A PASSION FOR LIFE

by Diana Chang ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 6, 1961

Diana Chang's earlier books have all dealt with some form of dislocation; her first and best - Frontiers of Love (1956) with a Eurasian girl's several worlds; A Woman of Thirty with a divorces; and now this, while it is more immediately the story of a young married woman's rape- and the unwanted pregnancy to follow, also questions society's ""passion for life"" which in protecting and preserving also ostracizes and alienates. (The scene is an ingrown New England town- and there are two others who have a parlous time of it a young Jewish doctor; an artist.) When Barbara Owens finds she is pregnant, she admits the incident first to David Bergman, the new, and unaccepted, medical man in town- rather than the established Dr. Carter. While Bergman cannot help her, medically, he becomes involved in the case, helps her to tell her husband, Geoffrey, and to plan for a delivery in Boston - and an adoption. But the revelation that the rapist was an escaped mental patient makes the thought of an adoption impossible- the Owens leave for Boston, planning to abandon the baby, and then realizing they cannot.... A situation which guarantees an initial impact and a continuing curiosity, this goes a little farther and deeper into concomitant problems- the individual's right to freedom which here is ultimately aligned with his free choice of responsibility.

Pub Date: April 6, 1961

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1961

Categories: FICTION