Overview

I came to in the middle of it, like waking inside a horror movie, silent scream and all. Eyes wide open. I was standing at an open window, staring at the dizzying curve of Riverside Drive, five floors below. I'd stopped, somehow, poised, about to jump. Growing up the good girl in an Irish American family full of drinkers and terrible sleepers, Kathleen Frazier was twelve when her seemingly innocent sleepwalking turned dangerous. Over the next few years, she was a popular A+ student by day, the star of her high school musical. At night, she both longed for and dreaded sleep. Frazier moved to Manhattan in the 1980s, hoping for a life in the theater but getting a run of sleepwalking performances instead. Efforts to abate her malady with drinking failed miserably. She became promiscuous, looking for nighttime companionship. Could a bed partner save her from flinging herself down a flight of stairs or out an open window? Exhaustion stalked her, and rest and love were seemingly out of reach. This is the journey Frazier illuminates in her intimate memoir. While highlighting her quest to beat her sleep terrors and insomnia, this is ultimately a story of health, hope, and redemption.

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9781634502351

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Reviews

Kathleen Frazier has a story to tell and she knows how to tell it. Sleepwalker is a terrifying, compelling, and fascinating tale that takes us deep into the horrors of sleep walking and then reveals to us how the author managed to end a twenty-year nightmare. --Ellen Burstyn, actress, writer, teacher Nocturnal clouds haunt each page like a storm threatening. Well-observed and Irishly funny, mulish and ghoulish and death defying, darkly clangorous and boozy yet ultimately sobering, Frazier's eye-opening memoir will have you laughing nervously all night long. Riveting! --Patrick Tracey, award-winning author of Stalking Irish Madness: Searching for the Roots of My Family's Schizophrenia A brave and harrowing story, told straight from the heart, full of hope and inspiration. --Mary Pat Kelly, bestselling author of Galway Bay and Of Irish Blood, director of Proud Powerful and poignant--honest and harrowing at times--a remarkable narrative of one woman's struggle with decades long somnambulism (sleepwalking). It is about inherited loss and terror, family secrets, near-death experiences, but also about courage and in the end, it's a love story and a life-affirming journey. --Seamus Scanlon As Close As You'll Ever Be Kathleen Frazier's Sleepwalker is a powerful and poignant account of her awakening from a long night of fear and self-doubt into the light of recovery and self-awareness. Her soulful combination of insight and unflinching honesty fills every page. This is a book that will inspire as well as enlighten. --Peter Quinn, award-winning author of Banished Children of Eve

Kathleen Frazier has a story to tell and she knows how to tell it. Sleepwalker is a terrifying, compelling, and fascinating tale that takes us deep into the horrors of sleep walking and then reveals to us how the author managed to end a twenty-year nightmare. --Ellen Burstyn, award-winning actress

Author Information

Kathleen Frazier is an accomplished actress and writer, a Norman Mailer fellow, and a member of the Actors Studio. She is a member of Irish American Writers and Artists, the International Women's Writing Guild, and Artists Without Walls. She performs her work regularly at a number of venues and salons in Manhattan, including the Cell, the Cornelia Street Caf, and Bar Thalia. Kathleen lives and sleeps soundly with her family in New York City.

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