Obsessions

June M. Blurton is a retired speech/language pathologist.

Daniel Jones, a Canadian writer, has published collections of short
stories and poetry in the past, and although he calls Obsessions a novel
it is more like a series of short poems.

There is no story line. The only descriptions are the perceptions of a
man who has a debilitating mental illness. There is no indication of how
long he has been suffering, or how long he will continue to do so. He
strives to appear normal and maintain his dignity in the everyday world,
but underneath his senses and emotions are in turmoil. He smells,
tastes, hears, sees, and touches things that either are not there or are
grossly distorted; he is aware of these distortions but unable to
correct them.

He suffers the pain of loneliness but is afraid to make contact with
others. His anger boils, but he fears killing. He dreads pain, but
invites it and even inflicts it on himself. Above all, he is aware of
the lack of control he has over himself and his world.

There may be too much pain and too few contrasts in so small a space,
but this book speaks to the anguish of the mentally ill in pictures so
vivid that a reader can never again look at them with indifference.