Sleep by Larry Brown
"Sleep" by Larry Brown explores themes of domestic life, the struggle against the cold, and the complexities of marital dynamics. The narrative centers on Louis, who wrestles with the reluctance to leave the warmth of his bed when his wife awakens him in the night, insisting he investigate strange noises in their home. Despite his attempts to feign sleep, he ultimately succumbs to her demands, driven by the intensity of her frustration. As he navigates through the darkness, his mind wanders to thoughts of comfort foods and memories of cold experiences from his past, reflecting on the contrasts between warmth and chill.
Through Louis's reflections, the story evokes a sense of nostalgia and the weight of responsibility in a long-term relationship. His wife’s sleep issues and her nighttime awakenings provide a glimpse into their shared life, marked by both tenderness and tension. The quiet yet oppressive atmosphere of the house accentuates Louis’s internal struggle between desire for rest and the obligations he feels toward his wife. As the narrative closes, he finds solace in memories of his youth, contemplating how individuals adapt to harsh conditions, both in nature and in life. The story captures the nuances of love, duty, and the human experience of sleep and wakefulness.
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Sleep by Larry Brown
First published: 1990
Type of plot: Domestic realism
Time of work: The late twentieth century
Locale: Inside a house
Principal Characters:
Louis , the narrator, an elderly married manHis wife , a psychologically disturbed woman
The Story
Louis is reflecting on how cold it is outside his bed and how he does not want to get up. His wife has awakened him on this night, as she does every night, telling him that she hears noises downstairs, that he must investigate to make sure no one else is in the house, to ensure all is safe and sound. He pretends to be asleep for as long as he can, hoping that his wife will give up on trying to wake him. He knows she will not give up, that she does not sleep at nights. She sleeps only in short naps during the daytime, and even then she moans, twists, and shakes her head no. These nightmares and the nightly vigils have been in play for many years before the night in which this story takes place.
Louis has his flashlight on the nightstand. When his wife begins cursing him and the cursing becomes so severe that his ears hurt from it, he finally jolts out of bed, takes the flashlight, and goes downstairs to look for the nothing that he knows is there.
In the midst of his trying to sleep and then his getting up and going downstairs, he thinks frequently of the food that he would like to eat for breakfast. He names eggs and bacon, a leftover steak, coffee and orange juice, pancakes, and so forth. When he peers into the kitchen, he considers again the possibility of making himself coffee and sitting up with it and smoking a few cigarettes, but he knows that it is the wrong time of night for doing that.
He thinks on and off about places he has been where he was cold, such as a ranch in Montana where he spent time with an army buddy. It was in the winter, and when they went out to feed the cows, they sometimes found a calf frozen to the ground. He remembers a moment in a snowstorm in Kansas when he drove his car off the road into a ditch and instead of getting out, he stayed in the car for nine hours with the heater running, until the car finally ran out of gas. Louis contrasts the warm feel of his pajamas against the memory of such extremely cold weather. He thinks of a similarly cold experience in North Carolina with the frigid, icy wind blowing off the ocean and penetrating his clothes, freezing his own feet into blocks, and he feels the warmth between his toes under the blanket, wishing he could stay under the covers and thinking that if his place were reversed with his wife's, he would not wake her up and make her do the things that she makes him do.
When he returns to the bed after banging doors downstairs, so that his wife can hear him and know that he has checked every possible place, his wife is in a nearly conscious dream state. She says, "Mama had three kittens," and she says no more. This makes no sense to Louis, but he considers himself lucky that she does not continue with the story. Louis sits on the edge of the bed and listens to the intense, overpowering silence of the house and then gets into bed. He moves toward his wife, although he does not know why. The story closes with Louis thinking of himself as a young man in Alaska, the snow and the sled dogs, and the polar bears that were fishing for seals. He wonders how they can live in the cold water, but decides they just get used to it.