False Passages: Swimming Up A Thin Stream
Joel Friedrich
language
(, March 10, 2018)
False Passages: Swimming Up A Thin Stream is the coming of age story of a nice Midwestern boy full of longing and a stabbing pain in his penis. It’s a tender and sad confession of a radiant erotic imagination cooped up behind a urethra that’s just too tight. It’s also very funny. From his early years, when a night’s private encounter with a sock leads to an embarrassing confession that it “hurts to pee,” to its otherworldly climax, Friedrich writes about wild and solitary childhood moments of beauty, grief, and magic holding something familiar to any person with a heartbeat. You'll feel like you have a front row seat to a secret life only he knew about until now. He tells on himself over and over again for the thoughts and actions brought out by low self esteem and a desperate need to be wanted. Each story is illuminated with a poem from his years of confusion. Take the journey with him on his struggle to swim up a stream too thin on his quest for self love.