About “I Shall Return as a Dog” 18 More Essays

During his 37-year optometric career, Robert Schoen crossed paths with 40,000 patients. But it was his Jewish sense of humor, his years as a composer and performer, and a coast-to-coast walk that make these 18 stories so resonant.

In this second collection of memoirs, Schoen brings a “diagnostic” eye to the page, illuminating the threads of humanity that are always present but mostly unseen. Moving from the jazz-inflected world of music to the quiet backroads of America, as well as to many humorous and absurd foreign encounters, he uncovers the profound in the routine and the absurd in the ordinary. It’s a journey through the human experience—one patient, one song, one country, and one mile at a time.