Stoneport

An eye-opening look at the world of psychology told through a complicated romance. A substantive, multilayered story of sexual tension and betrayal. Kirkus Reviews Wind and water and shoreline cant be changed. We have to work with the elements as they are. So writes longtime Buddhist practitioner and social worker Hill Anderson in Stoneport, a sophisticated novel that explores the figurative shorelines, or borders, between men and women, thought and emotion, and truth and fiction. Intricate without unnecessary complexity, Stoneport weaves several story lines together to create whole cloth. When first introduced, Eli Fox is a young man. Eventually, he becomes an experienced therapist and supervises a bright young doctor named Meagan Rush. The story follows their unorthodox relationship, along with the traumas of the patients they counsel and ground-shaking changes in the field of behavioral medicine itself.Andersons decades of experience is evident in his refined descriptions of his characters deepest doubts and highest hopes. His language is precise and evocative. For instance, he summarizes Elis childhood memories with lines like, He remembered his childhood with a sense of defeat and the awareness of a wound that did not bleed. Andersons imagery brings thoughts and emotions vividly to life.Sea metaphors are central to Andersons storytelling, and his tale fittingly moves like a gently bobbing boat in a quiet harbor before he unleashes a storm of conflict. Eli, Meagan, their confused clients, and eccentric colleagues become familiar friends, and then the questions begin. Is Eli and Meagans relationship inappropriate? Will its exposure ruin Elis career? Are the therapists being forced into unethical treatment methods by the encroaching insurance industry? Anderson skillfully paces the action so that these conflicts almost simultaneously reach peak tension. Five Star Clarion Review by Sheila M. Trask