Sleepwalking in Daylight-Elizabeth Flock

Sleepwalking in Daylight
Elizabeth Flock
Mira, Mar 2009, $21.95
ISBN: 077832513X

In Chicago, Samantha Friedman misses her former life before she became a car pooling soccer mom to her teenage adopted daughter Cammy and her eight years old twin sons Jamie and Andrew. The stay-at-home mother reflects bitterly that she has not had sex with her husband Bob in a period longer than it takes to have a baby. Samantha has escaped ennui with an affair as she considers running away from family and responsibility.

Seventeen years old Cammy is even more despondent than her mother as she turns to drugs and sex to escape reality. The brooding goth teen keeps a diary including dark poetry that reflect her anguish while writing about her out of control activities as she considers running away from family and responsibility.

The despondency level of this dysfunctional family makes for a deep but difficult read. The two Freidman females are fully developed so the audience sympathizes with the two of them. Filled with despair and a sense of hopelessness, mother and daughter desperately need to find one another before there is that all there is in life takes full hold on them. The males serve roles that enable readers to better understand how despondent the women truly are. Although the ending seems contrived, the aptly titled SLEEPWALKING IN DAYLIGHT is a profound tale in which wealth does not necessarily mean happiness.

Harriet Klausner