A Bar of Paranoid Schizos: Robert Boswell’s ‘Tumbledown’  A
promising therapist finds his perfect life falling apart with a
cast of patients that may just be saner. Drew Toal reads Robert
Boswell’s new Californian novel.  Jim Candler is a promising
therapist at the Onyx Springs Rehabilitation and Therapeutic
Center in California. He owns a big (if ugly) house, drives a
Porsche, and is engaged to be married to a beautiful young
woman. He’s also in line for a big promotion at work, and has
helped get his hapless childhood friend a good job at the
clinic. Everything appears to be going perfectly, but
appearances can be deceiving. In Tumbledown, Robert Boswell’s
first novel in a decade, Jim Candler and his faux-perfect life
take center stage. “He was facing a controversial promotion,”
Boswell writes, “could not afford his combined house and car
payments, hardly knew the woman he was engaged to marry, could
barely keep up with his clients’ complicated lives, and had just
signed on for his fourth credit card. Tick