My fiction and poetry book, “Curious Stories of Diverse Places: The Cod’s Earring, The Click of the Reindeer, and Other Adventures, and Even Some Poems” contains stories of cod fishing in Newfoundland, reindeer trekking in Norway, of the prehistoric caves of the Dordogne in France, and of the Navajo reservation, as well as a variety of other stories and poems.
These short stories and poems were written after a workday of seeing patients or on weekends. In ways that are not at all obvious, my patients over the years have inspired some of them. In psychoanalysis, in writing short stories, in crafting poetry, my hope has always been to approach the intimate heart of our lives and of living, with both its terror and beauty; and to question our Western society assumptions of how our world (and our being in it) is constructed. .
The introduction to the book “Curious Stories from Diverse Places”
The beginning of a story “The Click of the Reindeer”
A review of the book:
A vivid collection of very differently pegged stories. A contemporary updating of David Lean’s unforgettable “Brief Encounter”, “Dank” is a credible and moving fiction about a middle-aged man who, after experiencing sexual liberation in idyllic rural France, comes home to his wife with renewed maturity. “Boxball” is a stunning exploration of the loaded vulnerabilities of male competitiveness. The brief final story, “Termination,” is a fitting and eloquent end to the collection. Each of the fictions here dramatize their characters’ vulnerabilities in ways that are both familiar and enlightening. An impressive achievement. Read this book. – Robert J. Seidman, author of “One Smart Indian ” and “Moments Captured “