Beyond Sleep (Hardcover)

~ Willem Frederik Hermans (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Dutch geology student Alfred Issendorf makes a wonderfully quixotic journey in this previously untranslated 1966 gem from Hermans (1921–1995), a Dutch novelist who worked in Paris. Alfred sets out for Norway's northernmost region of Finnmark with three other students to try to confirm their professor's dubious hypothesis that regional craters resulted from meteor impact rather than Ice Age glaciers. Insecure, exhausted, doubting his career choice and barely up to the physical rigor of trekking through the Arctic wilderness, Alfred begins to imagine that everyone—his companions and their mentors—is plotting against him. But he is determined to make his mark, mostly to compensate for the loss of his biologist father who fell into a mountain chasm when Alfred was six. The story takes an unexpected turn when Alfred loses his compass—literally—and reveals surprising reserves of fortitude and cunning. For all his anxiety and irony, he also proves a sympathetic narrator, particularly in the development of his relationship with Arne, one of his companions, who is in many ways his opposite. In this moving tragicomedy, Alfred's self-knowledge is achieved at great cost and offers him little hope. Hermans's portrayal of Alfred's existential transformation is deep and crystalline. (May)
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From Booklist

Dutch novelist Hermans' 1966 book is literate, naturally developed, cannily paced, tonally even--an exceptionally well crafted novel. Why did it languish untranslated for 40 years? Because of unsympathetic characters, perhaps? Alfred Issendorf is a PhD candidate aiming to guarantee a cum laude degree by proving his mentor professor's pet theory about meteorite impacts in Norway's Finnmark region. Inadequately prepared, Alfred is disappointed by his professor's Norwegian contacts (this is mordant high-comic material), antipathetic to his companion field researchers except for the maudlin Arne, and maddeningly full of himself though he lacks all self-confidence. Stubborn, to boot, he badly bruises a leg in a fall due to his own inattention, and later he willfully takes off in the wrong direction and gets lost. He meets no tragic end, and when he finds one, he is minimally affected. He is also supremely unlovable, tolerable only because he's young and hence may outgrow his self-absorption. He's unpleasant, and so are the other characters. Finally, they're wryly funny, and in that lies the novel's brilliance. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover (May 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585675830
• ISBN-13: 978-1585675838
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,159,774 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've read in years, July 26, 2007

By	Carol Madsen (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

Beyond Sleep is a modern classic of European fiction, a hilarious and captivating story, set beyond the edge of the civilized word, as one man approaches a breaking point.

The young Dutch geologist Alfred Issendorf is determined to win fame for making a great discovery. To this end he joins a small geological expedition, which travels to the far North of Norway, where he hopes to prove a series of craters were caused by meteorites and are littered with extraterrestrial "Issendorfite," but ultimately realizes he's more likely to drown in a fiord or be eaten by parasites.

Unable to procure crucial aerial photographs, and beset by mosquitoes and insomnia in his freezing leaky tent, Alfred becomes increasingly desperate and paranoid. Haunted by the ghost of his scientist father, unable to escape the looming influence of his mother, and anxious to complete the thesis that will make his name, he moves toward the final act of vanity which will trigger a catastrophe.

A deadpan comedy reminiscent of Heller or Vonnegut at their best, with more than a dash of Kafka, Beyond Sleep is a unique and illuminating examination of how hard it is to be a true pioneer in the modern world- a masterpiece.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Literature, August 5, 2007

By	Bernard M. Patten "Book worm" (Seabrook, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Everything is interesting about this novel, its tone, pace, style, diction, setting, development, conflicts, characters, and change. One would have liked to see some more than passing romantic interest, but alas that's not possible for Alfred who operates close to the dark-side fringe of human compassion. The comments about the existence of God are tacked on, but interesting, especially the long list of evils that God permits to afflict his creation. All in all, a most satisfying read. Try it. You'll like it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Questing in the Far North, August 14, 2009

By	R. M. Peterson (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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This review is from: Beyond Sleep (Paperback)

BEYOND SLEEP is an odd novel. Its protagonist, Alfred Issendorf, is a 25-year-old Dutch geology student, who goes to the wilderness of Finnmark (northernmost Norway) to look for evidence of meteors in order to prove the pet theory of his university thesis supervisor. Plagued by mosquitoes, rain, the midnight sun, and his own ineptitude and lack of conditioning, Alfred bogs down, miserably, in his mission. But there also is a second quest, an existential one -- namely, Alfred's quest for some meaning in life. I leave it to readers to discover how successful Alfred is in that second mission, although the title of the novel, I think, provides a clue.

Not only is the plot strange, but the style of the novel is unusual. First, it is very informal, told first-person in almost stream-of-consciousness fashion. Second, it displays a wide range of styles of humor, from the wry and dry to, occasionally, the absurd and farcical. Finally, Alfred is a sort of amateur metaphysician, who shares with the reader all sorts of off-beat ideas -- some worthwhile and some sophomoric -- as well as a few rather hackneyed ones (e.g., "Life's a dream.").

An example from the "worthwhile" category: "Maybe it would have been better if I had failed in my first year at university. * * * But then what? What would I have done? Become a flautist after all? How will I ever find out? No-one can start over at the same point twice. If an experiment can't be replicated, it ceases to be an experiment. No-one can experiment with their life. No-one can be blamed for being in the dark."

BEYOND SLEEP was an easy read, which contributed to the impression, while reading it, that it was a relatively simple novel. But it is deceptive in that simplicity. The more I reflect on it, the more I realize Hermans (a noted Dutch author, circa 1950-1990) packed into it. I don't believe that it is a great novel, and I suspect that it will not appeal to everyone (not by a long shot), but for me and my sometimes idiosyncratic tastes it proved to be moderately entertaining and occasionally thought-provoking. I would not be surprised to find myself picking it up again a few years hence, and I certainly will seek out the one other Hermans novel so far to be translated into English, "The Darkroom of Damocles".