HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Sleep Toward Heaven: A Novel by Amanda Eyre…
Loading...

Sleep Toward Heaven: A Novel (original 2003; edition 2004)

by Amanda Eyre Ward

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
3981963,136 (3.85)7
Drama. Fiction. Suspense. HTML:

Sleep Toward Heaven is a luminous story of murder and desire, solitude and grace, set in Manhattan and small-town Texas. In Gatestown, twenty-nine-year old Karen awaits her execution on Death Row. In New York, Franny, a doctor the same age, plans her wedding and tries to resist her urge to run. In Austin, Celia, a brassy young librarian, mourns her lost husband. Over the course of one summer, the three women's disparate lives intertwine. Karen, Franny, and Celia all struggle to find their place in a world where nothing is sure, as they move toward one night that will change them all forever. With razor-sharp prose and humor that ignites the page, Amanda Eyre Ward's debut novel will keep you reading all night and give you something to talk about in the morning. Sleep Toward Heaven is a novel to celebrate and to savor.

About the author: Amanda Eyre Ward was born in New York City, and graduated from Williams College and the University of Montana. Her short stories have been published in various literary reviews and magazines. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, the geologist Tip Meckel. She is a regular contributor to the Austin Chronicle. This is her first novel.

.
… (more)
Member:azimrin
Title:Sleep Toward Heaven: A Novel
Authors:Amanda Eyre Ward
Info:Harper Perennial (2004), Paperback, 304 pages
Collections:Read but unowned
Rating:****
Tags:None

Work Information

Sleep Toward Heaven by Amanda Eyre Ward (2003)

Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 7 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 19 (next | show all)
A very postmodern book, if only in its undertones. This was a surprisingly quick read which I devoured in a single afternoon. This engrossing plot features a triangle between three women: a prisoner on Death Row, a doctor, and a librarian. At first, the three narratives seem to be randomly thrown together, but their connection is revealed soon enough. You won't be able to put it down after that.

As a native Texan, I enjoyed the well-researched bits about Huntsville, the prisons, and the death sentence. Texas executes more people than any other state, and middle schools statewide make the field trip / pilgrimage to the Huntsville museum where Old Sparky is retired. From an early age, we learn about the lethal injection and the gruesome details of how exactly an execution-via-electric chair works. I recently went to the museum as an adult and was horrified to see a gift shop t-shirt featuring Old Sparky, with the slogan "Riding Thunder." That is fucked.

Ward is obviously not from Texas, but this fact, obviously, does not take away from the quality of her writing, which is well-researched and written in lovely prose. However, her opinions on the death penalty go against everything most Texans believe. Her characters do not reflect the average Texan. Here, the death penalty is not just a policy, but a part of religion. Just like gun rights.

Ward devalues the death penalty. As in, what good would this woman's death do? What good could come from killing this woman? We look at this woman's life before prison and sympathize with her plight, but Ward seems to be advocating that justice is relative. Her character is a murderer, but she had such a tragic life, surely we can judge the murder in a different life?

The death penalty is not a cruel and unusual punishment... There are many arguments made about its cruelty, but as for unusual, it's definitely not, because we do it! A lot. Especially in Texas. This is a common punishment. Common! If you tip the scales of justice, they must be righted again. Ward questions this sentiment with grace. ( )
  bookishblond | Oct 24, 2018 |
Wow. What an absolutely amazing book. I didn't really know what to expect from this book. I got it for Christmas many years ago and never went back to it. Now I am saddened that it took me so long to read this wonderful story.

The three main characters – Karen, Celia, and Franny – were so vivid and relatable. I absolutely loved them. Even the secondary characters had a special place in my heart. Once I picked up this book, I was unable to put it down. Left me crying one moment and then laughing. A story about redemption and forgiveness of one's self and others. Letting go of the past in order to move on with the future. A very heartwarming book that didn't get half the attention it deserved when it came out. Beautifully written. This was the first novel by author Amanda Eyre Ward. I will definitely be looking into reading more of work. ( )
1 vote UberButter | Feb 9, 2016 |
3.5***

Three very different women are connected by an impending execution at the Huntsville Prison in Texas. Karen – “the Highway Honey” – is on death row for the series of murders she committed in an effort to keep her young lover supplied with heroin. Celia is a lost and emotionally drained librarian and widow, whose husband was murdered. Franny left the small Texas town years ago for boarding school, making her life in New York as a doctor. Reeling from the recent death of one of her pediatric patients, she leaves her fiancé behind to return to Texas when her last relative, Uncle Jack, dies suddenly, and winds up taking over his job as prison physician. All three are emotionally disconnected and fragile. The novel spans one hot Texas summer and is told in alternating chapters by each of the three women.

