Review: A Sleeper of a Story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 1, 2014
Most short stories, especially short stories about characters the author hasn't written about before, are plot driven rather than character driven. Space is at a premium in a short story, so it's easier for an author to tell people what happens then to show them why it happens. However, Billie Sue Mosiman doesn't take the easy way out in her short story, "Sleep No More." In addition to presenting a solid tale of a robbery gone horribly wrong and its aftermath, Mosiman focuses on Sasha, one of the robbers, and shows how the robbery  and its aftermath are just one more step on her road to self-destruction.Sasha is a prototypical lower class Southern loser  who keeps getting in trouble both with the law and with the scummy men to whom she is drawn. She has been stealing since childhood and getting involved with the wrong men for nearly as long. Her latest boyfriend, Carter, and a couple of his lowlife friends make her part of their home invasion gang. Unfortunately for the gang, their attempt to make a big score by robbing a prominent local attorney goes horribly awry when the they discover the attorney unexpectedly at home. When the attorney tries to talk his way out of the mess, he winds up getting Carter angry, which is unfortunate for the attorney and for Sasha, who is now on the hook for a murder rap.As a more or less hardboiled crime story, "Sleep No More" is effective. Mosiman's description of the crime and the subsequent investigation are vivid and well detailed, and the crime itself has some rather ghoulish elements. Mosiman, though. is more interested in Sasha than in Sasha's crime. Mosiman quickly sketches in the details of Sasha's sad life, showing how this crime is just one example of Sasha's bad choices in life. To do so, the author goes back to Sasha's childhood and her upbringing by a grandfather who tried to instill a sense of right and wrong and some self worth in Sasha. Ultimately, Sasha rejects her grandfather's advice and, instead, begins making the series of poor decisions that will lead to the botched robbery.Although Sasha isn't a very likable character, she's a compelling example of a petty criminal whose life has been a consistent downward spiral. And, even though Sasha isn't particularly likable, it's hard not to feel sympathy for her. Sasha pays a steep price for her crimes, largely because Carter and his pals are both inept enough to get themselves into a bad mess and  cold blooded enough to lay the blame on Sasha. By the end of the story, Sasha's downfall seems more of a classic tragedy than a moral example of an evil person getting her comeuppance.Because "Sleep No More" is a short story, Mosiman has to cut some corners in the story telling, and she does so in a way that annoyingly stacks the deck against Sasha a bit too much. Specifically, the police investigating the crime conveniently accept Sasha's guilt far more readily than the actual strength of the case against her would dictate. This seems like a highly convenient plot development whose sole purpose is to make Sasha's downfall as devastatingly swift and complete as possible. Although Sasha's downfall might be a bit unrealistic from a legal and investigative standpoint, it stems directly and ineveitably from her wretchedly bad judgment and decision making. And that is the purpose of the story, describing a woman whose life was destined to be a failure."Sleep No More" is a sad story and a powerful one. Calling this story a "crime story," as the cover does, shortchanges the skill and artistry Mosiman exhibits here. Within the 23 pages of this story, Billie Sue Mosiman creates one of the more compellingly tragic characters you'll find in any form of short fiction.