Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
Several weeks ago, I read some interesting news about a “not yet published” picture book titled Go the F**k to Sleep. The book had begun climbing Amazon’s best-seller list on the strength of preorders that people had placed. According to an article in The New York Times, neither the book’s author Adam Mansbach nor his publisher could account for the “phenomenon.” Galleys of the book had not been distributed. The only people to have seen the work were, purportedly, “a handful of booksellers who received a PDF via e-mail.”
It appears the PDF of Go the F**k to Sleep went viral. Some of the booksellers who received the PDF of the book must have forwarded it to other people…who probably forwarded it to still more people.
Go the F**k to Sleep is a picture book that is not intended for reading to children. It was written for weary parents who lose patience when their “little ones” don’t want to go to bed.
It seems the book has become all the rage. Even Rachel Maddow designated Go the F**k to Sleep a “Best New Thing in the World” on one of her recent shows on MSNBC. Touré, a writer and cultural critic who is the father of two young children, called it an “awesome” book in an appearance on the Dylan Ratigan Show. And actor Samuel L. Jackson recorded an audio-book narration for it. Jackson said that there were times in the past when he was exasperated when his young daughter wouldn’t fall asleep and told her to “go the f**k to sleep.” Nice way to speak to a young child, don’t you think?
Here’s how the text of the book begins:
The cats nestle close to their kittens now.
The lambs have laid down with the sheep.
You’re cozy and warm in your bed, my dear
Please go the fuck to sleep.
Maybe I’m an old fuddy duddy. My opinion of the book is different from that of Maddow and Touré. In my opinion, Go the F**k to Sleep is not awesome. It’s not a “best new thing in the world.” While I laughed when I first heard about the book, I found the rhyming text tiresome after the first couple of pages. I got the joke. I thought it wore thin quickly.
What I wonder about is how many mothers-to-be and parents of newborns will receive this book as a gift. I also wonder how many parents may now think it’s cool to tell their wee ones who don’t feel like going to bed to “go the f**k to sleep.”
Listen to Samuel l. Jackson’s reading of the book and let me know what your opinion of it is.
I’d like to suggest some fine picture books to read to young children at bedtime:
SOURCES
The Mystery of “Go the F to Sleep” Solved (The New Yorker)
Go the Fuck to Sleep: a storybook for exhausted parents (Boing Boing)
‘Go the F— to Sleep’: The Case of the Viral PDF (The Bay Citizen)
A Whim, A Book, And, Wow! (New York Times)
Elaine M: You know I am with you. I ,like you, laughed when I read it. If I gave it as gift, I would be very careful in my selection of the recepient.
Just for the record, I’ve never written the f#*k word in this blog, and never would, but I must admit as a criminal defense lawyer it is a word not foreign to my lips. Maybe that’s why I liked the book.
Good to hear from you as always, Frank
Sorry, I’m having problems finishing my post.
While I don’t agree with a lot of what is said and written, presented in DVD’s, etc. I believe my offense taken is trumped by the author’s right to say it, print it or sell it commerically.
In my first amendment cases I defend my client’s right to sell books and DVD’s and conduct a live entertainment venue against prosecutors supported by some members of law enforcement, politicans and religious groups. As I have stated to the media who find an interest in these cases: If you are against tobacco, don’t smoke; if you are against alcohol, don’t drink; if you are against adult book stores and adult enteratainment, don’t go; But they are all LEGAL in my state and most of this country.
But don’t confuse a passionate defense attorney with his role and obligations of parenting my 4 children. I do think this is an interesting discussion however, and am surprised that it invoked such responses. We’ll just have to agree to disgree on this man’s right to publish and sell this book.
Like Casey Anthony, they’ll both make a million dollars on the sale of their books. Frank
.
frank,
I’m a believer in free speech too. I’m expressing my opinion that I don’t think the book is all that funny. I’ll admit I laughed when I first read about it. I found the book tiresome reading after a few pages. It was the same thing page after page. No surprises.
There’s no f**king way I’ll be giving this book as a gift to my daughter who is expecting her first child.
😉
Elaine M. and mespo727272 : You know, I think this is the first topic discussed that all of us didn’t share similar views. Wow!
Maybe it’s because in my practice of law for about the last 10 years I have represented adult entertainment clients, live and book stores. I’m a big supporter of constitutional free speech and free press:
” CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW …ABRIDGING THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH, OR OF THE PRESS…”
Remembering those years,can’t say I used the “f” word to describe anything.I just remember when it was time to get up my child in question looked so peaceful sleeping as my wife and I were exhausted from rocking and walking the floor with them the night before hoping that they would go to sleep.
It seemed like they had a sense of timing in the matter.LOL!!
