At times, this title felt like it was stalking me or hunting me down. I remember hearing about it years ago, someone (I can't recall who) enthusiastically recommending it to me. I marked it as to-read in 2014. I purchased the NYRB edition last year, along with her book of essays, SEDUCTION AND BETRAYAL, which I read last August and loved. I'm not sure why it took me so long to read her novel. But it creeped in on me. Lauren Groff wrote an entire NYTimes essay in praise of it last summer. It would come up occasionally in literary articles. And then when I was reading one of Durga Chew-Bose's essays, the title surfaced again. I knew, then, it was probably time to take on SLEEPLESS NIGHTS.

And as I started reading it, it became clear that this novel published in 1979 likely inspired a lot of books I love today. Books I read just earlier this year. The roaming of one's memories, the descriptions of people who come in an out of one's life, the peculiar moments that seem autobiographical (the main character's name is Elizabeth, after all), and the non-plot-driven narrative. A friend pointed distinctly to Rachel Cusk's OUTLINE, and I wholeheartedly agree. I see shades of similarities in the musings and structures of THE FRIEND by Sigrid Nunez and MOTHERHOOD by Sheila Heti, too.

Yet, Hardwick's novel still feels singular. Her writing is concise and crisp in description, and I paused a lot to re-read some of her beautiful sentences. Hard to describe her style in a way that does it justice, honestly. It's a book that came to me at the exact right time, I think, and I believe that I will find myself lost in the slim volume again in the future.