The Doctor's House

By: Ann Beattie

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren, Suzanne Toren, Jeff Woodman

An impeccable ear for language, an eye for the smallest shifts in the cultural landscape, and a preternatural understanding of motivation and behavior, Ann Beattie's renowned storytelling abilities are on dazzling display in The Doctor's House.

The novel opens with Nina's account of her brother's sexual appetites and betrayals, and leads into her mother's narrative. As new shadows and light are cast on Nina's story, painful secrets of life in her father's house, the doctor's house, emerge. In the dramatic third movement, the brother gives us his perspective. Through subtle shifts, The Doctor's House chronicles the fictions three people fabricate in order to survive their lives and showcases the keen observances of family and culture that have made Beattie one of our most admired voices.

Want to hear more from Anne Beattie? Find more of her fiction here.©2002 Ann Beattie (P)2005 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Few novelists are more adept at creating fictional atmospheres." (The Washington Post)
"Anne Beattie is an expert at probing the essential mysteries of the human character." (San Francisco Chronicle)
"Ann Beattie's prose is gentle, spare, and incisive....She has loosed a monster in The Doctor's House." (Los Angeles Times)
"Psychologically charged....The adroit prose in this novel is signature Beattie." (Elle)

ABRUPT ENDING

The storytelling was interesting and kept my interest. The subject matter is about the dysfunctional childhood of the characters and the impact on their young adult lives. The ending came without closure and seemed to be that the author ran out of time for her deadline.