Robert K. Bosscha

Rob is working on renovating his condo when his life is turned upside down. One fateful day, his contractor hears him collapse from the other room. When Rob awakens in the hospital, little does he know, his life—and brain—have changed forever . . . .

 

Leaving La-La Land is the astounding memoir of a man afflicted by a rare brain condition known as encephalopathy. Over the course of his three-month hospital stay, doctors speculate all kinds of hypotheses for what Rob might be dealing with, which shows itself through both psychological and physical symptoms, putting him through a barrage of tests. Meanwhile Rob, who has lost his sense of who or where or when he is, and his abilities to accomplish even the most basic bodily functions, finds himself afloat on a sea of encephalopathic dreams that try desperately to make sense of his new reality.

 

Through these remembered dreams, in which he believes himself to be part of a secretive muay thai tournament or the head of a family and husband to a resentful wife in Japan, Rob’s hospital experience is half-revealed to him, while medical staff’s scrupulous note-taking helps fill in the blanks.