Thoughtwall Cafe: Espresso in the Third Season of Life

This fierce story rifles the turbulence of mind encountered in the twenties. Life’s third decade mercilessly right-sizes the dreams of childhood and sometimes, buffeted by forces beyond our control, diverts us completely. The narrative hovers around a tangle of friends and strangers interconnected by both serendipity and intention, and unfolds across the tables of a sprawling, urban café. Place is as much a part of this story as the characters, providing subliminal images and intrigue for the events. Cressida Fruith, who changed her name in high school from Ruth while pulling an Emo persona over her life, is coming apart at the seams. An only child of a single parent with no extended family, she watches helplessly as her mother’s cancer progresses. Even the friendship of her oldest and best friend begins to fray. Enter Hobart Wilson, a much-maligned outcast stoner from her high school days. Infuriating Cressida, Hobart becomes her mother’s closest companion, and confessor of a secret so dark it will change her future. Woven and twisted within the narrative by the characters and their relationships are archetypal psychological and spiritual battles, even ordinary conundrums (“thoughtwalls”) that nearly everyone encounters. More than one “Ah ha!” is seeded amidst the dialogue and action, which makes this a compelling story with real-time implications. Laugh, cry, and steam as these twenty-somethings do battle with pernicious struggles of the mind, and sometimes prevail where even Socrates and Freud fumbled.