Inspired Sleep

Intelligent, funny, energetically characterized and provocative about some timely issues, Cohen's second novel (after The Here and Now) would be a perfect read except for his tendency to overload the narrative with scenes that go on too long and his need to chart every nuance of his major characters' self-destruction. Bonnie Saks is a contemporary everywoman: at 39, she's divorced and raising two nice kids, albeit with meager resources, while teaching expository writing and trying to finish her dissertation. Smart, witty (she exudes ""a penumbra of irony"") and a fond (if impatient) mother-- scenes with her sons are especially good-- Bonnie is an engaging, if sometimes irritatingly mercurial, character. After she discovers she's pregnant by a man she despises and decides against abortion, Bonnie's chronic insomnia becomes acute sleep deprivation. In a series of cleverly handled developments, she comes into the orbit of Ian Ogelvie, a brilliant but lonely, shy and nerdy sleep researcher at a Boston hospital, who is engaging in experiments with a new drug that may cure sleep disorders. As the reader soon learns, Ian is the only honest, innocent member of the research team; everyone else involved is unscrupulous and self-serving. Cohen is at his best here, sketching the sub-rosa ties between academic research, pharmaceutical companies, managed care and the business world with exuberant satire. Unaware of the general chicanery, Ian enlists Bonnie in the program, with disastrous results. Cohen's text often zings true with riffs on contemporary life, and, despite a few longueurs, he succeeds in intertwining vibrant secondary characters and several plot lines into a suspenseful narrative. This will be a word-of-mouth book among discriminating readers. (Jan. 8)