Understanding Franklin Thompson is Jim Meirose's novel for JEF, published in 2019 as Journal of Experimental Fiction vol. 73 in the Offbeat/Quirky Editions line.

Franklin Thompson and Mother Audrey live simply in a quiet small town, but a mental disorder they share repeatedly forces them to the depths of despair. Its prime symptom is that they are driven apart into separate realities, in which each believes they will never see the other again. Panic-stricken, they each fight and claw themselves back to sanity by repeating the same behavior that has saved them in the past.

Meirose is a Somerville, New Jersey writer of more than a dozen novels across some fourteen small presses; this is his one JEF title.