Book 19: The Doctor's Wife by Elizabeth Brundage

My rating: *

This book began much better than it ended. From the first few pages I was hooked because it sounded like it was going to be a really good thriller with some kind of amazing plot.

How wrong I was. How very wrong.

The 4 main characters - Michael and Annie Knowles and Simon and Lydia Haas - are all, for the most part, cardboard and unlikable. I never felt as if I should be rooting for any of these characters. Michael is an OB/GYN who moonlights at a local abortion clinic. (Thi...more This book began much better than it ended. From the first few pages I was hooked because it sounded like it was going to be a really good thriller with some kind of amazing plot.

How wrong I was. How very wrong.

The 4 main characters - Michael and Annie Knowles and Simon and Lydia Haas - are all, for the most part, cardboard and unlikable. I never felt as if I should be rooting for any of these characters. Michael is an OB/GYN who moonlights at a local abortion clinic. (This never made sense to me. Why in the world would an OB doctor also perform abortions? That just seemed very conflicting to me.) His wife, Annie, is an alleged "feminist" and a journalism professor at a women's college. Simon is a sleazy, emo painter who also teachers at the women's college. And Lydia is the much younger wife of Simon the painter who's mentally a few fries short of a Happy Meal and a right-wing, conservative nut.

Annie is the typical not-happily-married-but-appears-happily-married-until-sleazy-man-hits-on-her-and-makes-her-feel-alive-again wife. Michael is a workaholic, and she rarely sees him and neither do their kids. So it only makes sense that she would have a secret love affair with Simon because he's an honorable man, and he brings out the best in her. After all, he KNOWS her. But only in the sense that he's explored every inch of her body in the confines of a drab motel room. I also had a hard time buying into this relationship because if Annie was such a hardcore feminist, it seemed to me that she wouldn't give herself to some man to be used for his animalistic fantasies. I thought feminists had more dignity than that.

Another glaring absurdity in this book was the stereotypical ways the author portrayed those who are of the pro-life persuasion. Because we all know that everyone who is opposed to abortion is a radical freak who leaves bloody dolls in mailboxes, leaves bombs in abortion clinics, and claims they're doing it all in the name of Jesus. Sure there are some people out there like that, but let's not use the same brush to paint everyone.

This was one of those books that I honestly didn't really want to finish. Maybe I shouldn't have, but once I start a book I finish it. That's just what I do. This book was just very 2-dimensional and too full of the author's agenda. Oh, and the ending was lame.