For as long as I can remember, I have occasionally suffered from insomnia. I was always without fail the last one awake at a slumber party. The title of the book Insomnia intrigued me for that reason.
At the time I bought a copy of Insomnia, I was a relatively new fan of Stephen King. Now I am a die-hard fan. But at the time I purchased Insomnia, I had only read one other King book, that being Bag of Bones. If Bag of Bones is your first King read, I would advise you that this particular novel is a bit different from King’s usual fare. Not that “usual“ can really apply to anything King writes! So, when I read Insomnia, it was almost like reading King for the first time. And as I’ve read several of his books subsequently, including Salem’s Lot and the Tommyknockers, I have in retrospect come to realize that Insomnia is more similar to a vast majority of King’s books.
Getting started with the book, I was admittedly very drawn in by the main character’s plight, yes, Insomnia. Relating to his problem naturally drew me in from the start. An elderly retired man is having trouble sleeping. He doesn’t think much of it at first, having hear that as we age, we need less sleep. But gradually, he goes from only sleeping about 6 hours a night, then to 5, 4, 3 and eventually not sleeping at all. But as I approached the middle of the story, things were almost too far-fetched. It was a bit jarring to go from reading about a common problem the main character was dealing with to reading about a bizarre problem in the form of little alien-looking men visiting in the middle of the night. The old man thinks that he’s hallucinating images due to his lack of sleep. He’s also read that people who don’t sleep do hallucinate, so he isn’t too freaked out when he first begins seeing colored auras surrounding the faces of his neighbors and townsfolk at the shopping center.
On tops of people’s heads, he begins to see long cords, apparently life cords he later deduces. They’re like umbilical cords that, if cut, will foretell that person’s life is soon to drain away. Then he begins seeing short men who look like aliens appearing at the doorsteps of his neighbors. He is in a quandary for a large part of the story as to whether all of these manifestations are just figments of his imagination, or actually real.
The story begins to drag around the middle and becomes more complicated and difficult to follow. I began to lose interest, but I kept reading until the end because I did want to know what was the fate of the elderly gentleman. King writes in a way to make you very attached to his characters and makes you want to know if they will be happy or not. In the final analysis, this is my least favorite King novel. While I usually enjoy reading King’s long descriptive sections that help describe the scenes, in Insomnia, I felt there was just too much extra filling that tended to spoil the overall enjoyment of the novel. There are some fairly shocking violent confrontations that might be a bit jarring and off putting to some. One of the best things about King’s writings to me is that they commonly explore the demons within a person. Insomnia really was a more external battle of forces. King’s writing is always worth a look for me, so I still give it a luke-warm recommendation. I know that some of King’s fans really like this one. While the book may keep you awake for the good part of the first half of the book, by the middle, you may find your cure to insomnia within these pages!