Sleepless Nights (1979)

This slim volume is described as a novel, but it is really a series of prose pictures. In the opening pages the narrator is musing about memory and the remainder of the book is a collection of memories which creates a kaleidoscope of the author's life. There is absolutely no plot or any attempt at chronological order, just vivid narratives of people and places .

And, I think, picture is the correct word to describe these vignettes. Hardwick, in almost painfully lovely words, had written something so visual that I could clearly see a scene as if I were in an art gallery and viewing it as a painting. There are cleaning ladies serving the Fifth Avenue clients and the laundress wringing out the sheets of the privileged of Back Bay; the amorous doctor in Amsterdam juggling a wife and two mistresses; the lover who was perfect, except he wasn't; the characters from the Blue Grass part of Kentucky. And, in the most famous of the ten chapters, Hardwicks's devastating and alluring portrait of Billie Holiday.

Earlier this year, I saw a play called The Hopper Project. In an intimate space, the audience faced an eye level stage set depicting a New York street. Each tenement room, doorway, office, or porch was an exact replica of a Hopper painting. The corner was the cafe from Nighthawks. In the play, the frozen people came alive to reenact their stories. The prostitute putting on her stockings while her client adjusts his tie before leaving; the woman playing the piano to the annoyance of her husband.

This book reminded me of the play. (Not for nothing is a Hopper painting often used as the cover illustration for Sleepless Nights). I could see Hardwick's New York City people painted by Hopper; her southern family and friends drawn in the deep, sharp lines of Thomas Hart Benton; Amsterdam and Vienna and Russia distorted and clarified by Munch.

There is no real way I can really review the contents of this book except to say that it is beautiful. Don't try to analyze, just enjoy. ( )

A serious, melancholy book about memories, of people and places passing through the night. Sad lives. Excellent language, at times a little on the cerebral side, sounding almost like a series of prose poems, or personal essays. ( )

This woman knows how to write!!! ( )

Reflections in the form of short story, personal essay, prose poetry and something more. Painful depictions of solitary life, women's lives mostly. The I character has an acute eye. Her detail is sharp. She's insightful. She strikes a couple of nerves. (She handles Billie Holiday brilliantly.) I was disturbed by it. Hardwick has left me much to consider, which is what a near perfect novel should do. ( )