THE SUM OF HIS SYNDROMES

author:
K.B. DIXON

Fiction
142 pages
Academy Chicago Publishers

Forget stream of consciousness. I don’t know about you, but my stream of consciousness generally consists of fully formed sentences latched together into comprehensive paragraphs, often incorporating plot and lots of action verbs. This may be why The Sum of His Syndromes works so well. Composed of the narrator’s notes from a sixth floor bathroom as he avoids work, K.B. Dixon’s short novel hits life from workplace gossip to the larger questions of love and happiness. And it works. Protagonist David uses blunt emotion and unintentional humor in describing his depression, his frustrating tête-à-têtes with his pill-pushing therapist, his boring and nondescript job, and his budding relationship with a woman he’s pretty certain won’t stick around.

The story with its tenuously connected notes parses out brilliantly, from the thoughtful (“Aren’t you ever afraid of catching something from us – like an overwhelming sense that it is all for nothing?”) through the sad (“We pretend I am brave because I am here, but I can’t believe in our heart of hearts that either of us feels this is true”) to the completely mundane (“Angie Huffman’s four-year-old daughter killed her pet guinea pig, Max. She thought he was cold so she put him in the microwave to warm him up.”) Throughout, the topics return to life, depression, friendship, and relationships as David struggles to align the pieces of his life, but it’s the little jewels of the everyday that make this book both a piece of humor and a fiction that actually relates to its audience. With his neurotics and boredom, David is a modern Everyman, telling a story as familiar as our own lives complete with its drivel, peaks and valleys, and the occasional hint that maybe – just maybe – things might turn out OK. David doesn’t have the answers but he certainly has the questions, and as the book ends with the same inconsequential trivia as has trailed throughout the story, you get the feeling that not having the answers is just fine. David certainly doesn’t have any answers, but frankly, neither do we. And tomorrow will have the same moments of hope and depression and office gossip as today.

Dixon effortlessly captures what it’s like to be human in a relatively uncaring world, but the beauty of the book is in the fact that he makes you laugh while doing so. Don’t look for the answers in The Sum of His Syndromes; look for humanity. You’ll find it.

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