Half Way Home - Johnson

Half Way Home.  By Don Johnson.  Denton:  Zone Press, 2008.  paperback, 284 pages.  $15.95   http://www.zonepress.com http://www.austinpsych.com/bio/Don_Johnson.html      The jacket image, suggestive of Big Bend and natural tranquility, belies the active, complex lives and relationships of some 1970's psychology graduate students and their friends, family, and associates.  Academia merges with El Puente, a half way house of colleagues and clients.  It's as zoo-life as the rest of life in that decade of cultural change.    Glenn's cooling marriage is dissolving and Hena's earthy, siren presence compels their passions for natural beauty, intellectualism, and sex.  Their secret is quickly open to their associates who respond in varied ways.  In some ways, the therapeutic setting of El Puente is metaphorical for the care and healing that surrounds us on a daily basis.  The reader may wonder will this odd relationship function beyond a few seasons; is it so roller coasterish that it must derail?  Life through a couple of semesters with them; paint the bus with flowers and such; trip to Big Bend; bear up under others' illnesses; learn to look closely at the nature of love.