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Reviewed by Lit Amri for Readers' Favorite
“The prose piece I am proudest of, and which you can read in this collection, was conceived when I took a notepad to bed with me and determined to write down what came to mind as I passed out of wakefulness. Naturally enough, one of the first words on my mind that night was “sleep.” I wrote it down. I played with synonyms of it, and soon found my way to “hibernate.” And as I pondered the nature of hibernation I found the seed of what became the story ‘Torpor’.”
Nicholas Thurkettle’s Stages of Sleep is a collection of 15 short stories that are divided into three parts; The Waking World, The Passage, and Dreams. Each part starts with enigmatic illustrations by Heather McMillen. Included in Part I (The Waking World) Torpor is quite the centerpiece. It’s a story about Darius, a disaffected veteran who puzzlingly decides to hibernate with the help of a friend, who seems to be affected by the hibernation more than Darius himself.
Thurkettle’s writing is clear and fine-tuned. That said, to quote his own words, “there are stories in here that you won’t ‘get’.” One such story is The Staring Man. Maurice, the night manager, had quite an eventful shift: naked people ran through the lobby, several bizarre sleep callers - guests who called the front desk in the middle of the night in their sleep - and a guest who was determined to see the sunrise. But the one who caught his attention the most was the man sitting by the tourist brochures, not moving for hours, who just sat staring ahead. I will give nothing much away but the story ended with a corn cob. Simply put, Stages of Sleep is not a cookie cutter type of collection. Readers who like to immerse themselves in surrealism should pick up this book.
