A NECESSARY WOMAN
By
As in the very best of soaps, Van Slyke's people wind smoothly through an intricate macram‚ plot with their mouths open, analyzing each other's increasingly interesting predicaments. This one features Mary Morgan, a middle-aged talk show host on a local San Francisco radio station. Mary, saddled with big-dreams-and-no-prospects Michael, a loving and attentive husband, thinks that what she really wants is a strong, protective man. So during a world cruise with pretty niece Jayne, she meets Australian widower Christopher, a dream come true. But troubles await when the cruise is over. Mary's hateful sister has been sleeping with weak Michael; Jayne fails in love and marries a former homosexual, Terry; and Mary is being constantly tripped up by maternal feelings for Michael. And eventually things sort out rather sadly. Mary faces Michael with his latest lies, demanding a divorce. Terry is killed in the home of his former lover. Jayne bears a child. Michael marries his rich girlfriend. And Mary realizes that she ""was not meant to be an idle dependent woman. . . . "" A soothing enough entanglement between shuffleboard and rhumba lessons.