Fall Asleep Forgetting

After the first page I had reservations about Fall Asleep Forgetting. The prodigious use of adjectives was distracting and came off like a high school descriptive writing assignment. To my relief, Packard's writing style improves somewhat, but it still took me a month to wade through the rest of the book. An average novel takes me a week and a half and a thoroughly enjoyable one lasts only a couple of days. The highlight for me came a quarter of the way in, in a poem by the character Paul. Perhaps Packard's strength is more in the music of language than in storytelling.

In general the book is a succession of 1-3 page vignettes, each focusing on one of the book's half-dozen or more "central" characters. For most of the book I found it show more difficult to pick up the focal character and voice for each vignette. The all-caps titles centered over each don't help much, since in most books that's where a repeated header would go.

Looking beyond its stylistic shortcomings, Fall Asleep Forgetting tells a reasonably strong story, dealing with the various characters' perspectives on death, sex, and morality. Perhaps a gifted screenwriter could make it into a passable movie. For myself, I doubt I would have persevered to the end of the book without the obligation to write a review for you, dear reader, and stay in the good graces of the Early Reviewers program. show less

Georgeann Packard's Fall Asleep Forgetting first came to my attention as a finalist for last year's Lambda Award. As a tale of interwoven lives (including a suicidal restaurateur, an adulteress, a jealous transvestite, a homophobic war veteran, and young tomboy who holds it all together), set in a rather unique trailer park, it manages to successfully hold its own against such a diverse cast of characters.

Although slow moving and, at times, a little repetitive, this is a wonderfully poetic story that is as much a joy to 'hear' as it is to 'read.' It takes a strange road to get started, jumping decades and characters, but there's a theme of loneliness that ties it all together. The story itself doesn't really get moving until the show more discovery of a body on the beach, but that's okay because it's an interesting ride getting there.

It may seem odd to talk of a story that's all about relationships, and to say it's haunted by a theme of loneliness, but that's part of why I enjoyed it so much. There's nothing obvious or expected about the writing, and you really have to accept the characters quirks in order to appreciate this scattered glimpse into their lives. This is also a novel about obsessions and excesses - sexual, emotional, physical, and culinary - and about the consequences of those excesses.

This wasn't the story I expected, but sometimes that's for the best. I would much rather be surprised and delighted by a tale, than to come away feeling . . . well, complacent. On the one hand, I think it could have benefited from a stronger focus on fewer characters but, on the other hand, I'm not sure it would have worked as well without them. I've thought about that for a few days now, and I still can't make up my mind, which is just fine by me.

I almost hate to say it, because it seems so obvious to me (yet hasn't been mentioned in a single review that I've seen), this is the kind of story that seems to cry out for a David Lynch screen adaptation. If that scares you away, then it's probably best that you take a pass, but if that intrigues you, I think you'll appreciate the read. show less

I have a love-hate relationship with books like Fall Asleep Forgetting. The problem is Packard's book is too good. Like a delicious meal I couldn't slow down when it came to eating it up; devouring whole chapters at a time. What's wrong with that? This is a book meant to be savored slowly. The writing is delectable, deliriously rich and expressive. One minor distraction is character focus is a little out of focus. I would have preferred Claude as the obvious heroine rather than swirled in a mishmash of other incredibly strong personalities. Because Fall Asleep Forgetting really is about Claude and her strange involvement with a married couple, Paul and Sloan, that fact really needs to be teased out. Paul is dying and his wife is show more bisexual...sort of. Claude is caught up in their relationship until it becomes her relationship, her obsession, but as I mentioned before, she is not the only one. There is nine-year-old Six and her parents Rae and Sonny, Cherry the transvestite owner of the trailer park where most everyone lives and her partner Barton, and elderly Mr. and Mrs. Saugerties. Each one of these characters has a unique and tantalizing story. show less

This is the kind of reading experience I wait for. Fall Asleep Forgetting absolutely charmed me by pulling me into Cherry Grove, a trailer park in the northeast on the shore. Peopled with unforgettable, fully-realized characters, Cherry Grove is run by Cherry, a thoroughly charming (and hysterical) and warm-hearted transvestite who takes over Cherry Grove after her parents die. Sonny (a stay at home dad) and Rae (she is a hyper-sexual paramedic) have Six, who simply has to be the coolest 9 yr old ever. She was my favorite character, this wild-child frustrated by any conformity and easily the most spiritual resident of the park. Many more characters experience fascinating arcs. The author's description of food and place and surroundings show more in entrancing. I found myself looking forward to getting home just so I could pick up where I left off. Her chapter titles are delightful and the passages that are entries in Claude's diary are poignent. There is a twist at the end that I didn't see coming, but that serves as a solid ending. Highly recommended. show less

In "Fall Asleep Forgetting" we witness a new and captivating fiction voice to welcome, that of Georgeann Packard. This piece showcases a unique blend of rawness and compassion, particularly in the characters' internal dialogs. There is much to "discuss," as each player is forced to examine where he or she stands in the world and in Creation.

