“Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” by Lori Gottlieb

When we went to the Russian River over Labor Day weekend, I took only one book with me. This is very uncharacteristic of me. On any trip, even a long weekend, I always take three books: One to read, one to read if that one is bad, and one to read if I finish the first one. However, I’m trying to travel lighter these days, so I decided to take this one book after reading only a few pages because I knew it was going to be a winner, and it did not disappoint. In fact, it exceeded my expectations. “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” by Lori Gottlieb, a Los Angeles-based author and psychotherapist, is the page-turning memoir about a therapist who suddenly finds herself in the need of her own therapy after a very bad breakup with a boyfriend. Of course, time does not stop when you are a working single parent. So Gottlieb had to continue to see her roster of patients, while at the same time, doing her own therapy. The stories of her patients’ struggles are interwoven with her own, and end up strengthening each other. For anyone who has ever been in therapy the pages of this book are going to resonate with you. But even if you haven’t been inside the therapy room, you will be fascinated by the well-written characters Gottlieb creates. She has said in interviews that the patients are composites of many different ones, and some of the details have been changed to protect the patients’ identity. We meet a newlywed with cancer, a suicidal senior citizen artist, a boozy twenty-year-old who dates badly, and a successful Hollywood producer hiding a secret. What’s fun is that her camouflage does not damper the power of the narrative, and the peep-hole-eye view the reader is treated to page after page. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.