The Patient Body
Description
The Patient Body: A Personal Narrative in Pieces chronicles one man's journey as he attempts to lead a balanced life as a father, husband, friend, and literary citizen during traumatic times.
Written as a mosaic of 'flash' encounters, meditations, memories, and travel pieces, The Patient Body explores the ways the past resides inside the present and the present points to an uncertain future. An abecedary lies at the center of the book, composed for a former self, the twenty-six 'micro' sections create a dialogue that plays out across the divide created by a devastating car accident that changed everything.
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Person
Sebastian Matthews is the author of the memoir-in-essays Beyond Repair: Living in a Fractured State and the hybrid collection Beginner's Guide to a Head-on Collision. His other publications include two books of poems, the memoir In My Father's Footsteps, the collage novel The Life and Times of American Crow, and a collaboration with photographer Charter Weeks entitled Travelogue. He works as a writing coach and leads workshops for the Great Smokies Writing Program in Asheville, NC.
Content
- Intro
- Front Cover
- Half-Title Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Acknowledgments
- Dedication
- Contents
- Half-Title Page
- Preface
- Young Man
- Emilio's
- End of Summer
- Volunteer Park
- Broadway
- Microfiche
- Battenkill
- Nights Around the Welcome Table
- Husband
- Hallelujah
- Together
- Snow Day
- First Day of School
- A Lifetime, in Three Acts
- Forgiveness
- Seesaw
- Father
- Convergence
- At the Waffle House
- Beautiful Bonehead
- VW Bug Litany
- Shit Job
- Rising to the Bait
- Marking
- Friend
- Life Ball
- Sesame Seed Bagel
- Specific
- Dear Friend,
- Donut
- Imminence
- Zaddik
- The Patient Body
- The Patient Body & Root Shock
- The Patient Body on the Day Everything Changed
- The Patient Body Remembers
- The Patient Body & Weightlessness
- The Patient Body Walks the Dog
- The Patient Body Disguised as a Church Fire
- The Patient Body Looks at Itself in a Funhouse Mirror
- The Patient Body as Jekyll & Hyde
- The Patient Body Wanders into Applebee's
- The Patient Body Gets an MRI
- The Patient Body & the Night Nurse
- The Patient Body Walks Along the Lakeshore
- The Patient Body at the Brewpub for an Afternoon Beer
- The Patient Body Sits on the Back Porch and Listens
- Neighbor
- All the Places Since Lockdown I Don't Go Anymore
- Double Masked
- Seeing Bears
- Dementia
- Balance
- Wave
- Satin Doll
- Citizen
- In the Parliament of the Common Man
- News
- Stalemate
- Script Flipped
- Electric Fence
- Unhoused
- Man Snoring on Plane, Dallas to Charlotte
- Traveler
- At the Frida Kahlo Museo, Playa del Carmen
- On the Lee Highway, Staunton, VA, to Johnson City, TN
- Walking Walden Pond, Its Paths Now Fenced In By Wire
- Ghost Tourist
- On the Fire Road, Between Ponds, Wellfleet
- Hemingway Home, Key West, FL
- Up at Artillery Hill, Fort Wordon
- Artist
- The Night Ella Escorted Marilyn through the Front Door of the Mocambo
- Best of the Classic Years
- Seattle Art Fair
- Kamasi Washington at the Orange Peel
- Houdini on the Prowl
- You Are Who You Are
- Echoes
- Biographical Note
- Back Cover
