Summary

In the story, "Sleepwalking", the reader meets, Lionel. He was a musician who loved women, and for the last year or so of his marriage loved alcohol as well. He had been married three times. His first wife, Loretta, was not a good housekeeper and was not a faithful woman, but was the only black woman Lionel had married. Although Ruth, his mother, hated Loretta for years, she clung to the fact that Loretta was at least black.

His second wife, Anita, was half Italian and was also a terrible drug addict who died when Lion, their son, was five. Lionel hasn’t has the best track record with women. Julia, also half-Italian, was a musician, and a relatively good housekeeper, who balanced the checkbook, and was extremely disliked by Ruth. Julia had been unfaithful to Lionel once, but he had been...