In Dahlia's Wake.IN DAHLIA'S WAKE BY YONA ZELDIS MCDONOUGH NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of : DOUBLEDAY. 304 PAGES. $24. Yona Zeldis McDonough's second novel, In Dahlia's Wake, takes place in the dead of winter, a fitting season for a story about the loss of a child and the fracturing transformation it has on her parents. Consumed with bitterness and rage, Rick and Naomi seek solace outside their marriage, which leads both of them to infidelity. As in her first novel, The Four Temperaments This article is about the modern psychological theory of temperament. For "four humors" in Greco-Roman medicine, see humorism. Four Temperaments is a theory of psychology that stems from the ancient concept of four humors (humorism). (2002)--which, among other things, also concerns adultery and its corrosive effects upon a marriage--McDonough here skillfully devotes each chapter to the perspective of a different character, thus clarifying each individual's motivations so that no one is demonized for his or her actions. The novel is set in Park Slope, Brooklyn Park Slope is a neighborhood in the western section of Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park West to 4th Avenue, Park Place to the Greenwood Cemetery according to the New York City Department of City Planning[1] , which, despite its proximity to Manhattan, has a decidedly small-town flavor: "Everybody knows everything all the time," reflects Michael McBride, the doctor who breaks the news of Dahlia's death to Rick and Naomi. When Michael and his daughters run into Naomi in the neighborhood, the girls coolly observe their father's tenderness toward her. In a subsequent chapter, Rick's office manager spies Naomi through a store window, intimately touching Michael's coat. Months later, these chance encounters culminate when one of Michael's daughters witnesses evidence of his tryst with Naomi in a hotel room. Feeling betrayed, the girl acts out destructively--not unlike Rick and Naomi did, after Dahlia's death, but with more dire and lasting consequences. There are no steamy sex scenes in this novel, reinforcing the point that Rick and Naomi's infidelities do not satisfy carnal carnal adjective Referring to the flesh, to baser instincts, often referring to sexual “knowledge” desires so much as offer them the comfort they cannot give each other. Both affairs are short-lived; for Naomi it is an overnight with Michael in a Manhattan hotel room, while Rick spends a few late nights in his office manager's humble apartment. As with Dahlia's death--her neck is broken in a freak car accident--one wrong move can irrevocably change the course of life. Normal assumptions--that "they would always be together ... they would watch their daughter grow up, get married, start a family of her own"--are thrown "into a nervous and jangling jan·gle v. jan·gled, jan·gling, jan·gles v.intr. To make a harsh metallic sound: The spurs jangled noisily. v.tr. 1. disarray." Beset by relentless grief, Rick, a podiatrist Podiatrist A physician who specializes in the medical care and treatment of the human foot. Mentioned in: Shin Splints podiatrist , is reminded of an amputation amputation (ăm'pyətā`shən), removal of all or part of a limb or other body part. Although amputation has been practiced for centuries, the development of sophisticated techniques for treatment and prevention of infection has greatly he once performed, and his patient's plaintive plain·tive adj. Expressing sorrow; mournful or melancholy. [Middle English plaintif, from Old French, aggrieved, lamenting, from plaint, complaint; see plaint. words after the surgery was complete: "'It was part of me,' she kept saying. 'I can't believe it's really gone.'" |
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