web1_National-Weather-Service.jpg

Comfortable temps and low humidity for Sunday

The Latest: Black Lives Matter activist McKesson arrested

<p>Imagine waking up every day with no knowledge of where you are or who the man sleeping next to you is.</p><p>Imagine believing you&#8217;re a child or a teenager or in your 20s only to look in the mirror and realize that you&#8217;re a middle aged woman. Imagine learning every single day that you suffer from severe amnesia and cannot retain any new memories.</p><p>Such is the life Christine Lucas lives in &#8220;Before I Go to Sleep,&#8221; a debut novel by author S.J. Watson.</p><p>When Christine wakes in her London home every morning, she must relearn most of her life. She recalls being a child or a teenager or even some of her time in college, but cannot remember Ben, the man she has been married to for two decades. She has no memory of their wedding or the rest of their lives together. Every morning, he needs to sit down and explain to her who she is and how she suffered an accident that changed their lives forever.</p><p>It&#8217;s no way to live. Once Christine falls into a deep enough sleep, she is incapable of recalling what she did the day before. Since her accident, years before, she has been unable to make new memories and therefore most of her life she has been under the care of doctors or more recently, her husband, Ben.</p><p>Unbeknownst to Ben, Christine is secretly being treated by Dr. Nash, who hopes to write a paper about her rare form of amnesia. The doctor encourages her to keep a journal to record her daily life. Every day, he calls and tells her where she has hidden her journal and she reads through the events of previous days.</p><p>To her shock one day, she reads the words &#8220;Don&#8217;t trust Ben&#8221; in her journal. What made her write that? Is he really lying to her? Who, then, can she trust? Can she even trust herself? Can she lead a meaningful life if she continues as she is now?</p><p>&#8220;Before I Go to Sleep&#8221; must have been tricky to write. How can you keep up a compelling narrative when the main protagonist can&#8217;t remember any details of her life? And yet, Watson excels at making the reader feel disoriented and scared right along with Christine, even as we also try hard to figure out what happened to her.</p><p>Christine is an unreliable narrator since she cannot figure out what is real and what isn&#8217;t about her life. What Ben tells her and what her doctor tell her sometimes conflict. She has no other contact with friends or family. Her isolation makes things worse since she can&#8217;t get a straight answer about anything.</p><p>Somehow, though, as she records her days in her journal, she is slowly able to piece together the fragments of her past. Her days are monotonous. Every day she needs to relearn her life, and yet, I never felt that the pace was slow. It&#8217;s a taut psychological thriller that keeps the reader on their toes as Christine slowly figures out what is going on.</p><p>If you&#8217;re looking for a suspenseful page turner for a summer vacation, look no further than &#8220;Before I Go to Sleep.&#8221;</p><style>
.neFileBlock {
	margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.neFileBlock p {
	margin: 0px 0px 0px 0px;
}
.neFileBlock .neFile {
	border-bottom: 1px dotted #aaa;
	padding-bottom: 5px;
	padding-top: 10px;
}
.neFileBlock .neCaption {
	font-size: 85%;
}
</style>
<div class='neFileBlock'>
<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_dorothy-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_dorothy-2.jpg</photo0><caption0></caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_beforeIGoToSleep.jpg">
<div class="neCaption"></div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/web1_beforeIGoToSleep.jpg</photo1><caption1></caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dorothy Sasso</p><p>On the Books</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>&#8216;Before I Go to Sleep&#8217;</p><p>Author: S.J. Watson</p><p>Page Number: 368</p><p>Publisher: Harper Paperbacks</p><p>Rating: &#9830;&#9830;&#9830;&#9830; 1/2 </p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Dorothy Sasso is a former Soap Opera Digest writer and a private school teacher. She is busy reading books and raising her two daughters.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

On the Books: S.J. Watson’s debut novel, ‘Before I Go To Sleep,’ is a suspenseful page turner