THE DOCTOR OF DESIRE

by Allen Wheelis ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 21, 1987

Though somewhat less ponderous than The Desert (1970) or The Scheme of Things (1980), this new novel by psychiatrist Wheelis again attaches a thicket of psycho-philosophical musing--none of it terribly fresh--to a small, unremarkable story. Wheelis' alter-ego this time is San Francisco psychoanalyst Henry Melville, 53, unhappily married--who finds himself developing an obsessive ardor for Lori Savella, a beautiful but repressed young pianist. . .and Dr. Melville's patient, which makes it impossible, of course, for the doctor to reveal any of his simmering passion. (""The longing kept welling up, overflowing. His role was a straightjacket. The space behind the couch was closing in, he couldn't move, couldn't breathe. How break out of it? How find his way to her? Someday somehow, it must be possible. It has to be."") Then the situation gets even more intolerable--when Lori proclaims that she loves Dr. Melville, who valiantly tries to keep things on a professional basis, rejecting her advance. Lori responds first by going crazy, quasi-suicidal; then she suddenly transfers her affections to a stand-in for the doctor: Charles Morgan, a married, middled-aged writer who is another of Dr. M.'s patients. So the psychoanalyst is left on his own--to ponder the ambivalent nature of infatuation, to envy the lovers' neurotic pleasure and regret his own restraint. (""Here am I, desolate, storm-swept, alone, in my mental health, my splendid adjustment."") This story, delivered in prose that ranges from crisp to pedantic to pop-song-purple (""he should have followed his heart. . .Maybe they could have learned to fly""), is Part I of a slight volume. Part II is a ""Meditation"": miscellaneous fragments that seem to come, unedited, from a writer/psychiatrist's notebook. There are repetitious musings on psychoanalytic theory, writing, the ""meaning of life."" There are reports of patients' fantasies (unconvincingly voiced) and a few engaging autobiographical snippets of reminiscence. And, above all, there are verbose, graphic explorations of male infatuation and lust, women-as-sex-objects, the non-appeal of ""wifely cunt,"" etc.--territory covered by far better novelists (Mailer, Roth, et al.) in past decades. Wheelis preface suggests that some readers will want to sample Parts I and II in alternating chapters, while others might well omit either Part I or Part II. Despite some interest for analysts and analysands, however, most readers will find both parts eminently skippable.

Pub Date: April 21, 1987

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Norton

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION