photo courtesy of City Lights 

Gutter writer Gabriel Hedemann took a few evenings and devoured the book

So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (Paperback)

by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

who will be reading from the book tonight at Red Emma's 

Here, for you dear reader, is Hedemann's exclusive review. 

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore is a delightful menace to society, a self-styled threat to mainstream gay culture, and a dear friend.  In the mid-nineties, I followed her around the streets and runways of Boston trying to figure out what was going to happen next.  Now I follow her writing wondering the same thing.  Like her latest novel, So Many Ways to Sleep Badly (City Lights, 2008), she’s more than meets the eye.  

In So Many Ways to Sleep Badly, we get a more meditative Mattilda, and more of a meditation.  This latest chronicle cannot be called a story, but its rhythm is so catchy that we still want to know what happens next.  So, it’s in San Francisco or the occasional tacky Bay Area suburb, but the self-talking narration is otherwise aloof to time and place.  We look outside once in a while to see if it’s light out; NPR breaks through the background with US-led invasions, familiar sound bites, and human interest stories in hilarious relief; and Mattilda never fails to throw in two snaps wherever possible.

Scrutinizing some of the most fascinating urban features (Starbucks, Whole Foods, Bikram Yoga) and creatures (cops, fags, tweakers, tricks) our heroine wonders whether it is she or the city that is getting tired.
Some things are a little harder to explain, like being a whore in love, turning 30, and fibromyalgia, but in the strobe-lit confessional of Mattilda’s memoir we get no explanations—just the facts, mama.  Mattilda does not disappoint.  We follow her in and out of cabs, behind bushes, and outside of the city limits in search of the perfect encounter.  What we find, instead, are tearful moments with sea lions, longing looks at potential boyfriends on the bus, and hugs that feel better than fucking.  Just like in real life, these beautiful moments explain everything.

See ya tonight! 

Red Emma's
800 St. Paul St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 230-0450
www.redemmas.org

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