A Curious Statistical Anomaly

April started with rain here but we’ve been having rain off and on for days now. Most of the woods are sodden and spongy with wet.

Before April got here with its dampness and rain, March was grey and overcast, and I, I was on the look-out for an April Coffee Cup. I saw many cups that seemed to speak of Spring and sunnier days. There were even lots of cups that seemed to capitalize on Easter with flowers and cute rabbits or carrots or eggs. However, when I finally spied this cup it was over, searching done, this was the bright bit of cheer that would get me through the rain and grey overcasts. So, today is April 3rd and it’s been raining for three days now off and on — this was definitely a good choice. When I bought it I worried about the bobbles on the rim and thought I’d probably dribble all over myself — I do that on a regular bases anyway so not a big problem for me especially since I work at home and can change. But, it’s not a problem, the bobbles don’t leak and I don’t dribble — at least not any more than I usually do when I get engrossed in reading or whatever and somehow miss my mouth.

I’m getting desperate to spend some time in the garden getting it cleaned up and ready. All the rain and the cold/flu I had have put me way behind on getting things set up. Here’s what we’re dealing with:

I’m standing by the tomato buckets which fill one quarter of the herb garden. Behind are the raspberry bushes and the orchard. We managed to get all the old tomato plants pulled up and get the buckets ready for the new plants.

We have been gardening for a couple of years now and have learned a few tricks. We had to move the garden to our tiny bit of lawn because, surrounded by trees, it was the only area with enough sunlight to grow anything. Last year we grew all out tomatoes in buckets. They’re big painting buckets from Lowe’s and Home Depot that we drilled holes in for drainage and pained a deep blue. The reason is that there are lots of critters here abouts and the previous year we planted all the tomatoes in the ground and then had two in buckets and the next day we only had two tomato plants — the ones in the buckets. Last year we planted them all in buckets and managed to keep them all season and had a pretty good harvest too.

In this photo you can see that we started to get the leaves up off the lawn/garden area. We sort of gave up around December and lately, whenever we have the time, it rains. When we’re committed to some appointment and won’t be home, it’s sunny. But to rake we need a couple of dry days and then a dry day to rake. Hopefully this week will see more sunshine but then the saying goes April Showers Bring May Flowers so I have little hope of getting it all done within the next week or two. As long as we get the garden prepared and the vegetable area cleared and turned, I’ll be happy.

Mark Genevich is a private investigator in South Boston. He’s just gotten another case, or he thinks he has a case…he’s not sure actually. You see, Genevich is a narcoleptic as a result of the car accident that killed his best friend and rearranged his face. As far as he can remember, Jennifer Times walked into his office — refused to take no for an answer — and hired him to find her fingers. The problem is that while she was there Genevich had actually fallen into a hypnogogic state and when he awoke he was alone, there was no check, but there were some cryptic notes on his pad and a manila envelope with two black and white photos of a young girl that looked a lot like Jennifer.

Genevich tends not to take jobs that require him to leave his office. He never knows when he’ll drop into sleep or worse, cataplexy, when he’s awake and aware but can’t move. The little sleeps or hypnogogic states are similar to what happens to most of us with a high fever and tiredness. We fall asleep on the couch with the DVD player or TV on and whatever is playing gets incorporated into our dreams along with whatever our brain’s unconscious serves up. Awoken we don’t know at first what was dream and what reality. For Mark Genevich most of his life is like that. Part of any investigation he does involves figuring out what exactly is the job and what he’s supposed to do, which is why he prefers email, written instructions, and internet searches.

His first step is to figure out what the real job is since he couldn’t have possibly been hired to search for her fingers. It must have something to do with the pictures. However, contacting Jennifer reveals that she doesn’t know who he is or what he’s talking about. So, now it’s necessary to step back and figure out who hired him and why?

The entire story is told from Mark Genevich’s point of view, which means most of the information is disjointed and we, as readers, don’t know anymore than he does. Some authors hide information in mysteries by keeping us out of the detectives head but Tremblay lets us into Genevich’s head because it doesn’t matter what he knows because we don’t know if what he knows is real or dream or a combination of the two.

A gritty, noir mystery with a very different private investigator, Tremblay manages to tell a story that keeps the reader engaged from the first page. It’s not just can you figure it out before the sleuth, but will he figure it out because you both have the same confusing information and little to guide you.

I haven’t read anything this different in a while and it was not only interesting as a mystery, but contained a lot of information about a neurological problem that doesn’t get dealt with much in any fiction. Tremblay does a great job bringing Mark Genevich to life. He may not be someone you like very much, but you will respect his determination.

Since the entire novel is told form Mark Genevich’s point of view, the reader is left as much in the dark as Mark, we can’t know more than he does about anything. The reader and Genevich must decide what memories are are of real events and which are a result of hypnogogic hallucinations. Kept off balance throughout, Genevich is fighting a battle to control his neurological symptoms, retain his memories as well as shift through them to figure out which are real and which are a result of his little sleeps, and solve a crime.

Gritty, noir at its best, The Little Sleep manages to allow the reader to be an active participant in the case as there’s little chance the reader will spot clues before the PI since the reader also has to figure out what to believe. Imaginative and entertaining, it’s a story you just can’t put down.