Therapy: a Novel - Tapa dura

Six weeks after the difficult and prolonged birth of his first-born son, Casper "Cap" Kaplan returns to his Colorado therapy practice. His clients's problems have intensified during his leave, making his job challenging beyond his expectations. Most notable among them is Julian, an obsessive twenty-year-old epileptic raised by a concentration-camp-survivor mother. And then there's Maureen Kels, a professor of environmental economics with an endless repetoire of tactics for getting under Cap's skin, from sporting dragon-lady attire to making lewd sexual remarks to pointing out Cap's most intimate weaknesses. As his clients grow more and more demanding, intruding on Cap's private life as well as on each other's, Cap pushes himself further to be of aid, but in doing so finds his professionalism eroding. An extended visit from his overbearing parents only adds to the chaos. Meanwhile, the strains at home and in the workplace begin to take a toll on Cap's marriage and on his wife, Wallis. She secretly enters therapy, as Cap's clients terminate theirs, and Cap wonders if it isn't time to look for a second career. Finally, tragedy and loss force Cap to descend into the turmoil of his own psyche.