Notes from Source: An unraveling single mother with two sons and a desperate need for some shut-eye takes part in an experimental sleep study directed by an arrogant researcher, whose quest for a miracle drug is motivated more by career advancement than pure science. Set at a Midwestern university whose dysfunctional English department includes a faux-Irish poet and a single-eyebrowed Serb, this academic farce revolves around a self-effacing white male professor who jump-starts his crumbling career after he is blessed (gr cursed) with the mysterious power to make people do whatever he wants. A white musicologist writing a book about a black jazz musician (a tenor saxophone genius who resembles John Coltrane) interviews the many people – Korean War veterans, lovers, inmates, fellow musicians – who came into his subject’s tragic orbit.

Further Notes: Place: New York Publisher: The New York Times Company