Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Sleeping Father

The Sleeping Father

Sharpe, Matthew

Paperback

Literary Fiction

ISBN10: 193236000X
ISBN13: 9781932360004
Publisher: Soft Skull
Published: Sep 26 2003
Pages: 304
Weight: 0.91
Height: 0.79 Width: 6.08 Depth: 8.96
Language: English
Awards: Independent Publisher Book Awards
After their divorced father suffers brain damage, teenage siblings Chris and Cathy Schwartz attempt to rehabilitate him themselves, using their journey to explore broader themes of faith, authority, and whether identity is shaped more by upbringing or brain chemistry in modern America

The Sleeping Father begins with a divorced dad who inadvertently combines two incompatible anti-depressant medications, goes into a coma, has a stroke, and emerges with brain damage. His teenage son--the protagonist of the book, Chris--and his teenage daughter--Cathy--inherit money from their grandfather and decide to rehabilitate him on their own. decide to make one.

Absent an adequate father, the children decide to make one, bringing with it a host of difficulties and opportunities. Chris tries everything from sex to capitalism in his search for guidance on the path to adulthood and Cathy, believing her secular Jewishness inadequate in the provision of a benign & divine Father, looks to Catholicism for solace and meaning.

The Sleeping Father explores the shift in the way Americans think about mental health: away from regarding ourselves as being shaped by our upbringings and toward regarding ourselves as being shaped by the chemicals in our bloodstreams. The American family, in this novel, emerges as a microcosm of larger social institutions; Moms and Dads as in-home teachers, priests, presidents, and CEOs. In focusing on the Schwartz family in crisis, Sharpe addresses the larger crisis in faith and authority in contemporary American life.

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Literary Fiction

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