Review by AnnaLibri -- The Surgeon's Wife

[AnnaLibri]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Surgeon's Wife" by William H. Coles.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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New Orleans surgeon Mike Boudreaux finds himself in a difficult position when he must discipline his mentor and business partner, Clayton Otherson, who has been making serious errors in technique and judgment that endanger his patients. Otherson, a renowned expert in the field of bariatric surgery, denies any wrongdoing and feels that his protégé has betrayed him. The relationship between the two deteriorates even further when Boudreaux begins an affair with Otherson’s beautiful and much younger wife, Catherine. The threats to Otherson’s professional and personal lives send the once respected doctor and socialite into a shocking downward spiral.

The Surgeon’s Wife gets off to a promising start. The early hospital scenes perfectly capture the drama and egotism that so often pervade the medical establishment. While I knew that a romance storyline was coming, I expected that the novel would be primarily an exploration of the dark side of medicine and the office politics that so often puts patients at risk.

However, once the romance between Mike Boudreaux and Catherine Otherson begins, the novel becomes an overcrowded soap opera. William H. Coles has created an interesting, complex cast of characters for The Surgeon’s Wife, but he tries to do too much with them. Catherine is especially saddled with troubles; in addition to her unhappy marriage and her love for Mike, she must also contend with a rebellious daughter, demanding parents, and the possibility of losing her hard-earned place in New Orleans high society. While these various dramas bring up a number of interesting themes, the novel is too short to develop any of them fully. Consequently, these subjects are given rushed, superficial treatment, as if the author was trying to fit in as much as he could in as few pages as possible.

Ultimately, though, it is the medical case which dominates the earlier part of the book that suffers the most. Coles never completely explores the impact of Otherson’s recklessness or why it was allowed to go on for so long, nor does he create a scenario in which Otherson must come face-to-face with the ramifications of his poor judgment. Instead, he chooses a path of paranoia and violence for the disgraced doctor, leading the book to a sensationalist conclusion that does not fit with the intelligence of the earlier chapters. Having begun the book hoping for a thoughtful, compelling reflection on the state of medicine in the United States, I could not help finding the handling of Otherson’s story particularly disappointing.

I did not encounter many grammatical errors or typos in The Surgeon’s Wife, though the ones I found were significant enough to be distracting. There is occasional profanity, and while the sexual content is very limited, some readers may be uncomfortable with the sympathetic portrayal of an adulterous relationship.

Overall, I rate this novel 2 out of 4 stars. The medical storyline was very intriguing, but I would have liked to see it developed more and not sidelined in favor of melodrama. I liked the characters and thought the author included a number of themes worth exploring. Unfortunately, none of them are given the full study they deserve, and as a result, The Surgeon’s Wife never quite lives up to its potential.

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The Surgeon's Wife
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