Not Sleeping by Alan Winnikoff


Not Sleeping by Alan Winnikoff
Publisher: Crowsnest Books
Genre: Romance, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

It is said that over 70% of special needs marriages fail. This is the story of one. Not Sleeping depicts a suburban New York couple, Josh and Claudia Sherman, separated though not yet divorced. As they struggle to navigate their way through the painful process of uncoupling, they also must continue to co-manage the difficult demands of their nine-year old autistic daughter. It was Josh who decided to leave the marriage. But, in an unanticipated turn of events, Claudia is the one who quickly finds a new relationship. As the story moves forward, Josh’s Plan B, as he calls it, begins to take shape. It is centered around a possible new job and his own nascent romance. But Plan B also necessitates him to moving to California and leaving his familiar life, and specifically his children, behind. Josh is drawn toward this powerful chance at reinvention…but with no guarantees and at what cost?

Life is filled with surprises, and not all of them are necessarily cheerful ones.
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Some of the most compelling scenes were the ones that explored what it was like for Josh and Claudia to raise a severely disabled child. While there were resources available for their daughter through the local school system, she had many needs that were outside the scope of this institution. Parents often need to pick up the slack in these cases, and the pressure it placed on these characters and their marriage was enormous. I was fascinated by all of the work-arounds they’d come up with as well as what happened when their coping skills couldn’t quite stretch to meet all of this child’s needs over the long term.

The slow pacing of this novel made it tricky for me to remain interested in the plot at times. As intrigued as I was by the characters, they spent so much more time mulling over their decisions than they did actually picking a course of action and seeing what happened next. It would have been helpful to have more action in the storyline, especially when it came to Josh’s indecisiveness about signing his divorce papers.

This wasn’t exactly a typical ending for a novel that included multiple romantic subplots, but it fit the tone of the storyline perfectly. I appreciated the author’s willingness to stretch the boundaries of the genres he was working with when the characters and plot called for it. That is always something I enjoy as a reader, and it made me want to look up the rest of his catalogue.

Not Sleeping was a thought-provoking read I’d recommend to anyone who is interested in a peek at special needs parenting or the less glamorous portions of romantic relationships.

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