In 1963, Andy Warhol filmed his close friend John Giorno sleeping, and made it into a 321-minute film titled Sleep. The Sleepworker, Cyrille Martinez's second novel (and first to be translated into English), explores the story behind this art project. He creates a humorous fictional account of how two men, called simply Andy and John, met through mutual friends and came to create an experimental film in the great fictional city "New York New York."
A satire of the real New York City, The Sleepworker opens with an examination of this mythos-drenched metropolis, alive with possibility. In a narrative voice that is both playful and snarky, Martinez introduces the city as a place where people seek acceptance into high society. Unemployed and uninterested in having a job, Andy and John do not fit into a culture that values work and business success. Readers are invited to share in the narrator's amusement as the protagonists pursue creative paths and try to establish themselves in a city that doesn't want them. Constricted by the expectations of New York New York, John and Andy struggle to strike a balance between being authentic artists and finding recognition for their art.
The Sleepworker is a tribute to a place and time that bred great people and events, as well as a humorous critique of a city that dreams of its past from a stagnating present. Whether readers know the relationship between Andy Warhol and John Giorno or are completely new to this piece of history, Martinez's book will enthrall. --Justus Joseph, bookseller, Elliott Bay Book Company