Review of the Caseworker’s Memoirs written by Dan Thompson

This is truly a compelling read, written from a highly personally account of people suffering phobias. Malcom, a councillor, who has had a long career and worked on many different cases is a recent widower coming to terms with his own grief. You are drawn into the haunting world of Malcom, a man on the edge of reason, who has tried to use all of his professional counselling skills on himself, but has still come up short for the answer to solve his own personal pain. It is in fact, Malcom’s daughter who offers him some form of salvation in giving him a small leather bound notebook, instructing him to record his memories. Dan Thompson, who is a brilliant poet, skilfully writes this series of stories with colourful descriptive words. You feel as if you are in the room with Malcom as he re-lives the events and tries to record them in this precious book. Dan’s book is unique as it offers you the viewpoint from inside the phobia victim’s head, but also how the counsellor views the case and how he tries to solve it. You feel as if you are reading a personal diary. The phobias described are diverse, and somehow you would image that a counsellor who has years of experience would have all the answers and is trusted by his patients. However, as you find out, this has not always been the case and Malcom’s advice is proven to be over optimistic to a dangerous degree. The Caseworker’s Memoirs is divided into wonderfully playful chapters that allow the reader to dip in and out of the book, while still retaining a thread that joins all the stories together. I would highly recommend this book. 5 Stars.