REVIEW ON MADISON SMARTT BELLS DOCTOR SLEEP - Book Report/Review Example

He believes he is on the final journey, the mental knock-out stage to arrive at the portals of spirituality. He is hypnotherapist by profession, and Adrian’s ambitions in life are high-pitched. He spends his leisure hours in the British Museum studying the works of Giordano Bruno. There is a proper procedure for the pursuit of spiritual powers/austerities. If the procedure is wrong, the results will have the negative effects on the functioning of the mental faculties. That was the reason due to which the Doctor would not get proper sleep.

Madison Smartt Bells gives a cryptic description of the state of Adrian’s mind in the beginning of the story and he writes, (1992,p.3) “For an instant when I sat up I thought for sure I was going to cry, just a physical pulse like nausea, throwing up tears, but I swallowed it back.” Insomnia, a product of the psychological state of the mind of the doctor, bears the onus of responsibility of all his actions. It provides the backgrounder information of his other activities, professional as well as personal.

Both are in a state of mess, and it is difficult to find the why and wherefores for his actions. The doctor is unable to reconcile his past and the present, and his actions turn imbalanced and prove mysterious to the individuals who come into his contact. With no rhyme or response for his activities, he turns directionless and destination less. Madison writes about the physical condition of the doctor, in addition to his psychological problems, “The long insomnia jag had left me utterly permeable; ten seconds later I could feel it in my toes.”(p.110)The implication of this sentence was, the doctor was leading a highly problematic life, and he was living not by months and years, but his problems related to every second of his existence.

His physical body and mental faculties were not under his control. The attempted transformation from drug-addiction to spirituality is a impossible ambition in the normal circumstances. The end results are fructification of his Faustian quest—but the outcome is entirely different than what he had planned or hoped for. In the ongoing journey, he experiences nightmares of the worst order rating to punks, a drug lord, and the secret operatives of the Scotland Yard. In addition to the big issues related to the insomnia, how the routine domestic activities get severely hampered due to the after-effects of insomnia?

Madison describes one such moment of the day and the predicament he suffered for any sort of small activity. He writes, “I kept on looking down at the thing, bound up in one of those states of brutal stupidity that a long insomnia jag can engender, until I heard the coffee pot come to a conclusion and shut off.”(p.4) To give an honest opinion about the book, unless one is an insomnia patient, or one has the deep study of the behavior of the disease of insomnia, it is difficult to understand the sum and substance of the plot or a firm and valid theme of the book.

As one turns the pages, one gets the feeling as to when the story will unfold and what would be the expected conclusion. That exactly is the strength of the plot from the point of view of an insomnia patient. What is this book about? A man trying to keep himself awake without a cause; he knew that drinking will make him sick, yet he is driven by the inner compulsions to drink; he is hungry yet no