This is a collection of eight men's tales from around the world. The protagonists struggle with their fathers, square off against self doubts, reveal both fear of and fascination with women, and confront their shadow. Chinen, a psychiatrist and author of "Once Upon a Midlife," opens the door for fresh study and appropriation of the trickster. This ancient image, depicted in several of the stories, taps new masculine energies as "mediator not monarch, wanderer not warrior, healer not hero."