Alice Brill, the doctor's daughter, is in her fifties, somewhat uncomfortably married, and the mother of three grown children, a downsized editor who now works for herself as a "book doctor", editing works in progress for aspiring authors. The passion and communication are gone from her once happy marriage and her youngest son has ethical issues that help to drive a wedge between Alice and her husband, Everett. Alice's mother, Helen, a poet, died of cancer when Alice was a graduate student. Her father, Sam, once a brilliant surgeon, is now confined to a nursing home with dementia. Alice and Everett's marriage cannot, in Alice's mind, live up to the "perfection" of her parents' union. Alice and Everett's relationship began with competition (Alice and Everett were once both aspiring writers) that blossomed into passion, but Sam Brill wanted Alice to marry a doctor, to form a partnership like that shared between her parents. Throughout her marriage (Everett ends up working in the family printing business) Alice, an only child, is cognizant of the fact that she has failed to live up to the idealized standard set by her father and mother.
Throughout Wolitzer's novel the reader is treated to something out of the ordinary. Alice is not focused primarily on repairing her marriage or interfering in the lives of her children. There is no "crisis" that compels her and Everett to realize what they might have to lose. She experiences a vague "pain" in her chest, not physical but emotional or psychological, an emptiness or unidentifiable longing that prompts her to set out on a quest to discover what subconscious event is driving her marriage and current life off of its proscribed course. Bit by bit Alice recovers the memory that has set her at odds with herself and with her father and she is able to move on with her life, always the doctor's daughter, but now with a new understanding of what that means. The unattainable perfection that she saw in her parents' marriage may not be the answer to a happy life for Alice and Everett.
First of all, sorry for my poor written English. I'm Silvia Czapski, a brazilian journalist. I live at Sao Paulo (Brazil).
ReplyDeleteMy mother's name is Alice Brill. She's 89 years old. She came from Germany to Brazil, in 1933 and is now a very well known artist in our country.
You can know more about her through these links:
http://www.itaucultural.org.br/aplicexternas/enciclopedia_ic/index.cfm?fuseaction=artistas_biografia_ing&cd_verbete=3667&lst_palavras=&cd_idioma=28556&cd_item=1
www.akitanda.com.br/faap
www.aipa.org.br/alice => a arte de alice
Unfortunately she has the Alzheimer disease! My father was a doctor (He died some months ago).
I didn't know about this book. But there are so many coincidences (name, disease, my father being a doctor) with the story "The Doctor's Daughter"!!!
How can I contact Mrs Hilma Wolitzer?
Thanks
I was not able to find a contact address or email for Hilma Wolitzer, but she is a Random House author. You might try contacting them. Their web site is www.randomhouse.com.
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