Elizabeth Brundage Reviews

Added December 19, 2004

The Doctor's Wife

Author: Elizabeth Brundage
Publisher: Viking Adult
Available At: Bookstores Everywhere
Publishing Date: November 2005
Genre: Fiction
Format: Trade Paperback
Price: $14.00
ISBN: 0452286913
Reviewer: Melissa Levine

Abortion. Infidelity. Passion. Insanity. The elements of Elizabeth Brundage's debut novel, The Doctor's Wife, are intense and timely. This story reaches deep into the center of human definition and retrieves contradiction, choice, and hope.

Michael Knowles is a successful obstetrician-gynecologist with a wife, two kids, a dog, and a large old house in upstate New York. When his ex-lover calls him up for a lunch date, he agrees to stretch his time even more to help her in the abortion clinic she runs.

As in any marriage, Michael's professional decisions flow over onto the lives of his family. His wife, Annie, a journalist and teacher at the local all women's college, responds to her husband's ceaseless neglect by exploring a relationship with her tumultuous co-worker, painter Simon Haas. As their affair heats up, Simon's severely depressed, self-mutilating wife, Lydia, sinks deeper into psychosis after being seduced into joining a violent pro-life group.

The unusual history between Simon and his wife is the foundation for this enthralling psychodrama. Brundage is thorough and balanced in her work, giving each of the primary characters ample opportunity to tell how they came to be where they end up in the story. The author's time at the Iowa Writer's Workshop was obviously well spent; The Doctor's Wife is intriguing and solidly written. I highly recommend this piece.

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