OVER 400,000 copies sold as of June 15, 2011:
Samuel L. Jackson Tells Kids “Go The F*ck To Sleep”
Wednesday Jun 15, 2011 – by Jamilah Lemieux
Novelist Adam Mansbach, like many parents, has had a few challenging nights trying to get his two-year-old daughter to bed. After one of them, he posted to his Facebook page “Be on the lookout for my forthcoming children’s book, Go the Fuck to Sleep.”
Little did he know, that joke would lead to internet fame, a million dollar offer from a major publishing house and the sale of movie rights.
Taking the advice of friends, many of whom were also frustrated parents, Mansbach partnered up with illustrator Ricardo Cortes and wrote the children’s book parody. Now in it’s fifth printing, there have been over 400,000 copies of “Go The F*ck To Sleep” sold to date.
With passages like “The cubs and the lions are snoring. Wrapped in a big snuggly heap. How is it that you can do all this other great sh*t, but you can’t lie the f*ck down and sleep?”, the book was already laugh-out-loud funny. Today, Audible.com has released a free version of Samuel L. Jackson reading the book, putting an even more hilarious spin on the frustrations of a loving father who just can’t get his little one to sleep. Click here to download…don’t forget: it isn’t kid (or work) friendly!
Here’s an interesting interview of the author:
Interview: Diane Ackerman, author of One Hundred Names for LoveInterview: Adam Mansbach, author of Go the F**k to Sleep
Wednesday, June 8th, 2011
By Larry Smith
“I never would have dreamed that this book would be the big hit. One constant in my career is that I’ve always written the shit I’ve wanted to write.”
Before Adam Mansbach wrote the children’s book for grownups, Go the Fuck to Sleep, he was, in his own words, “feverishly working on all kinds of different writing projects, hoping one would hit and keep me from having to move out of my house and into a discarded refrigerator carton.”
It’s an overstatement, perhaps, but effective motivation nonetheless. Working outside the mainstream, Mansbach has, in reality, had previous success most writers would consider a victory. His first novel, Angry Black White Boy, about the assimilation of hip-hop culture by whites, has been taught at more than 60 colleges, universities and high schools, and has been turned into a play that sold out for three straight months in San Francisco. His most recent novel, The End of the Jews, was called “beautifully portrayed” by The New York Times Book Review and “intense, painful and poignant” by the Boston Globe. Recently a visiting professor of fiction at Rutgers University, he’s also written another novel, Shackling Water, a poetry collection, Genius B-boy Cynics Getting Weeded in the Garden of Delights, as well as A Fictional History of the United States With Huge Chunks Missing. And yet within a few days of the incredible viral run of Go The Fuck To Sleep, Mansbach had sold more copies than the sum total of all of his previous books—before it was even released.
A book for adults about the misery that is trying to get small children to sleep, Mansbach and artist Ricardo Cortes have found genius, and gold, in a presentation that’s exactly like a child’s bedtime story. As GTFTS approaches its official release this Father’s Day, its mere fourteen verses of text and accompanying illustrations has a print run of more than 300,000 copies, been optioned as a movie, and completely changed the life of its author, illustrator, and publishing house.
I spoke with the 34-year-old Mansbach by phone while he was gearing up for his book tour with a visit to his hometown of Newton, MA. As we spoke, the cries of my four-month old baby not sleeping provided an apt soundtrack in the background.
The origin story of Go Tte Fuck to Sleep is well known by now, but could you recount it in your own words?
Nothing about this book was planned. Last summer, when my daughter was two, I joked on Facebook: “Look out for my forthcoming children’s book, Go the Fuck to Sleep.” And it wasn’t like there was some overwhelming response, but a few people said, “Go do it motherfucker!” Then I thought about it, found out that a board book [children’s books like the ones we read at bedtime] is fourteen verses, and asked myself: Can I come up with fourteen verses? Can I find that many words that rhyme with sleep? My burst of energy lasted an afternoon and it was honest about the experience and it was done. It was close, but I think I got enough rhymes in just under the wire.
Even though the book is a fluke for you, it doesn’t seem like that radical a departure from your “more serious” books. They’re all quite satirical and obscenely honest.
It’s certainly not a departure; I think there’s a through-line in terms of my other work in the sense that I’ve always written the books I’ve been passionate about writing, without much thought about audience or salability. And in that a lot of my other books use humor as a way to explore serious issues. Also, I’ve always been good at profanity.
The fact that you’re really telling the truth is what people love about GTFTS. The first weeks after my baby was born, all sorts of people asked me if I was spending my days staring blissfully at my son. I was thrilled, sure, but mainly exhausted and terrified. No one mentioned that part to me. Why do people lie?
They lie because there’s a culture of both perfection and dishonesty about things like parenting. Part of the reason this book has been received so well is that it’s been cathartic to have people admit that it’s not good all the time. There’s all this preciousness around kids.
