rarely get a glimpse, as we do here, into the micro or the personal. In this brilliant new novel, Leora Krygier transports the reader into the hearts and minds ˆ both conscious and subconscious ˆ of an American family and a Vietnamese family in 1977 as they live with and live through the consequences of war. The language is rich with symbols, metaphors and cinematic descriptions that enhance the story, allowing the reader to see and hear what they are reading. When She Sleeps is a beautifully crafted novel, with each diverse character a story unto his or her self. I couldn‚t put this book down; it kept me awake all night. I recommend When She Sleeps for people of all ages, from mid-teens on up. It is the best book I‚ve read this year.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'WHEN SHE SLEEPS' IS A DREAM OF A BOOK, October 20, 2004

By 

Rolf Gompertz "Author, 'Sparks of Spirit: How... (North Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When She Sleeps (Hardcover)

This is no ordinary novel. After only a few haunting pages, I jotted down: The author's words hover between heaven and earth. They are flesh and spirit. This book soars on gossamer wings.

It is the language that separates this book from many another novel as well. Leora Krygier obviously loves language and chooses her words carefully. She writes with surgical precision and poetic sensibility. She cuts away to the clean, clear, economic essence of things.

Krygier provides fascinating cultural glimpses of Vietnam, past and present, including myths and legends, as they bear on this story. As the narrative shifts to Paris, the author gives us an informed, tangible sense of the city's significant, applicable details. Los Angeles and its surroundings, too, come vividly alive, observed, selectively, with keen insight and fine descriptive powers.

"When She Sleeps" is a gem of writing, story-telling and human insight. It's about damaged lives. It's about secrets and suffering. It's about abandonment and betrayal. It's about the presence and absence, the distortions and aberrations of love. It's about coping. It's about despair and hope. It's a profoundly moving story.

Rolf Gompertz
Author of "Abraham, The Dreamer,
An Erotic and Sacred Love Story"