asteroidbuckle's review
4.0
I really liked this book. I was at the library for a meeting and during the break, I perused the "New Fiction" section (free time + a room full of books = nirvana for me). That is where I found this gem, whose hook - Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy - was enough to make me actually use my library card (which had expired due to non-use a month before).
Strauss' writing style is fantastic, although I did find myself needing a bit of time to adjust to the almost stream-of-consciousness way he writes his characters. Plus, he switches POV in the blink of an eye, which threw me off a little at first. But once I got used to it, the story really was great.
At its heart, it's a story about the lengths people will go to to maintain their idea of happiness and how self-delusion and a warped sense of happiness can sometimes clash with another person's idea of right and wrong.
Josh and Dori Goldin are young parents to little Zack, whose sudden, inexplicable illness shatters the young family's sense of well-being. Josh, an ad exec whose specialties are spouting bullshit and never seeing beneath the surface of things, can't admit that maybe his perfect life isn't as perfect as he perceives it to be. He's happy being in denial. Dori, phlebotomist-cum-devoted mom, is constantly on the verge of cracking at the first sign of imperfection in her life. Josh isn't being a good enough father, a good enough husband, and so she uses her child to "bring them closer." In other words, she hurts her own son to get attention and justifies it by convincing herself it's for the greater good of the family.
Enter Dr. Darlene Stokes - born to a teenage single mom who's also a single mom herself, not to mention a brilliant pediatrician who has the gall to suspect that Dori Goldin, perfect mom extraordinaire, may in fact be a Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy candidate. Of course, there are a few things that make Dr. Stokes the underdog - she's black (and therefore a reverse racist who's out to get the poor white parents), her father is an ex-con, and she's generally unlikeable.
This tale of deluded happiness weaves and winds its way to an end that's both frustrating and satisfying. It's frustrating because the one person whom the reader knows is doing the right thing isn't vindicated; satisfying because Josh, the perpetually sunny ostrich with his head plunged happily in the sand, finally opens his eyes and sees beneath the shiny superficiality of his life.
One thing, though: The side story about Dr. Stokes' father is largely superfluous, but it does play a vital part at the end. Beyond that, though, it's not really important to the story.
Great book. I highly recommend it.
Strauss' writing style is fantastic, although I did find myself needing a bit of time to adjust to the almost stream-of-consciousness way he writes his characters. Plus, he switches POV in the blink of an eye, which threw me off a little at first. But once I got used to it, the story really was great.
At its heart, it's a story about the lengths people will go to to maintain their idea of happiness and how self-delusion and a warped sense of happiness can sometimes clash with another person's idea of right and wrong.
Josh and Dori Goldin are young parents to little Zack, whose sudden, inexplicable illness shatters the young family's sense of well-being. Josh, an ad exec whose specialties are spouting bullshit and never seeing beneath the surface of things, can't admit that maybe his perfect life isn't as perfect as he perceives it to be. He's happy being in denial. Dori, phlebotomist-cum-devoted mom, is constantly on the verge of cracking at the first sign of imperfection in her life. Josh isn't being a good enough father, a good enough husband, and so she uses her child to "bring them closer." In other words, she hurts her own son to get attention and justifies it by convincing herself it's for the greater good of the family.
Enter Dr. Darlene Stokes - born to a teenage single mom who's also a single mom herself, not to mention a brilliant pediatrician who has the gall to suspect that Dori Goldin, perfect mom extraordinaire, may in fact be a Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy candidate. Of course, there are a few things that make Dr. Stokes the underdog - she's black (and therefore a reverse racist who's out to get the poor white parents), her father is an ex-con, and she's generally unlikeable.
This tale of deluded happiness weaves and winds its way to an end that's both frustrating and satisfying. It's frustrating because the one person whom the reader knows is doing the right thing isn't vindicated; satisfying because Josh, the perpetually sunny ostrich with his head plunged happily in the sand, finally opens his eyes and sees beneath the shiny superficiality of his life.
One thing, though: The side story about Dr. Stokes' father is largely superfluous, but it does play a vital part at the end. Beyond that, though, it's not really important to the story.
Great book. I highly recommend it.
mindfulclaire's review
2.0
I'm glad I finished this one, it really had a good storyline, but it was REALLY slow in the beginning and jumped around from character to character. I ended up putting down and picking up this one several times.
mjmoore's review
2.0
This is quite a difficult book to review, and when I looked at amazon, I wasn’t at all surprised by the mixed reviews. I think a lot depends on what you expect from this book. Personally, I almost put it down early on, but by the end I was glad that I’d finished it.
So, to the story.. the book opens with Josh getting a call that his baby son is at the hospital. According to his wife Dori, she took Zack to the hospital, where he was checked and discharged, then collapsed in the car park. She insists she mentioned blood in his vomit, the admitting doctor insists she didn’t. The hospital and the head Paediatrician now want to do lots of tests, Dori doesn’t them done. It’s a confusing picture, but they return home.
At this point, where I was expecting to get more into this story, we are taken to a group of ex-convicts coming out of hospital, then onto the head doctor’s past story. For me, this proved frustrating, and was where I almost gave up. Persevering with it however, the story returns to baby Zack.
