Stories of Everyday Strangeness, in the Midwest and Beyond Caitlin HorrocksCredit...Tyler Steimle By Noor Qasim By Caitlin Horrocks Wouldn’t life be simpler if we could just slumber through it? In “The Sleep,” the opening story of Caitlin Horrocks’s new collection, the residents of a shrinking Midwestern town explore this enticing proposition. Faced with a death in the community and the practical costs of surviving harsh winters, the residents of Bounty decide to try hibernation. “Why stay?” ask nosy reporters. The residents answer: “Our people had moved to Bounty because the land was there and it was empty, and now all we had was the emptiness and one another.” Bounty’s decline has been severe but gradual; residents hardly notice it until the town’s dilapidated buildings are shown on television. Hibernation is their strange yet dignified response.