Two people from opposite sides of the fence experience life through trials and tribulations, joining forces to combat their dramas occasionally, and by the end, confront the truest of grit their respective paths have to offer.
"The gravity of fate is nothing in comparison to the fleeting warmth of a loved one's last kiss..." ....thus reads the final words of High School Senior Joshua Feranna. Several years later, Lew, his father, currently working for a faceless loan shark, has dipped into a drug and lust-filled method of cope. Separated but not divorced, his wife Autumn finally tracks Lew down, begging him to come home to help take care of their identity-in-crisis daughter Zoey. But when Lew's friend from high school, Sarah Fox, having lived the life of a drummer in the all-but extinct rock band "The Bastards" returns to town stalked by a rumored "Resurrection Tour", Lew's world truly becomes a thing of legend....and doubt. What transpires from then on is a continuing snowball effect that will inevitably lead to the cataclysmic destruction of one family and others as the world continues to busy itself around them in seamless melancholy. "Sleepeth Not, the Bastard" is a story about people, each one steadily climbing towards a foreseeable yet undeniable end. Each person influencing the other in one massive string of events escalating and culminating at the end of their respective worlds whether those worlds be of mental, emotional, psychological, or delusional origin. Part drama, part dark comedy, part rock 'n roll epic, with a copious and perhaps endless helping of sex, drugs, and infamy... "Sleepeth Not, the Bastard" is a romp for this generation, an homage to those that came before, and a warning for those that follow.
Professional Reviews
If books had soundtracks, this one would be killer...
In Sleepeth Not, the Bastard, Matthes shows his range - the narrative style here differs from The Slut Always Rides Shotgun and The Passive Aggressors - where they are told in a journal format, The Bastard is a winding tale that leaves the reader wondering what could possibly happen next. Blending the worlds of music, debauchery, and family with ease, Matthes has created a story and characters that are compelling in their own right while once again making the reader evaluate their own relationships. Told with the alternating perspectives of two protagonists who are equally damaged yet still affable in their own way, Sleepeth Not, the Bastard takes the reader on a trippy ride, not letting off the gas until the very end. Both Lew and Sarah have each encountered their own fair share of tragedy, some intertwined in ways the reader would never expect. Both wear their scars like tarnished armor in their current lives while their interactions with one another and a complex cast of secondary characters show just how vulnerable these two truly are. Examining the relationships between husbands and wives, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, sisters, and fathers and daughters, Matthes has once again created characters whose flaws make them that much more likable and leave the reader hoping for the best for everyone.
Lew, our rapscallion of a male protagonist can't seem to get out of his own way, even as he puts forth his best efforts to build a relationship with his estranged teen daughter. At first, it would seem as though his reasons for returning home are entirely self-serving, but the reader quickly learns there is more to Lew than meets the eye. What's most impressive about this book is Matthes' ability to write from the female perspective without the character feeling contrived or overwrought. Even in the chapters in which Sarah is a teenaged girl, her rebellion is only enhanced by her naiveté and her inner conflict surrounding her feelings about her mother are entirely believable and relatable. Her views on the world are familiar to any woman who has ever struggled to make sense of the what she is feeling as she comes into her own.
A delicious collision of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and family ties, Sleepeth Not, the Bastard is a page turner until the very end - and even then, the reader is left wanting more.
Absurdism At Its Finest
This is a big, sprawling mess of a book, a mess about drugs, alcohol and rock and roll. About bad decisions and worse behavior. About thought locked in the prison of debilitation and sorrow. About dysfunctional families and desperation.
This book has no elevator pitch. “What is it about?” my sweetie asks. “Ummm. Well, it’s about this guy, and ummm these rock and roll sisters and ummm about a suicide and …..”
It is told in two first person narratives. The first is Lew, a drunk, a druggie, a sex-crazed middle age guy living in Buckeye, Colorado, working as a ‘collector’ cough cough if you get my drift for a shadowy Thursday Man. He is there because his wife threw his butt out of their California house about ten years ago when his behavior deteriorated beyond endurance. The other narrator is a female drummer of The Bastards,which is an all girl rock and roll band that used to be hugely popular. Her name is Sarah. She and her sister Lux come from a bizarre family whose mother is a religious fanatic and whose father has given up and is mostly not there.
They all inhabit a noir world of hyper sex, relentless drinking and continual drug use, where the music is all, and provides a background for their strange and messed up lives. It is all told in language and descriptions which would give your mother the vapors. Heck, it gave ME the vapors, but nonetheless, it is compelling, -- as train wrecks usually are.
This mess is sticky, like cobwebs, but from time to time, pieces of the characters’ histories come loose and fall to the ground where we can place them side by side, bit by bit, until we see the story behind the chaos that is their lives, and a sad and pitiful thing, it is, too.
Most of the characters are larger than life …. no, I’m wrong. They are ALL larger than life, as they live their small and large and sometimes dangerous lives. The language is at times, brutal, at times ugly, and at times heartbreakingly lyrical.
And you know what this book is? It is a treatise on Existentialism, in the tradition of Sartre and Camus. You know what Existentialism is? It is what you get when you cross Despair with Unrealistic Hope. It is a book in the tradition of Absurdism, and Beckett would have understood it completely and approved.
None of these characters are people you want to know or to have living in your neighborhood, but they are people you feel sorry for as you watch their inevitable spin into ruination.
A difficult read. I loved it.
I need an alcoholic beverage, stat.
Okay, So firstly I'd like to start out saying that I love the rock and roll atmosphere of this book! So well written and painted such a vivid picture. I love the separate parts, How you bounce from one character and their inner turmoil to the next. The dialog and overall theme was superb.
It started off on an extremely sad note, was a roller-coaster ride of sex, drugs, rock and roll in the middle and ended in a mysterious yet full closure-d kind of way. It really made me think about the lives of others.. considering how much of a mess the lives the characters were leading.
I feel for Lew (the protagonist) I feel like it was him against the world.. Like the world was the antagonist, His life is a mess, His family is in shambles and hes just stumbling along. I feel a sort of kinship with him. As for Sarah... She's someone I wish that I could be. She kicks ass but has her own brand of s*** and drama. This book definitely made me want to consume alcoholic beverages and smoke a reasonable amount of Mary Jane whilst listening too the likes of: The Doors, Simon and Garfunkle, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin.. Too name a few, It also put me in a mindset that was almost unshakable, like i was in a haze. The scenes that were in the past made me feel a nostalgia that I myself am not too accustomed too. Mostly because I wasn't around in that decade....But it makes me WISH that I was alive, well and apart of that scene. I felt extremely connected to the characters and it felt bittersweet to have to end it where it did.. The fact that Lew's fate albeit is questionable but totally OBVIOUS, It makes me hope that the author will pull another card out of his sleeve and this won't be the last of Lew. This book had invoked so many emotions its crazy.. Sadness, remorse, LOVE, at times im pretty sure my face was contorted or my jaw was on the floor. I would definitely recommend this book and GLADLY re-read it, As it was nearly impossible for me too put it down, A very good read definitely not a cookie cutter book.
My second book is about a boy who has Asperger's Syndrome and is bullied to the point to where he shoots up his school. I have divided the excerpts from it into three parts: Before, during and after the shooting.
The bulk of the collection is eight short stories that are set in yesteryear. The compilation is filled out with four entertaining fantasy pieces and three poems.
A teenage boy struggling with the coming-of-age issues of sexuality, religion, and peer approval is overwhelmed, but soldiers on. After several years, he comes to understand the family forces that have left him so deeply troubled, and the process of
