Against the backdrop of his teenage sister's car accident in which a dump truck filled with sand slammed into the small car carrying her and her friends Jon Pineda chronicles his sister Rica's sudden transformation from a vibrant high school cheerleader to a girl wheelchair bound and unable to talk. For the next five years of her life, her only ability to communicate was through her rudimentary use of sign language. Lyrical in its approach and unflinching in its honesty, Sleep in Me is a heartrending memoir of the coming-of-age of a boy haunted by a family tragedy. A prize-winning poet's account of the irreparable damage and the new understanding that tragedy brings to his Filipino American family, Pineda's book is a remarkable story maneuvering between childhood memories of his sister cheerleading and moments of monitoring her in a coma and changing her adult diapers. Pineda adeptly navigates between these moments of idyllic youth and heartbreaking sadness. Vivid and lyrical, his story is an exploration of what it means to live deeply with tragedy and of the impact such a story can have on a boy's journey to manhood.
- ISBN13 9780803225350
- Publish Date 30 September 2010 (first published 1 January 2010)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 21 March 2017
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of Nebraska Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 168
- Language English