Sleepwalking
Select Format
Select Condition 
Book Overview
The debut novel from the New York Times-bestselling author of The Interestings and The Female Persuasion, a story of three college students' shared fascination with poetry and death, and how one of them must face difficult truths in order to leave her obsession behind. Published when she was only twenty-three and written while she was a student at Brown, Sleepwalking marks the beginning of Meg Wolitzer's acclaimed career. Filled with her usual wisdom, compassion and insight, Sleepwalking tells the story of the three notorious "death girls," so called on the Swarthmore campus because they dress in black and are each absorbed in the work and suicide of a different poet: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Wolitzer's creation Lucy Asher, a gifted writer who drowned herself at twenty-four. At night the death girls gather in a candlelit room to read their heroines' work aloud. But an affair with Julian, an upperclassman, pushes sensitive, struggling Claire Danziger--she of the Lucy Asher obsession--to consider to what degree her "death girl" identity is really who she is. As she grapples with her feelings for Julian, her own understanding of herself and her past begins to shift uncomfortably and even disturbingly. Finally, Claire takes drastic measures to confront the facts about herself that she has been avoiding for years.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1594633134
ISBN13:9781594633133
Release Date:March 2014
Publisher:Riverhead Books
Length:272 Pages
Weight:0.50 lbs.
Dimensions:0.9" x 5.1" x 7.9"
Age Range:18 years and up
Grade Range:Postsecondary and higher
Customer Reviews
1 rating
Hey, I Liked It
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Granted, I haven't read this book since I bought it as a mass market paperback (my edition was the one with Goth cover at right) some 20 years ago. It was shelved (and possibly marketed?) as a YA book. Anyway, I really enjoyed it. It's about a young woman's obsession with a suicide, a poet whose Long Island family the heroine, Clare, tracks down and lives with for a while. What I remember are some strong descriptive passages and an evocative sense of place (Long Island, eh). I mean, it's not a patch on The Position or The Ten Year Nap, but what the hell. I liked it a lot. And naturally planned to be a death girl as soon as I was allowed.
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
