Naked Sleeper

 Naked Sleeper by Sigrid Nunez (1996) 235 pages

Nona is forty, married to Roy, and trying to write a book about her father, a painter who never gained repute and who died in his 40s. It's clear that Nona--an only child--is haunted by him and didn't understand why her mother uprooted her, moving across the country when her mother learned her father was gay.

Nona takes the opportunity to work on the book at a friend's estate at a house party over the course of one month. She works hard at first, but then allows herself to get distracted by other people at the estate, especially a man named Lyle.

Like real life, her own life gets messy when she impulsively goes to visit Lyle for a weekend. She makes a number of decisions, taking the reader to unexpected places, and through the remainder of the novel, Nona tries to find her path forward.

I'd previously read two recent works of Nunez, The Friend and What Are You Going Through. I found those novels excellent and wanted to see one of her earlier works. This novel is not as tight, but okay.