I began analysis to sort out certain ideas I had about my parents and to address the sudden oppressive fear of dying that overtook me when I turned twenty-five years old. I was also a bit worried that once my novel was published, people I knew would read it and come away thinking I was a crazy person or a sexual deviant, or both. I explained all of this to my analyst during our early sessions, hoping we would go through my list of concerns in a straightforward and efficient way, not realizing that this wasn’t at all how the process would work. Instead of focusing on my stated motivations for beginning treatment, I spent a great deal of time in these conversations thinking about, and apologizing for, my chronic lateness. There are various jokes that I can and have made about ‘African time’ and the lax attitude toward punctuality I inherited from my relatives: weddings that begin four hours after the advertised start, morning church services that kick off well into the afternoon, and so on.…