The Unabridged Songwriter

Duncan Chase is an imperfect storm. His fiftieth birthday looms, prompting reflection along several fronts. Gold-record winning songwriter. Widower, whose wife committed suicide twenty-five years earlier, wracking him with guilt and rage. Estranged son of an academic with expectations he could never meet. An agoraphobic due to panic attacks and anxiety for which he only recently sought treatment. Wednesday nights he auditions new compositions at the local pub to gauge audience reaction. Formulaic love songs his agent urges him to write for their ease of sale. Duncan's reflection on this front scratches an itch to write songs more authentic and raw than the bland compositions he currently constructs. When a young woman at an open mic night at the pub impresses him with her talent and beauty, he considers collaboration, one of many changes he entertains since beginning medication for his anxiety. Unconscious comparisons of the woman to his wife emerge and he exploits the tempest of emotions surrounding her death. Can he mold them into a song of apology to her? Can the notion of apology also extend to his father? The collaboration with the young singer/songwriter unfolds easily and Duncan imagines intimacy beyond the mere creative. Years of living alone in self-imposed isolation leave him ill-equipped to read people with certainty and although her reality falls short of his expectations, he gains a greater sense of purpose for the encounter. This is John M. McNamara's seventh work of fiction.