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Authors often try to work current events or hot topics into their novels. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It is especially difficult to write knowledgeably about an emotional issue that they themselves have not experienced. Infertility is such a topic. As a veteran of the infertility wars, I can tell you that in THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR, Barbara Delinsky successfully conveys the frustration and stress as well as the resultant effects on a marriage in an absolutely believable manner.
Thirty year old Amanda and thirty-six year old Graham are newlyweds. They spend the first year of their marriage simply enjoying each other's company and loving each other. After that first year, however, they want to start creating a family, hopefully a large one. After all, Graham comes from a large Irish-Catholic family, where five or six children are the norm. With the obvious exception of his brother the priest, all of his siblings are married and have at least two and as many as five children already. The same is expected of him. Although Amanda is an only child, or maybe because she is, she too wants a large family.
Following their first anniversary, Amanda and Graham buy a house intending to fill it with children. Both have successful careers. Graham is a well-respected landscape architect and Amanda is the school psychologist in the local school district. Both assume that when the babies come, Amanda will simply cut back on her hours, working part-time, possibly even from home.
Everything seems idyllic, but a year passes without a pregnancy. Amanda's gynecologist tells the couple to "relax and give it more time," something they try to do. Another year passes, and they begin to make the rounds of the fertility experts. Each specialist tells them something different; each performs different tests and has different ideas of what to do. Finally, they find a local doctor who seems to understand their problems, which she treats in an aggressive manner --- Amanda starts taking fertility drugs, and procedures with acronyms like IUI, AI, and IVF become part of their life.
Meanwhile, life around them goes on. A troubled boy, the star of the varsity baseball team at Amanda's high school, comes to a practice so drunk he can barely stand, much less play. Two other boys are also involved, and all three are suspended from the team, throwing into motion a chain of events leading to several crises. At the same time, Amanda, Graham, and their neighbors discover that the young widow of a beloved neighbor is pregnant, but the timing precludes her husband from being the father, and she won't reveal who is. The residents of the cul-de-sac begin to watch each other warily, trying to determine if one of the men is the father.
Barbara Delinsky has done an excellent job of characterization in THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR. Graham and Amanda are both believable, as are their neighbors. The problems they must live with, as well as the resulting angst, are all part of the tapestry middle class couples deal with as they juggle personal lives, careers, and friendships.
--- Reviewed by Debbie Ann Weiner
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