THE IDENTITY OF DR. FRAZIER

Alex Fracier is a highly competent surgeon, possibly to be the next chief at his California hospital, an appointment also desired by his old friend who has seniority. Dan Simons. He drives foreign cars, collects French paintings, has been married happily for twenty years to who is Jewish, and they now expect their first child. Still there are many grievances fastering in the subsoil of his subconscious: he has given up research for the more material rewards of the knife; he has an unnatural need for from the world-and reassurance from Peg. All of this comes out a weekend in San Vicente when Alex, in the presence of many of his colleagues from the hospital (it is staffed by Jews) goes on a drunken tear, accuses Simon of fee snatching, Peg of infidelity, and reveals many anti-Semitic hostilities. In the ashamed aftermath to follow, Alex has many situations to reconcile, with himself, with Peg, with her parents (who want to buy him the appointment he now manfully sidesteps), and with the doctors at the hospital- some more unforgiving than others. But in the end author Sklar has managed to bleach out most of the attletale grey of his man in white....On a popular with earlier books (on other lists-Crown, etc.), this is outspoken rather than highminded.