A review by charlieeeeeeee
Sleepwalking by Meg Wolitzer

emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Quietly beautiful; emotionally hefty. Wolitzer has a keen sense of real feeling in what feels like a fleeting moment of intense yet subtle intimacy, like that in the delicate, meticulous strokes of a painting or in a glance between two strangers in a crowd. With this novel comes the deeply intense moment of realization that you cannot change or fix grief and trauma and mental illness, whether that be your own or someone else’s. Here is an indelible meditation on art, how we make it, how we use it, and why we (try to) do any of it. Essentially, Sleepwalking manages to craft a delicately brief portrait of life—specifically these particular lives—which is what attracts me most to the art we create, and Meg Wolitzer does this with such a perfected, poetic aura of realist naturalism that leaves you almost bereaved when you reach the final page.
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