Karen’s background story is obviously based on that of Aileen Wuornos (who was executed in Florida for the robbery/murders she committed there), with very little effort to change the circumstances. She might have been any murderer, why borrow such a recognizable back story? The novel is set in the fictional Gatestown, which is obviously a stand-in for the real Gatesville in which the Mountain View Unit for female Death Row prisoners is actually located. Why bother to change the name if it’s going to be so similar? The book mentions that this is about a 5-hour drive to Hunstville, where the executions actually take place, yet hordes of people show up “for the execution.” This confused me … wouldn’t they go to Huntsville? But enough quibbling over small details; they were distractions, yes, but not major flaws.

This book surprised me. Despite the emotional distance of the three central characters, there was an immediacy to the writing and I found myself completely drawn into their combined story. Their tale of grief, loneliness, longing and forgiveness has a universality about it despite the unique circumstances of each. Karen and her fellow inmates on Death Row try to create some sort of “family” out of their shared experience as they wait for their respective execution dates. Celia stumbles through her days trying to find a way back to life, afraid to hold anyone close again after losing Henry in such a violent and sudden way. She insists she is “fine” and proves it by buying a new bikini (“Isn’t that what normal women do?”), but her therapist feels that she has not really faced her rage yet. Franny is perhaps the most closed-off character and I had a very hard time with her. Of the three, she seems to be the one most damaged, going through the motions and sedating herself with alcohol. Her actions make little sense to me, but I was glad that she was finally able to acknowledge some love and personal connection.

The ending was emotionally charged for the characters, but I felt a little manipulated. The women didn’t seem to understand their own motives and, frankly, neither did I. And I thought the “resolution” was contrived and convenient. Still, this was a pretty good debut effort and I will certainly read more of this author’s works.
( )
  BookConcierge | Jan 13, 2016 |
Originally I stayed away from this author becuase I thought she was another Anita Shreve or Carol Goodman.

But I actually couldn't put this book down. It's Ward's first novel, and it has that first-novel cautiously lovely language mixed with first-novel sort of cliche but why the hell not? language. There's a subtle kind of danger in the prose. And the women are not just tough because they choose to have a lot of casual sex and decide not to have children.



( )
  usefuljack | May 17, 2013 |
Originally I stayed away from this author becuase I thought she was another Anita Shreve or Carol Goodman.

But I actually couldn't put this book down. It's Ward's first novel, and it has that first-novel cautiously lovely language mixed with first-novel sort of cliche but why the hell not? language. There's a subtle kind of danger in the prose. And the women are not just tough because they choose to have a lot of casual sex and decide not to have children.



( )
  usefuljack | May 17, 2013 |
Showing 1-5 of 19 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review

» Add other authors (3 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Amanda Eyre Wardprimary authorall editionscalculated
Carstens, AlmuthÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

Belongs to Publisher Series

btb (73487)
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
For Tip, my love.
First words
Quotations
Last words
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

None

Drama. Fiction. Suspense. HTML:

Sleep Toward Heaven is a luminous story of murder and desire, solitude and grace, set in Manhattan and small-town Texas. In Gatestown, twenty-nine-year old Karen awaits her execution on Death Row. In New York, Franny, a doctor the same age, plans her wedding and tries to resist her urge to run. In Austin, Celia, a brassy young librarian, mourns her lost husband. Over the course of one summer, the three women's disparate lives intertwine. Karen, Franny, and Celia all struggle to find their place in a world where nothing is sure, as they move toward one night that will change them all forever. With razor-sharp prose and humor that ignites the page, Amanda Eyre Ward's debut novel will keep you reading all night and give you something to talk about in the morning. Sleep Toward Heaven is a novel to celebrate and to savor.

About the author: Amanda Eyre Ward was born in New York City, and graduated from Williams College and the University of Montana. Her short stories have been published in various literary reviews and magazines. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, the geologist Tip Meckel. She is a regular contributor to the Austin Chronicle. This is her first novel.

.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (3.85)
0.5
1
1.5
2 7
2.5 4
3 22
3.5 8
4 50
4.5 6
5 25

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,211,087 books! | Top bar: Always visible