The Office of Desire
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- £3.49
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- £3.49
Publisher Description
From the nationally bestselling author of the novel Best Friends: a touching novel about five very different people navigating work—and life.
Alicia, Brice, and Caroline are the ABCs—three close friends who have been brought together while working at the cozy medical practice of Drs. Markowitz and Strub in Midburg, Ohio. But when Alicia and Dr. Strub begin an affair, a dramatic chain of events ensues that gradually but drastically changes the office environment—ultimately requiring all five coworkers to redefine their relationships to one another. Finally, a questionable business venture precipitates a tragedy that will either tear them apart or bring them closer together.
Touching and insightful, The Office of Desire an office novel that will resonate with anyone who has ever experienced the unlikely alliances that develop at work, and seen what happens when those relationships are altered.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Moody (Best Friends) stages this sharply observed tale of office relationships gone very wrong at a small Ohio medical practice. When Dr. Will Strub marries office nurse Alicia, he becomes increasingly involved in the local fundamentalist church. That puts him somewhat at odds with his fellow doctor and business partner, Dr. Hap Markowitz, who defines himself "as a non-observant, God-fearing Jew." Meanwhile, middle aged office receptionist Caroline begins her own new relationship with a 72-year-old patient named Fred, while Hap devotes his spare time to his seriously ill wife, making office manager Brice literally the odd man out. The slow descent into insanity by one of the characters leads to a tragedy that affects all involved; gay relationships, evangelical fervor, amputation and infidelity all play in. "There is a point where loyalty became a sickness, where faithfulness to someone else became a way to destroy yourself," Hap observes, and each of Moody's well-drawn characters embodies that statement in his or her own way. Hap and Caroline alternate with first person narration, which lends Upstairs Downstairs like shifts in perspective, which can be distracting. Moody keeps things moving, though, and gets the details right, whether adding up emotional balances, Prozac samples or a patient's bill.
