Narrator
The first-person narrator is a twenty-six years old when she decides to go into “hibernation.” She is a white, wealthy, privileged, self-involved, emotionally distant, somewhat nihilistic, sleeping-pill-popping junkie who wants nothing more than to spend the year between the summer of 2000 and the summer of 2001 sleeping. This is not as crazy as it sounds for one reason and turns out to harder than she imagined for several reasons.
Dr. Tuttle
The reason that it turns out to be an idea not entirely as insane as it might seem is that the narrator’s doctor is the most irresponsible and incompetent fictional doctor to never have “Hi, everybody” as his catchphrase. Tuttle is basically a dispensing machine intent on treating the narrator’s truly superhuman complain of “insomnia.” The result, of course, is that he must keep prescribing increasingly powerful and experimental medication to offset the inevitable effects of intolerance.
Reva
Reva is the narrator’s old college roommate currently involved in an affair with her married boss at the insurance brokerage in midtown as her mother is suffering from the effects of a terminal case of cancer. Her mother succumbs as the year 2000 winds to a close and her hopes for an upturn in 2001 prove tragically misplaced: the relationship with the boss leads to unexpected pregnancy which stimulates an unexpected promotion which necessitates transferring to the company’s offices inside the World Trade Center. Reva's constant appearances at the narrator's apartment to talk about the various difficulties in life proves to be one of the reasons that living the dream of sleeping through life is more difficult than planned.
Trevor
Trevor is seemingly the perfect mate for the narrator: both share a self-centered view toward life that rejects emotional connections and the possibility of love. But when Trevor can’t find sex elsewhere, he also interrupts the plans for hibernation. But neither Trevor nor the narrator seem to be the marrying kind. Well, not the narrator, anyway. Coincidentally, Trevor also works inside the World Trade Center.
Ping Xi
In what is almost certainly for most people the strangest event connected to the narrator’s decision to sleep her life away, she makes a deal with an artist she met before getting fired from the art gallery in Chelsea where she worked. The deal allows him free entry into her apartment while she is unconscious on the condition that no trace of his presence be left behind. The result of this arrangement is an art project titled “Large-Headed Pictures of a Beautiful Woman” and is comprised of painted images of her sleeping figure. With really big heads.
