BIRD GOTTA LAND

When Stephen departs Charleston, South Carolina, for Atlanta to begin a doctoral program in clinical psychology at Georgia University, he’s more forlorn than excited, because he’ll be far away from his 3-year-old son, Nicholas, who lives with his ex-wife, Charlotte. He’s also estranged from his father, Frank, who now lives in Florida and whom he still resents for leaving his mother years ago. Still, Stephen is eager to reconnect with him—he discovers Frank is battling prostate cancer and severe depression—but Frank’s unpleasant wife, Donna, seems motivated to keep them apart. Drose follows Stephen’s painful attempt at soul-searching, a process that’s aided by his clinical studies, which are simultaneously lessons in therapeutic strategy and the power of human empathy. Stephen’s professor Ed Holland tries to teach him that psychotherapy is less about behavioral modification than about a more elemental healing: “For me the story about therapy research isn’t that one school is superior. It’s that the help begins with the bond between the therapist and the client.” The author, a practicing psychologist with 30 years of experience, paints an intriguing tableau of modern psychotherapy and highlights “the artistry involved in deeply understanding the people who seek our help”—an element that some depictions of psychology sadly overlook. However, the novel too often reads like a didactic textbook, as if the narration and character interactions are intended as learning tools for clinical psychology students. Drose also provides a prologue that explains the meaning he wishes to impart, and this authorial commentary has the effect of sapping the book of much of its drama and literary impact. In addition, the book concludes with a list of discussion questions, which also wouldn’t be out of place in a classroom setting.