The Doctor’s House (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Ann Beattie
- First Published: 2002
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: Around 1970
- Setting: New England; Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Principal Characters: Nina, Andrew, Mother, Frank
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: 1970’s, Husbands, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Wives, Mothers, Parents and children, Twentieth century, Marriage, Doctors, New England, Alcoholism or alcoholics, Adultery, Women, Drug addiction or addicts, Depression, mental, Boston, Loneliness, Massachusetts
- Locales: Cambridge, MA, New England
The structure of The Doctor’s House is seemingly simple. Instead of intertwining the stories and points of view of the characters simultaneously, as in real life, the novel has three separate first-person narrators: Nina, Andrew, and their mother. In each case, the story offers a personal insight into the individual as well as into other members of the family, with particular focus on the demoniac figure of their tyrannical, abusive father and husband, Frank, “the doctor.” In this way, the story of a family life and its members is both directly shown through personal...
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