Derek, a young man suffering from Bipolar Disorder, uses a series of letters to tell the tale of an exceptionally dramatic eight month period of his life. Though the letters are addressed to Agnes, the unrequited love of Derek's life, they are more like journals than letters. Derek, whose highly digressive style is the result of reading The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy one too many times, gives the reader unfettered access to all the darkest...and brightest...corners of his mind. At times the letters provide a heart wrenching account of Derek's mental health struggles, but at other times the letters are snarky tales of evenings spent trying to interact with the strange creatures science calls Homo Sapiens. The characters Derek encounters may, at first glance, seem unremarkable, but Derek has an astounding ability to discover the absurd and/or extraordinary aspects of the most mundane interactions. In keeping with the rules of novel writing that were established long ago by a secret cabal of lizard people, Derek is given a love interest, faced with difficult decisions, and forced to deal with exciting, high pressure situations...or perhaps he just has a dreadful tendency to blow rather ordinary things completely out of proportion. All in all, I think this book is pretty good, and I hope that you will read it, enjoy it, and convince other people to purchase it...I've got student loans...like a lot of them...so please...seriously. If this book writing thing doesn't work out I'll have to get a real job.