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DOCTORS AND DOCTORS' WIVES by

DOCTORS AND DOCTORS' WIVES

By

Pub Date: Jan. 30th, 1989
Publisher: New American Library

Melodrama from retired physician/first-novelist Roe: two reed school classmates go their separate ways, one becoming a kindly G.P., the other an arrogant surgeon--until they are reunited by the mortal illness of the kindly doc's younger son. Good doc is Greg Hopkins, who looks after his patients and neglects his family, especially his loving wife Liz--who was the med-school mistress of Greg's best friend and future bad doc Willie Stringer until she caught him in bed with her best friend, Ellen Petrini. Good Dr. Hopkins took his healing hands to the exurbs, where he worked selflessly for years, constantly breaking his promises to spend time with his family in order to be with his patients night or day. Bad Dr. Hopkins played his brilliant intellect and agile fingers into a Park Avenue practice--a business that allowed him plenty of time for the affairs he found necessary once it became clear that the former Ellen Petrini had been rendered forever frigid by a traumatic high-school date. A shared case brings the classmates back together, setting Liz's heart aflutter once more and threatening the secret of Liz's daughter's lineage. Then Dr. Willie's offer to look into young Edward Hopkins' gastrointestinal tract brings everybody closer than is good for them--especially when the diagnostics turn out to be a fatally bungled job. Clich‚s spurt from every artery. Call an editor. Stat.