The Group: Six People in Search of a Life

In this perceptive account of how a group of strangers came together over the course of a year to regain a sense of equilibrium in their fast-track lives, journalist Solotaroff provides an inside look at the ""talking cure."" The occasionally combustible cast of six patients, afflicted with a laundry list of private demons, childhood traumas, addictions and phobias, duel with one another and with their volatile group leader, psychopharmacologist Charles Lathon. (According to the agreement hammered out between Solotaroff and Lathon, who reluctantly allowed the author to monitor the meetings, verbatim exchanges between the group members appear in the book, though names and identifying information have been altered.) The eclectic group includes an emotionally withdrawn former model, an obnoxious Wall Street whiz with a yen for coke, an overwhelmed children's rights activist in a bitter divorce fight, a boozed-out rock musician, a wimpy accountant and a slumping Broadway producer with an embezzlement rap haunting his comeback. Lathon's approach, based on ""rational optimism,"" spurred the group members to challenge their self-imposed barriers and to accept the possibility of eventually mastering their frantic lives. Pulling back with an impassive eye, Solotaroff lets the reader experience the highly charged exchanges between these damaged souls--and their well-earned epiphanies. Raw and surprisingly candid, these are real individuals fighting some of life's harshest battles; not everyone survives emotionally to tell the tale. The wealth of surprises at the book's conclusion will keep readers riveted up to the last page. (Aug.)