Medicine men

the long version

A new novel from the author of A Southern Exposure and Almost Perfect, about the complicated (romantic?) relationship between patient and doctor. At its center: Molly Bonner, once divorced, recently widowed, insurance-rich from the accidental death of her documentary filmmaker husband (they were on the verge of separating), and filled with guilt about her oddly acquired money. Suffering from persistent headaches, she finds herself distracted by a greater irritation: an admirer - a doctor, of all things (she hates doctors) - whose lavish (is it controlling?) concern for her annoys and unsettles her yet somehow, against her will, manages to win her over. When she discovers that her headaches are more than a neurotic expression of her guilt, when diagnosis reveals a rare malignancy, Molly is plunged numbly, passively, into a frightening new world, a world of oncologists and radiologists, of specialists and clinics, a world where mere patients are powerless and are dealt with as if they were unable to comprehend what is happening to them. Now her doctor/admirer becomes her necessary link, her guide. And with him, to her relief and fury, she begins her journey toward the recovery of her own life, in a novel that brilliantly conjures up the resilience of the human spirit.