The Visible Man

Austin, TX, therapist Victoria Vick reports on a disturbing new client: a man with a method to render himself invisible. Unseen, the man, referred to as Y_____, sneaks into the homes of solitary men and women and spies on them for days on end, claiming that he is observing them scientifically in a truly unguarded state. In the "therapy" sessions, which Y_____ controls unchallenged, he expounds on insights gained while watching people make dinner, watch television, sleep, drink, and perform other mundane tasks. His increasingly bizarre narratives fascinate Victoria, as she struggles to determine what is real and what is fabricated. Klosterman (Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto) surveys various philosophical and psychological topics, filtered through Y_____'s pedantic diatribes, also toying with the nature of fiction itself as Victoria and her husband separate the fake from the merely fantastic. Y_____ becomes an increasingly sinister threat to Victoria, who is (somewhat unaccountably) lured into crossing the line separating therapist and patient, which leads to a violent and troubling confrontation.