On The Bookshelf

CONEY ISLAND

`Inspired Sleep'

Robert Cohen tackles issues of romance, medicine
and child rearing in modern America.

JENNIFER SCHULMAN

Special to the Jewish News

T

here are certain sure-fire
themes that novelists —
mostly those whose works
are prominently displayed
between the greeting cards and cough
suppressants in neighborhood drug-
stores — will use to draw a reader into
the plot: sex, drugs, addiction, adul-
tery. Robert Cohen's newest novel,
Inspired Sleep (Scribner; $25), employs
all of this business and more with craft
and sophistication.
The drugs are experimental sleeping
pills that are quasi-covertly tested in a
hospital psychology lab. The addiction
is to afternoon naps and repeated slaps
of the snooze button. The adultery
happens between a divorced, middle-
aged academic named Bonnie Saks
and a fellow member of her son's pre-
school board, who is on the verge of a
nervous breakdown. The sex — the
significant sex, anyway — has hap-
pened before the novel even begins.
Although there are enough plot shifts
to keep readers turning the pages,
Inspired Sleep is anything but formulaic.
And Robert Cohen is anything but a
drugstore novelist.
Born in 1957, the soft-spoken writer
was raised in the "best and brightest
Reform Jewish home" in Westfield,
N.J. There were trips to Israel and
summers spent in Jewish camps.
Cohen's father was a salesman and is
now a business owner, while his moth-
er is a social worker with the Jewish
Federations in New York City.
Cohen graduated from the
University of California — Berkeley
with a bachelor's degree in English,
and later from Columbia University's
graduate writing program. He then
migrated north to become a professor
of English literature and fiction writing
at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Jennifer Schulman is an associate editor

at ffnai ffrith Monthly. This review origi-
nally appeared on JBooks.com , an online
site produced by Jewish Family and Life!

Today, he continues to lead his life as
both an academic and a practicing Jew.
But Cohen does not necessarily
define himself as a Jewish writer. "To
be honest, the question makes me
squirm," he said in a recent interview.
"As I once said on a panel, 'I wouldn't
want to be classified as a "Jewish
writer." Then again, if you were mak-
ing a list of Jewish writers, I wouldn't
want to be left off'"
The concept of a Jewish writer or a
Jewish book is one
Cohen is not even sure
can be deciphered. His
previous novel, The Here
and Now, was a "self-con-
sciously Jewish book,
schematically designed to
explore the identity and
nature of Jews in
America," according to
the author.
It followed Samuel
Karnish, a "half-Jew" who
becomes enamored with a
Chasidic couple he meets
on an airplane.
After the publication
of The Here and Now, Cohen was cat-
apulted to the top of that subjective
list of today's prominent Jewish
authors, having won a Whiting
Writers' Fellowship and the Pushcart
Prize, among others. This latest book
will surely establish him as one of
today's most readable authors.
Like Cohen, Inspired Sleep's protago-
nist Bonnie Saks is also a professor,
but unlike her creator she is still trying
to complete a doctoral thesis — on
19th- century literature with a focus
on the work of Henry David Thoreau.
"I knew that Bonnie had a half-fin-
ished dissertation, but it took me a
year to figure out what it was," Cohen
says. After leafing through some litera-
ture one day, he stumbled upon infor-
mation about Thoreau, and knew the
poet's utopian view was exactly what
Bonnie would decide to write about,
albeit somewhat disdainfully.
Bonnie is also a chronic insomniac,
acutely unhappy and faced with an

1.1

P. RI CO if FN

, • •

• •

•

• •

unwanted pregnancy. These over-
whelming circumstances lead her to
the Boston General Hospital sleep
studies program run by the book's
other main character, Ian Ogelvie.
Ian is overworked, undersexed and
completely entrenched in his research,
leaving little time for him to cultivate
personal relationships. Instead, he chan-
nels his energy into his work, obsessing
over the sleep patterns of mice, fish and,
finally, humans. He also entertains a less
urgent, but persistent nonetheless,
obsession with co-worker Marisa Chu.
Bonnie and Ian's respective angst and
private frustrations revolve around the
controversial blue pills being tested at
the psychiatric center — for the power
they could potentially provide to bring
sleep to one, success to the other.
"[I was] interested in the idea of a
stuck character who is tempted to take
a shortcut to transcend it," Cohen
explains.
Cohen began the novel with an
interest in writing about
new pharmaceuticals, as
nearly everyone he knows
is on some form of anti-
depressant, and the idea
that it should be a sleep-
ing aid gradually evolved.
The character of Ian was
a logical outgrowth from
that idea.
Bonnie Saks made her
first appearance in a short
story, but Cohen liked
her personality and point
of view so much, he
turned it into the first
chapter of Inspired Sleep.
Although each event and personality
in the book is entirely fictional, many
are loosely based on the temperaments
and anecdotes of close friends.
For instance, Siraj, the gynecologist, is
modeled after an old friend of Cohen's
who is a poet.
"He has this fancy diction and sweet-
ness," the writer says. "I really like the
relationship between [Bonnie and him]."
And to which character does Cohen
himself most relate? "If I put Bonnie,
Ian and [others] in a blender, it would
come out as some puree of me," he says.
It is exactly that mix — intelligence,
wit and just a touch of vulnerability
— that makes Inspired Sleep such a
pleasure to read.
It's a combination that also will sus-
tain Robert Cohen as one of today's
most promising writers, Jewish and
otherwise. ❑

•

S i k

Greek and American Cuisine
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK

154 S. Woodward, Birmingham
(248) 540-8780
•
Halsted Village
(37580 W. 12 Mile Rd.)
Farmington Hills
(248) 553-2360

6527 Telegraph Rd.
Corner of Maple (15 Mile)
Bloomfield Township
(248) 646-8568
•
4763 Haggerty Rd. at Pontiac Trail
West Wind Village Shopping Center
West Bloomfield
(248) 669-2295
•
841 East Big Beaver, Troy
(248) 680-0094
•
525 N. Main
Milford
(248) 684-1772
•
SOUTHFIELD SOUVLAKI
CONEY ISLAND
Nine Mile & Greenfield
15647 West Nine Mile, Southfield
(248) 569-5229
•
FARMINGTON SOUVLAKI
CONEY ISLAND
Between 13 & 14 on
Orchard Lake Road
30985 Orchard Lake Rd.
Farmington Hills
(248) 626-9732
•
UPTOWN PARTHENON
4301 Orchard Lake Rd.
West Bloomfield
(248) 538-6000
•
HERCULES FAMILY RESTAURANT
33292 West 12 Mile
Farmington Hills
(248) 489-9777

1'

•

For a list of this year's National Jewish
Book Awards winners, go to our Web site
at www. d etro tj ewishnews . co rn.

Serving whitefish, lamb shank,
pastitsio, moussaka, etc.

r

I I • I I I I I MN INN MI 1111

I Receive

I

I 04) /n Off :

w

Entire Bill

I not to go with any other offer I

with coupon
Expires 3/31/2001

I. MI MEI

11•111

=I MiN

111