Synopses & Reviews
In Sleepless Nights a woman looks back on her life — the parade of people, the shifting background of place — and assembles a scrapbook of memories, reflections, portraits, letters, wishes, and dreams. An inspired fusion of fact and invention, this beautifully realized, hard-bitten, lyrical book is not only Elizabeth Hardwick's finest fiction but one of the outstanding contributions to American literature of the last fifty years.
Review
"Elegant, wise, tasty...a truly wonderful book." Susan Sontag
Review
"[A] subtle and beautiful novel." New York Times Books of the Century
Synopsis
Elizabeth Hardwick's elegant and wise novel, narrated by a woman piecing her life together from scraps, is one that delights in startling juxtapositions and the music of the American language.
Intelligent, lyrical, and partly autobiographical, Sleepless Nights is a scrapbook of memories: the first pangs of sexual longing, Billie Holiday holding forth in a cheap hotel, and the swagger and heartbreak of New York City.
About the Author
Elizabeth Hardwick was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and educated at the University of Kentucky and Columbia University. A recipient of a Gold Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she is the author of Sleepless Nights and two other novels, a biography of Herman Melville, and four collections of essays, including Seduction and Betrayal, a study of women in literature that is also published by New York Review Books. Elizabeth Hardwick lives in New York City.