THE TROUBLE WITH MENTAL WELLNESS

A client's suicide almost spells disaster for a hapless therapist in Colicchio's punchy second novel. In Jersey City, N.J., crusty Nicky Finnuche runs a counseling practice out of what used to be his dad's Central Avenue meat market. Times are a bit tough: a change in insurance funding has cost him many of his clients, and frankly, Nicky's skeptical about growth and change (one note on a patient reads "Diagnosis: Asshole"). When Claire Hellman, a sweet but struggling older patient, finally succumbs to her battle with depression and commits suicide, Nicky feels... well, he takes a nap. (He loves sleeping.) But naturally he needs to answer some legal questions—too bad he's only taken notes on 12 of Claire's hundreds of visits. Nicky is somewhat unjustifiably stunned when Claire's financially desperate son, Terry—who happens to be married to Nicky's sister, Connie—hires a lawyer to sue him for malpractice. Colicchio sets up a comic contrast between Finnuche's attempts at professionalism and his coarse take on his clients' various maladies, and his minor characters—cute, crazy patient Lilly, Foreigner-loving pal Mo—are decidedly eccentric. The novel's tone, though, is erratic, shifting from humor to melodrama as Colicchio alternates between Finnuche's financial and legal dilemmas, Connie's decision to quit her teaching job and a subplot about a detective trying to push his son into a spot on the local American Legion baseball team. Colicchio's descriptions have economical virtuosity—the detective is "both youthful and aged; fit, yet primed for early cardiac arrest"—which makes the often unfocused narrative and messy structure seem all the more a shame. (Apr.)