Cambridge, Massachusetts

In the summer of 1989, Anatole Broyard moved from Connecticut to Cambridge Massachusetts. Here, in his new home, he discovered that he could not urinate and decided to seek out a urologist. Broyard loved Cambridge explaining in "Part Three: The Patient Examines the Doctor," "I had always wanted to live in Cambridge and I was almost persuaded that I couldn't urinate because I was surprised by joy, in C.S. Lewis's phrase. Like Israel for Portnoy, Cambridge was a transcendent place for me" (33).

The doctor's office in Boston

In an important scene in Part Three, Anatole Broyard describes sitting in what he assumes to be his urologist's office in Boston. He gives a rich description of the room in the following passage:

"Sitting in his office, I read his signs. The diplomas I took for granted: What interested me was the fact that the room was furnished with...