I Walk on Gilded Splendors

The psychologist is running amok. He is simultaneously on the verge of an artistic breakthrough and an emotional breakdown. Narrated therapy sessions guided by rhythm and color reveal poignant and evocative stories. These contrast with his own twisted life and his attempts to write a novel about it. He believes there aretwo types of individuals: open people in closed spaces, that is, individuals who are depressed, and closed people in open spaces, that is, those who are anxious. The psychologist works with four students from an arts college: a painter, a musician, and two writers. He also works with other mentally ill individuals who suffer from emotional difficulties such as psychosis, mania, and addiction. The line between the narrator’s and his patients’ mental health issues begins to blur. Alice is the psychologist’s best friend and kindred spirit. They meet on a train once a week and share insights and dilemmas as they ride out to the airport for drinks. They have an isolated sexual relationship, which the psychologist wishes to continue, despite Alice’s preference for women. The psychologist enters intoa long-term relationship with Rosy, who absconds and steals his Frank Zappa records to boot. She leaves her recalcitrant Great Dane, Spastic Maximus. The psychologist plays a lengthy bridge game with Billie Holiday, Charles Mingus, and Coleman Hawkins. The psychologist conducts a couples workshop on top of Mt. Baker where he encounters four problematic relationships. He uses the experience as material for his novel, recording his idiosyncratic thought processes, but portraying the couples realistically emphasizing the sheer comedy of 21st-century romance. A drunken night in a bar ensues creating a fractured perspective that questions the nature of the psychologist’s reality. In a colorful meadow, the psychologist experiences an epiphany, delusion, or both: Pablo Picasso, Francisco Goya, and Diego Velasquez perform as a jazz trio and propel the protagonist through a series of unpredictable events, providing insight into rhythm, color, and empathy.