The Walnut Door

The Walnut Door...a young woman who has fled from her suddenly unbearable "college kid" self...and from the place and even the lover that were part of it...comes alone to a strange city, anxiously awaiting for someting new and exciting to happen.A young man...breezy, ponytailed, beautiful...stranded by the passing of the sixties whose excitments had nurtured and consumed him, now lavishes his whole self on loving craftsmanship, on the construction of simple, perfect wooden doors, on the mystery of locks, and on the artful offering of security (his locks and doors) to women who are alone...Guess who meets up and falls in love...

in fictional form. Here are Hersey's statements about alienation in the modern world. Some readers could be alienated by The Collector (c.f. John Fowles)-like story line.