At the same time, remember that the parents in my book aren’t actually cursing at the kids. They’re actually being good parents; they’re not letting on that they’re about to explode.
The book may be the most viral literary sensation to date. What went into the decision to release the entire book via PDF?
We sent the book out as a PDF to handful of booksellers, and one of them leaked it. Once we started getting all this attention, we feared we’d be just a punch line; we’d be done before we got started. So not only did we not release the PDF, we spent a few weeks doing cease and desists, trying to get it off the Internet. We were not only not new media geniuses, we were stupid enough to try to stop it from going viral.
Still, the fact is the book was already charting on Amazon—where all people had were a title, a cover, and one verse—a week or so before the PDF came out. The supply rose to meet the demand.
I knew this book would be huge when people who aren’t part of the literary and/or coastal and/or Gawker crowd started forwarding it to me. Still, from the minute you open the PDF, it’s very much a book you want to physically hold.
It’s short enough to work as a PDF to look at and laugh at quickly, but you still want to buy it—so we had the best of both worlds. I do think that this is a gift book; it’s an art object that fundamentally you buy for a friend or that your mother gives you to remind you what a bad kid you are. Luckily, it’s still bad form to show up at a baby shower with a stapled PDF—even a hi-res one.
There’s a really nice parallel in how a small publishing house like Akashic and you both have room to grow and do what you want next. Can you talk about that for what this breathing room does for you as a writer?
It’s right on time. My job just ended, it’s a tough time to sell a novel, the publishing industry is tanking. So for the last couple of years, I’ve been stressed about the post-job future and feverishly working on all kinds of different writing projects, hoping one would hit and keep me from having to move out of my house and into a discarded refrigerator carton. Now, that’s less of a concern, and I can be selective and deliberate. And this book has helped my publisher stay in business. A small pub like mine can rise or fall by miscalculating a book run of 8,000 books that should have been closer to 2,000.
What are you working on now?
I think I’ll be doing a lot of screenwriting in the next couple of years. I have a graphic novel, Nature Of The Beast, that drops in February. And my next novel is called Rage Is Back. It’s your basic magic realism graffiti revenge novel. I haven’t sold it yet.
I imagine you’re glad it’s still on the market given your new success.
Two months ago I was mortified I hadn’t sold it; now it seems okay. To write a novel takes a lot of endurance and stamina; selling literary fiction is almost fucking impossible now—the challenge for writers is to maintain the energy. I’m fortunate that the success of this book gives me time and security to do other writing projects.
You’ve written a number of serious books—novels, a book of poetry—but clearly this is going to be the book you’ll be known for. Does that make you feel conflicted about this book’s success?
My books have been critically received but haven’t been on any bestseller lists. Even before GTFTS is officially out, I’ve already sold more of this book than everything else I’ve written combined, and I’m not one to complain about success or the potential financial security. I’ve been able to get by with writing and a little teaching. Getting a regular paycheck teaching these last few years was a nice thing. But it just ended and I’ve been worried about getting by. I never would have dreamed that this book would be the big hit. One constant in my career is that I’ve always written the shit I’ve wanted to write.
My friend put it in this way: “What’s so cool about this is that a lot of people sell out to make money, or try to. And this book is you talking the same shit you always say.” But in this case what I said just happened to resonate and hit the vein in the zeitgeist.
Do you worry that when people learn about your earlier work they will change their opinion of this book?
Well, I made my YouTube channel private for a while because there was stuff that was pretty bananas on it. I envisioned an intern at The Today Show finding a lecture on Angry Black White Boy where I’m talking all this shit about structural racism and white privilege—and that would be the end of that. [Editor’s note: Mansbach appeared on The Today Show]
What do you read to your daughter?
My daughter is very language focused and story focused—she really cares what she hears. We read Margaret Wise Brown, that sort of thing. A lot of my friends are graffiti writers so we read a lot of books on graffiti art. She took a shine to the twenty-fifth anniversary reissue of Subway Art, the book that started it all in the graffiti world. She says, “Papa, I want look at the train book!”
What book do you remember loving as a kid?
All my memories of books are of ones I was able to read myself. I have a feeling the one thing writers all have in common is that we just love to read—and as kids we always had a book on us. I remember the young adult stuff best. My favorite book is called The Moves Make the Man by Bruce Brooks. It’s set in North Carolina in 1957 and is about this one black kid who integrates this white school, and his white friend. That remains one of the most influential books for me. I reread it every three years.
Are you going to do another book for parents?
