A good doctor's son

the long version

The son of a dedicated doctor and a fragile artistic mother, David grows up feeling an outsider as a Jew in a gentile neighborhood, but struggles to fit in. He becomes friends with a group of teenagers who play poker for high stakes, ride around in fast cars, and crack jokes about sex that leave fifteen-year-old (and still prepubescent) David laughing along in hidden pain. A sudden challenge from his friends results in a horrifying accident, plunging David into a future far beyond any troubles he or his family could ever have imagined. A Good Doctor's Son is David's story and his family's, but it is also a tale of remembrance for David's victim, a three-year-old girl, and her family and their anguish. At its center is a story that examines the grainy area between the good intentions of people and the unexpected ways they actually wind up living their lives - a gap that David must bridge to make his life whole.