Medicine Men

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by Alice Adams

Simon and Schuster

Due/Published June 1998, 256 pages, paper

ISBN 0671020676

A satirical romp in the spirit of Jane Austen, Medicine Men takes a humorous yet touching look at love, friendship, economic class, and family heritage. Molly Bonner is wary about putting herself in a doctor's hands -- especially as a lover. On the cusp of 40, Molly, reluctantly attending her friend Felicia's party, knows the hidden agenda includes fixing her up with a recently widowed M.D. Felicia herself is the long-suffering mistress of a married San Francisco surgeon, one of the most pompous womanizers Molly has ever met. She has long since decided that dating medicine men is a pill she'd rather not swallow. But now this tall, anomalous middle-aged doctor, with his attentive ways, seems the exception.

It just so happens then that Molly, long bothered by headaches, is diagnosed with a rare malignancy. She needs a doctor in the house...or so she thinks. As Molly begins the long journey toward the recovery of her self, Alice Adams once again paints a portrait of modern affairs so sharply observant that it draws blood. More deftly than ever, in Medicine Men she shows us the source of the illness -- and the remedy -- for the malady called love.