When she begins therapy for depression after breast cancer treatment, the author brings with her an extraordinarily open and critical mind, a shyness about revealing herself, and fear. Resisting easy responses to issues of dependence, vulnerability, desire, and mortality, she warily commits to a male therapist who shares virtually none of her cultural and intellectual world. Although not without pain, their improvised relationship is as unexpectedly pleasurable as her writing is unconventional: Sedgwick combines dialogue, verse, and even her therapist's notes to explore her interior life -- from her responses to illness to her close relationships with gay male friends and the risky terrain of sexual fantasies. Throughout, both voices reflect on their emerging relationship.

Unprecedented in its portrayal of one of the most difficult and intimate relationships we know, this is a rare book, a delicate and tender account of how we arrive at love.