I may or may not do another kid’s book, though there’s a lot of pressure on me to do one. Everyone is suggesting sequels and all that. But I won’t do a shittier version of same idea like Eat Your Fucking Vegetables. Everyone on Facebook is saying, “Do a Shut the Fuck Up book!” But I don’t have the urge to tell my kid to shut the fuck up. This isn’t an angry book; I’m not going to be a mouthpiece for everyone’s rage. This book works because there’s an established notion of a bedtime book and I found a way to have fun with it.
One thing that will definitely happen is that we’ll do a G-rated version. My publisher was reading it and realized it’s a pretty funny book to read to a kid without all the cursing. Not a redacted version, but with the same art and tweaked to be a bigger size, more kid friendly.
Are you going to have another kid? Your daughter seems to be good for your creative process.
What are you, my mother?
Finally, Adam Mansbach, what’s your Six-Word Memoir?
Still can’t believe this shit’s happening.
+++
WIN a signed copy of Go The Fuck to Sleep by entering SMITH Mag’s Six-Word Memoirs on Dads contest.
BUY Go The Fuck to Sleep.
VISIT Adam Mansbach’s Web site for info and reviews of his many other books.
Tags: Adam Mansbach, Books, memoir, parenting
frank,
I think a humorous picture book about exhausted parents trying to put a child to sleep could have been written more cleverly and without all the profanity.
Maybe I feel the way I do about the book because of all the years I spent as a teacher of young children and because both my daughter and son-in-law are social workers who deal with children who have not been well loved by their parents.
Go the F**K to the bargain bin!
frank,
Let me recommend a better picture book satire: Goodnight Bush, which is a takeoff of Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon.
http://www.goodnightbush.com/
Author Adam Mansbach spoke to the Philadelphia Daily News last month, and commented many of his emails he received from his readers, thanked him for making them feel less alone when it came to the ritual of bedtime.
The book in April, 2011 was No.1 on the Amazon rating. The inital run of 10,000 copies was upped to 200,000 and the publishing date advanced from October, 2011 to June, 2011.
Samuel L. Jackson’s reading version was downloaded 160,000 times since it became available 2 days earlier in June, 2011.
Elaine,
Not at all. You made it perfectly clear. My lead in statement was merely contextual for the “some parents shouldn’t be parents” comment. It was repetition, not correction. 🙂
When I first heard the Sam Jackson reading I thought the book would have benefited from your ability Elaine. The lack of good poetry in the book is more disappointing to me than the language. I’m sure that for a substantial number of parents the title is a recurring mantra daily and nightly spoken (mentally) 🙂
I received an email of the book several weeks ago. I ordered in on amazon.com and have received it and read it. Come on guys/gals lighten up. It is cute adult reading. As a father of 4, I would not read it to my children. But I thought it was interesting,an obvious satire, and
the illustrations are great.
Mike S.,
“As a parent it is frustrating when a child doesn’t sleep, although the vagaries of time may have dulled the memory, I can’t remember feeling angry with my children when they acted as children act.”
My husband and I feel the same way. We may have felt tired–but never angry. When my daughter didn’t want to go to bed, she’d beg, “Just two more minutes, Mommy. Just two more minutes!” That usually made me chuckle.
Evidently, your daughter kept the memory of your singing this song to her when she was young. That’s lovely. Much better than a child remembering that her father told her to “go the f**k to sleep.”
*****
Gene H.,
Maybe I didn’t make it clear in my post. The target audience for this book IS adults.
Elaine,
My daughters when they were young were entirely different when it came to bedtime. My older daughter would go off to bed when requested and sleep through the night. My younger daughter, from infancy was a problematic sleeper.
When my younger daughter was about 7 months old we went on a family outing to Sesame Place. It was a traffic filled Sunday and the trip home took four hours, instead of the usual two. My infant daughter not only refused to go to sleep in her car-seat, but was constantly bawling, except when I sang her “Bye Bye Blackbird” as I drove. This soothed her for some unbeknownst reason, given my terrible singing voice. If she would seemingly fall off to sleep and I’d stop singing for the benefit of my older daughter and wife, she would immediately begin to cry again. In essence I had to sing the song, over and over, for at least four hours. Not a pretty treat for the rest of my family’s ears, but a slightly better outcome than my youngest’s piercing
howls.
As a parent it is frustrating when a child doesn’t sleep, although the vagaries of time may have dulled the memory, I can’t remember feeling angry with my children when they acted as children act. Incidentally, when I was in the throes of my illness last year my younger Daughter made me a CD mix of songs to cheer me up. This was one of them:
I don’t think the true target audience of such a book is children but rather adults. That some adults will undoubtedly have the bad judgement to read it to children is another issue. Let’s face facts. Just because most people can have children doesn’t mean most people should have children.
wtg anthony verdict!! the hero did it!
Weird timing? A bit depressing in light of the Anthony trial. Might that not be all she or whoever wanted her daughter to do?
awesome post