AFTERSHOCK

It wouldn't be overreacting to say that this is a minimal, ladies' magazine type account of the period in which the author recovered from her ""psychotic episode"" and regained her memory, following shock treatment. Without really informing, it itemizes her confusion--from what kind of coffee to buy, what to cook for the Children's breakfast, to other more indicative lapses which contributed to her breakdown--her father's fatal illness and a voluntary abortion (three children in three years were just too many). A kindly Dr. Stern presides in the background and her husband David just tiptoes around the whole scene. This was written as a catharsis in clinging cliche.