The Doctor's House (Premier Plus Series)

In The Doctor's House Ann Beattie gives us a brother, a sister, and a mother--all attempting to make sense of themselves, each other, and their tyrannical father/husband. The novel consists of three narratives. First, Nina, a forlorn copyeditor still mourning her husband's sudden death, takes an interest in her brother Andrew's past sexual exploits and relationships (he contacts ex-lovers who then seek out Nina to mull over his wayward promiscuity). Second, Nina's alcoholic mother, always distant from her children and hurt by her physician husband's self-absorption and countless affairs, offers her view. Third, Andrew analyzes his father's behavior and gives us his take on looking up old flings.

Unfortunately Nina and Andrew aren't terribly engaging: a depressed Nina trudges through life, and the majority of the novel proceeds accordingly. The mother's point of view is the most interesting. She shares hypotheses about why her children are inseparable yet estranged from their parents. The reader hears about the father only through the family's accounts of his rage, twisted logic, and proclivities, all of which easily justify the dysfunctional state of the family. Nina summarizes her family in succinct prose: "My father never smiled; my mother narrowed her eyes when her lips turned up, as if happiness caused her discomfort. Andrew did smile: a slow, almost dreamy smile, his face so relaxed he might have been falling asleep to sweet dreams as he looked into your eyes. I never saw that expression except for the times we were alone." The Doctor's House has its moments, but fans of Beattie will continue to champion her stories foremost. --Michael Ferch

Ann Beattie is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has published six novels and seven story collections. Her work has been included in Best American Short Stories of the Century and in three O. Henry Award collections. It has earned her an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the PEN/Bernard Malamud Award for lifetime achievement in the short-story form. She and her husband, Lincoln Perry, live in Maine, Key West, and Charlottesville, where Beattie teaches writing and literature at the University of Virginia.