Fiction Book Review: House of Sleep by Brad Kelly
Lomez on Twitter put out a call from his multitude of followers for creative artistic work they had produced and one author who responded was Brad Kelly who had a novel called “House of Sleep”. I had not dived into a fiction book for a while and felt this was a great opportunity to support a fellow creator who is comfortable in this space so I picked it up.
What I read was both engaging and disturbing.
Kelly is a talented author, his crisp writing style delivers the story in an effective and engaging manner. I found myself drawn into caring about the outcomes of both protagonists from the get go. The descriptive elements he brings to his writing add a sense of depth and place - in particular his characterisation of life in a mid-sized American city stood out to me. Nothing was quite concrete about it yet every detail shared summoned up images of places I have driven past or been to. He manages to portray the idea of decay without slapping it in your face. There is a timeless sense to the story, perhaps that speaks of the stagnation of our own dying Empire as much as it does his writing but is is beautifully captured.
There is a strong part of me that wants to describe this book as ‘magical-realism’ but I am trying to resist. It plays with reality in many ways but does not descend to the depths of authors such as Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The un-reality of certain elements is just grounded enough for plausibility whilst entertaining the notion you, as the reader, can expand beyond materialist world view into the unknown. Loosely speaking the plot centers around grief and coping with grief. Lynn as a character is the every modern woman (minus the dog obsession) dealing with loss, it would be easy to mock this character or oversell her but Kelly seems to tread a tight line so that we have just enough sympathy and curiosity about her grief. Contrasting her is a crippled boy, Daniel. Without spoilers the pair end up in this House of Sleep, led by a charismatic cult like leader who is attempting to weave something from shared dream space.
It would be remiss of me not to mention elements of the plot and world Kelly constructed threw my mind into the world of Inception, but seeing as I consider that a well put together film this is not a slight or meant to cheapen anything. It is merely the art that looms largest when I think of dreams and dream space. For me it was an engaging story tinted with just enough disturbing, thought provoking ideas. Good fiction and story telling does this, pushes up against our limits. Kelly has a gift for describing the charismatic and religious experiences that also further this sense of discomfort. As all is revealed the crescendo rises and is mostly triumphant.
This, in all honesty, is not a book I thought I would like and I don’t see myself re-reading it. But the grittiness and engaging ideas are still lingering with me. I would recommend.
4/5
