"Sleepers" That Keep You Awake!

I’m sure you would all agree with me that there are some books out there that are not very well-known, but yet once you read them you just think, “My God, what a fascinating book. Why is it not more popular? Why are not more people reading so-and-so?” etc.
I refer to these type of books [and in some cases, these authors], as “sleepers”.
That is, they’ve been on no best-seller lists, the authors are often very obscure… the books have never been held up to the camera on Oprah’s show, and yet, they are hidden gems, seemingly unaware of even themselves.
Demure treasures, rewarding anyone who cracks them open, who wakes them up.
I am thinking of this topic because I feel that I have just finished one of these type of books, last night.
It’s called The Book of Revelation, by Rupert Thomson.
Published by Bloomsbury in 1999, and Knopf in 2000, The Book of Revelation is the fictional story of the abduction, confinement, and subsequent gang-raping a la physical mutilation of a famous ballet dancer in Amsterdam, Holland. [I specify “Holland” because of course, our first inclination is to think of Amsterdam, Saskatchewan, in Canada… a hamlet of about 5 or 6 hundred hard-working Ukrainian farm-folk, known world-wide for their production of cabbagerolls and ballet-superstars!]
OK, so, in all seriousness now… this ballet-dancer is walking to the store one afternoon and is suddenly approached by three hooded [fully cloaked] characters in an alleyway. A needle comes out of nowhere, instantly the dancer is anaesthetized, and hauled off to a [there is no other word for it]… a sex dungeon of sorts.
Shackled to the floor from every limb, the dancer awakens to find the door in the corner of the room opening, and the abductors entering the room to begin their season of sexual torment and “fun.” [So far, sounds sort of like some run-of-the-mill Bret Easton Ellis “sicko” novel for sicko-men, right?]
Hah! Guess again!
The dancer in the story is a man.
His captors are three women.
And so it is that for the next eighteen days and nights these dames definitely have their way with him. Their [ahem…] fertile imagination seems to know no bounds!
There is nearly infinitely more to the story than this aspect of it. The confinement section occupies less than the first half of the book. The real bulk of the story involves the way that this event affects the dancer, upon his release. Nothing emerges unscathed. His former relationships, his career itself, his own sexual behavior, all has undergone change.
His life becomes a quest to bring a sense of closure to what happened. And this can only be done, it seems to him, if he finds his captors again. Confronts them.
His search begins…

What an amazingly well-written story. What a bizarre theme. And yet not so bizarre, really [perhaps].
All in all, it is a real sleeper. And Rupert Thomson proves here that he is an author worthy of the recognition of an Ian McEwan or a J.M. Coetzee.

Here are a few more “sleeper” books and/or authors that I have happened to discover over the past few years. These books are sleepers that will keep you awake, and all of them are, in my opinion, worthy of a far greater readership than they have been afforded.

The Ash Garden, by Dennis Bock.
Some Things That Stay, by Sarah Willis.
Slammerkin, by Emma Donoghue.
The Doctor’s Wife, The Great Victorian Collection, and An Answer From Limbo, all by Brian Moore.
Celestial Navigation, by Anne Tyler.
Leaning, Leaning Over Water, by Frances Itani
The Underpainter, by Jane Urquhart.
Identity, by Milan Kundera
Dream Stuff, by David Malouf.
The Gormenghast Trilogy, by Mervyn Peake.

Click on the “comments” button and tell me of any sleepers that have awakened you!

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