Thursday, September 7, 2017

He Sleeps

He Sleeps by Reginald McKnight
2002
Weight: 7.2 oz
Method of Disposal: Donating



I have held onto this book since college because I remember going to a reading the author gave and liking him.  I also loved what he wrote inside the book when he signed it.  I remember thinking the writing was beautiful.  Every time I considered blogging about He Sleeps and letting it go I would put it to the side and try to find something else to write about, even though I could not remember what it was about.  I just knew it was good and that it was signed.  That I liked it.  This year I decided to pick it up and read it again.

My thirty-something-married-shelter-manager-self was not nearly as impressed as my super-sexual-eager-always out to learn-student self was.  The main character was deplorable and challenging to care about.  His dreaming life started off being interesting and grew somewhat redundant.  The woman characters were just props the author used to make his male characters look a certain way.  They were flat and disappointing.

The first time I read it, I underlined one sentence.

"Maybe you don't really feel married until you begin to feel watched."  pg.50

I think that pretty much sums up my college (monogamous) relationships but not at all my current married life.  Books mean different things to different people.  I am learning more and more that books mean different things to me depending on the stage of life I read them in.  I know, it seems like common sense, but it wasn't for me.  It is making it easier to let go of some of those books I have been clinging to for years, sometimes decades, now.

His inscription, on the other hand, I will love forever.  Though, I am not sure what it really means in context of the book.  It seems a little more sinister than it appears at first glance.

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