The Dropout

As a school psychologist, Daniel Hectorman has lost all faith and confidence that meddling therapists like himself really help anyone at all. That''s too bad, because Hectorman could use some counseling of his own. His marriage is starved. His job is imperiled. His parents are deep in decline, with his mom shrunk by Alzheimer''s and his father enraged and suicidal. Even Hectorman''s doting secretary, Mrs. Tweed, has gone batty. Then there''s this kid. Trevor Winkle is a fourteen-year-old sharpie foisted on Hectorman by a vampy old flame who insists that the boy is his son. Hectorman knows he is not. But the boy is redeeming. Clever, industrious, unselfish and oddly sedate, he could open a path for Hectorman, if only the psychologist didn''t reject Trevor so relentlessly. Humorous and insightful, The Dropout is a novel about repairing human connections. As characters collide and careen, Daniel Hectorman must recognize that to end his travails he must embrace people he once strenuously neglected. That can begin as casually as conversation over one good meal.