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FORTY ODD by Mary Bard

FORTY ODD

By

Pub Date: April 23rd, 1952
Publisher: Lippincott

The doctor's wife of The Doctor Wears Three Faces again lends a bright, personal touch to the account of her year -- 40 to 41 --and her scattered progression through a series of panaceas, physiological and emotional. From that forlorn day which brought a sylon nightgown from her husband, Jim, and a copy of Woman's Best Years from a solicitous friend, to Jim's reassurance that she hadn't changed a bit (""except for a hangdog expression and a slight pod"") this follows her on her rounds of reforms and resolutions as she alternated between hormones and estrogenic creams, rugged calisthenics and bedrest, the reorganization of her kitchen drawers and the glamorization of her wardrobe, a skiing trip alone and a house full of a Brownie troop, a re-reading of the Great Books and piano lessons which could do away with mascle atrophy, etc. etc. until she finally settled in and down to the fact that was forty but not finished... For some, just for amusement -- for others, there's a certain intimacy and identification as well.