BY RON CHARLESGiven the flood of studies, warn-
ings, features and books about it,
insomnia may come to define our age
the way nostalgia defined the Roman-
tics. We are, by all accounts, a rest-less
people. The search
for better sedatives
and masks and pil-
lows charges on,
but our poor sleep
habits, which con-
tribute to a host of
deadly ailments,
suggest something
profoundly amiss
about the construc-
tion of modern life.
In her midnight
memoir, “Insom-
nia” (2018), Marina
Benjamin de-
scribes chronic
sleeplessness as “a
state of longing.”
That desperation pervades every
page of Simon Han’s debut novel,
“Nights When Nothing Happened.”
This is a story in which no one sleeps
well — not the adults, not even the
children. All of them are pinched with
unease, a vague anxiety repressed
during the day but unleashed once
the lights go off.
What’s most fascinating about
“Nights When Nothing Happened” is
the way Han, who was born in China
and raised in Texas, explores how
anxiety thwarts the archetypal ex-
SEE BOOK WORLD ON C3A poignant
study of the
immigrant
experience
NIGHTS WHEN
NOTHING
HAPPENED
By Simon Han
Riverhead.
262 pp. $26BOOK WORLDKLMNO
Style
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2 , 2020. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/STYLE EZ RE C
BILL O'LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POSTa name for himself
The op-ed writer ‘Anonymous’ says he wants to help lead the post-Trump GOP back to its true identity
Miles Taylor, who has
gotten death threats
after recently revealing
himself as the author of
the explosive anonymous
New York Times column
that described a
resistance group
within the Trump
administration, at an
undisclosed location last
month.BY MANUEL ROIG-FRANZIA SOMEWHERE ON THE EAST COASTI t was the sudden light on the tacos that felt so creepy. ¶ The flash interrupted an
otherwise languid September evening at an outdoor restaurant table in Tucson, stopping
Miles Taylor mid-sentence. ¶ He looked into the sky, and there, right above him, hovered
a drone, directing a beam of unnerving brightness. It might have been an errant
plaything. But in Taylor’s new world, he saw menace everywhere. ¶ Later, in the car, he
kept looking in his rearview mirror. ¶ “I’m so spooked,” Taylor, a former Trump Homeland
Security Department official, recalls during an in-person interview that he agreed to
participate in only after many assurances that the location be kept secret. ¶ Not long
before his close encounter with the drone, Taylor h ad earned a measure of national
attention by endorsing former vice president Joe Biden, the Delaware Democrat, in the
2020 presidential election, joining the cavalcade of “formers” to publicly put their names
to criticism of an often unhinged White House. SEE TAYLOR ON C2BOOK WORLD
A charming, modern “Pride
and Prejudice” reboot. C3CAROLYN HAX
Shaming the in-laws into
recycling? Scrap that idea. C8KIDSPOST
2020 was a year that tested
us, and now there’s a quiz. C8BY SONIA RAOT
he holidays were never going
to feel normal in a pandemic,
and with health officials
warning against travel, it
seems one of the most responsible
ways to spend them might be sitting
on a couch with a warm drink in
hand, munching on popcorn while
watching some mindlessly comfort-
ing TV movies.
Luckily, the annual barrage of ugly
sweaters and eggnog-fueled drama
has already commenced, with some
of the earliest contenders hitting
streaming platforms in late October
— Halloween be damned. Big Christ-
mas knows no bounds, and not even
an airborne virus can stop Hallmark,
Lifetime and Netflix from churning
out dozens of movies this holiday
season. This year, even more than
SEE MOVIES ON C5Comforting
films for a
cozy holiday
season at home
BY SONIA RAOhoping to see more queer Christmas
movies come to fruition. There’s often
an added sense of responsibility to
being one of the most prominent, and
“Happiest Season,” which premiered
Nov. 25, bears the weight of Harper’s
struggle to reconcile her actual identity
with that of the daughter her parents
seem to want. But DuVall points out
that humor is also inherent to the film’s
central debacle, which requires Abby to
pose as Harper’s straight roommate.
“I’ve spent the majority of my Christ-
mases with other people’s families, and
it’s a very specific experience to be
dropped into the middle of someone
else’s family dynamic and to see your
partner, who you think you know so
well... revert back into this other
version of themselves,” DuVall contin-
ues. “As much as there’s a very serious
side of it, there’s also a lot of really
awkward comedy that comes out of it.”
Some of the film’s funniest moments
come from these uncomfortable situa-
tions, as highlighted by a running gag
about Abby’s dead parents. Neither
SEE HAPPIEST SEASON ON C5How ‘Happiest Season’ helped
a director get her Christmas wish
P
art of what makes holiday mov-
ies so appealing is the promise
of comfort. The genre is known
for producing warm and fuzzy
feelings, derived from twinkly winter
settings and charmingly predictable
plotlines. We know what to expect at
the end of a romantic comedy about
meeting a partner’s dysfunctional fam-
ily at Christmastime. Many viewers
have probably been in that exact posi-
tion themselves.
But few experiences are universal,
and the new movie “Happiest Season”
presents a version of the story that,
before this year’s crop of LGBTQ holi-
day fare, was rarely depicted on-screen.
Directed by Clea DuVall, the Hulu
release stars Kristen Stewart as a wom-
an named Abby who accompanies her
girlfriend, Harper (Mackenzie Davis),
to her family home in the Pittsburgh
area, only to learn on the way there that
Harper hasn’t yet come out to her
conservative parents.
DuVall, who is gay, co-wrote the film
with Mary Holland (who plays Jane,
one of Harper’s sisters) after years ofHULULIFETIMEWriter-director Clea DuVall, top left, works with Kristen Stewart and
Mackenzie Davis on the set of Hulu’s romantic comedy “Happiest Season.”Blake Lee, left, and Ben Lewis star
in Lifetime’s new romance
“The Christmas Setup.”