cover image Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate

Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate

Alexis Rankin Popik. Aucoot, $14 paper (190p) ISBN 978-0-9858395-0-5

Clare Stone has been happily married to Richard for years. They have a wonderful home, and he is a powerful and charismatic attorney mid-1990s Los Angeles. When Richard disappears, Clare is terrified. Whe he reappears, in an emergency room, he is clearly manic. Together they learn that he suffers from bipolar disorder, which runs in his family and caused his mother to commit suicide. Slowly, they rebuild their life together and restore their trust in each other. Popik presents bipolar disorder without condescension or exploitation. While readers may find the appearance of an antagonistic ex-husband of a client of Richard's distracting from the central story, they will forgive it for the intimacy of the rest of the tale.