A hot, sultry summer on Long Island's North Fork witnesses the unexpected - nearly bizarre - drama of a few characters as it plays out to a bitter, surprising end. Doubt, loneliness, betrayal, and terminal illness all pull on these individuals as they fly and collide through each other's orbits. Ms. Packard displays these interactions brilliantly, through an omniscient voice as well as journal show more entries of a central character, a woman named Claude. We get drawn in and pulled along as Claude becomes a player in the strained relationship between cancer-stricken Paul and his wife Sloan. Other characters fall into and out of love triangles; and through it all, the sexes, the races, and personal orientations are all bent and whipped into a tangled mix, as though thrown into a blender.

Ms. Packard has found new routes through peoples' thought processes. We watch as Claude, at first put off by her new relationships, gradually comes to crave them. We read of Six, the 9-year-old tomboy and Psalm-memorizing deus ex machina and understand her confusion and determination. These characters do more than come alive - they shine. We suffer and ponder and hope alongside them.

In fact, one is tempted to assign greater significance to these people; their actions on this stage almost force us to see them as emblems of ancient archetypes, like Oracle, Earth Mother, and yes, deus ex machina. None of this would have happened if the action hadn't been handled as nimbly as Ms. Packard handles it.

This is another astonishing first effort. Look no further than here, or "Pretend All Your Life" for first books from amazing new authors, who already display generous promise fulfilled.

http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/2010/06/fall-asleep-forgetting-by-georgeann.h... show less

Fall Asleep Forgetting is an absorbing novel and one I’ll find hard to forget. The loose-knit community of Cherry Grove trailer park, an odd group of misfits living on Long Island’s eastern tip, has welcomed me in. And everyone I’ve met has played their part.

The story starts with a fragment from before, from 1956 when a woman called Fada steps out on her own. But suddenly it’s May 2001, and the year has me wondering; the chapter headings all seem to lead to September…

Still, this tragedy is small. A stranger has died. Claude, who guards East Marion County Park has found the body. And nothing’s very important about it, except that maybe Paul is dying too, in a quieter, less unexpected way.

Paul cooks. He creates great beauty show more from food. He structures picnics like seven-course delights, and decorates his restaurant to keep the mind inside, not out enjoying the weather. Enjoy both, he might tell you, but focus on one.

Paul’s wife Sloan is the quiet one. You never quite know what she’s thinking, but you try to guess, and you learn her past through others, feel oddly sorry for that and for her future.

Cherry’s a fine one, making her own divided path, volatile but hugely kind. And Rae, who treads a different road, more conventionally unconventional you might say, is mother to Six, the small world’s wildest child.

Old Saugerties spouts rules and regs and seems to hate them all, while Six spouts questions and the Bible. But all the world’s instructions can’t control love and death. And few, it seems, can even prepare us for them.

Claude’s diary creates a picture as absorbing as her photographs. Sloan’s silence and sensuality build questions on sex and desire. Six’s queries demand thought. And even dying makes beauty in the September sun; beauty and pain, but focus on one.

A few months spent in their company makes these strangers become friends; a few hours reading by the warmth of a fire when summer seems unwilling to start; a few nights wondering at the secrets of the heart…

Small tragedies can be the biggest disasters to child or adult both, or a chance to grow. And sometimes it takes a community like Cherry Grove, nurtured and saved, to nurture and save. Not an easy book, not a rapid read, not a simple tale in sight; Fall Asleep Forgetting will have me drifting to the rhythms and beauty of its words, still trying to rationalize somehow all the things that happened there.

With thanks to the Permanent Press for giving me a bound galley for review. show less

I have mixed feelings about this one. All in all it was a pleasurable read, but there were a few tedious patches. The exquisite descriptions of the North Fork of Long Island were spot on and I took great pleasure in reading and rereading many of them. The cast of characters were also very human and likable, as well. My issues are more with the believability of some of those characters’ actions and with the ‘shocker’ finale. I’d like to see more from this writer, but I would be hesitant to give it a broad or wholesale recommendation for all readers.