Dr Stokes, the head Paediatrician, starts to suspect the mother of Münchhausen’s By Proxy (MBP), a condition where a parent will cause illness in a child, usually for attention. With this, we are taken through a legal battle, poor (clever?) media coverage, and issues of race.
This isn’t a fast paced court drama, such as we expect from the likes of Jodi Picoult. It’s a slower, dark, complex story, with rather unlike-able characters. The earlier distracting chapters do have a point to them, but this takes a while to show. There’s no big reveal at the end, but rather it’s shared with the reader early on whether Dori is guilty of MBP or not.
Personally speaking, I did feel that the story was a little too drawn out, and that some of the earlier chapters were distracting. However, I was glad to persevere, and the book has stayed with.. especially the rather dark character of Dori. It’s an interesting view of MBP, but it also explores other issues.
So, to the story.. the book opens with Josh getting a call that his baby son is at the hospital. According to his wife Dori, she took Zack to the hospital, where he was checked and discharged, then collapsed in the car park. She insists she mentioned blood in his vomit, the admitting doctor insists she didn’t. The hospital and the head Paediatrician now want to do lots of tests, Dori doesn’t them done. It’s a confusing picture, but they return home.
At this point, where I was expecting to get more into this story, we are taken to a group of ex-convicts coming out of hospital, then onto the head doctor’s past story. For me, this proved frustrating, and was where I almost gave up. Persevering with it however, the story returns to baby Zack.
Dr Stokes, the head Paediatrician, starts to suspect the mother of Münchhausen’s By Proxy (MBP), a condition where a parent will cause illness in a child, usually for attention. With this, we are taken through a legal battle, poor (clever?) media coverage, and issues of race.
This isn’t a fast paced court drama, such as we expect from the likes of Jodi Picoult. It’s a slower, dark, complex story, with rather unlike-able characters. The earlier distracting chapters do have a point to them, but this takes a while to show. There’s no big reveal at the end, but rather it’s shared with the reader early on whether Dori is guilty of MBP or not.
Personally speaking, I did feel that the story was a little too drawn out, and that some of the earlier chapters were distracting. However, I was glad to persevere, and the book has stayed with.. especially the rather dark character of Dori. It’s an interesting view of MBP, but it also explores other issues.
megoland's review
3.0
This book was fairly good, if somewhat depressing. It is about a mother accused of intentionally hurting her child in order to receive medical attention (Munchen Byproxy syndrome) and the doctor who accuses her. The book also dealt with the rifts that can occur in marriages and families, and the secrets we keep from each other.
sjurban's review
3.0
I was hoping for a more in depth look at MSBP when I picked this book up. I frankly found the side stories about the Physician and her father to be boring. The ending was disappointing too.
mmz's review
3.0
A different book about Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy would be, perhaps, an outside-looking-in story, where people outside the family try to figure out why any parent, and specifically the parent in question would inflict harm on their own child. In contrast, Strauss puts the why up-front; it’s clear to the reader, and even clearer to mother who bleeds her child twice to induce anemia, why she does it.
So the rest of the book is more of a “how” or a “what” than a “why”. How do the doctors and Child Protective Services go about proving a case of Munchausen’s? How does the father, who in unaware of his wife’s activities, deal with the situation. What is the motivation of the accusing doctor? And in the end, of course, is the question of what will happen to the baby. At least it should be, but in the end even the answers to those questions are disappointing, as the whole matter is dropped over a trumped-up plot device.
Still, this could have been a good book, since it is engagingly written. Unfortunately, not a single character in this book is sympathetic (except the baby, of course). The mother obviously, is beyond unsympathetic, being so smug about her actions as to be entirely unlikeable. Even the father, a good father by most standards, is just bland to the point that I couldn’t really bring myself to care about him. Although we are shown bits of the doctor’s personal life (her interactions with her own young son, her efforts to relate to a father she’s only just met), none of these are enough to put any flesh on the character that might allow the reader to care about her, and are clearly just set pieces that try (and fail) to create some tension.
So the rest of the book is more of a “how” or a “what” than a “why”. How do the doctors and Child Protective Services go about proving a case of Munchausen’s? How does the father, who in unaware of his wife’s activities, deal with the situation. What is the motivation of the accusing doctor? And in the end, of course, is the question of what will happen to the baby. At least it should be, but in the end even the answers to those questions are disappointing, as the whole matter is dropped over a trumped-up plot device.
Still, this could have been a good book, since it is engagingly written. Unfortunately, not a single character in this book is sympathetic (except the baby, of course). The mother obviously, is beyond unsympathetic, being so smug about her actions as to be entirely unlikeable. Even the father, a good father by most standards, is just bland to the point that I couldn’t really bring myself to care about him. Although we are shown bits of the doctor’s personal life (her interactions with her own young son, her efforts to relate to a father she’s only just met), none of these are enough to put any flesh on the character that might allow the reader to care about her, and are clearly just set pieces that try (and fail) to create some tension.
booksandlists's review
I listened to about half of this and was not engaged at all, definitely not enough to follow character shifts etc.
mrisner's review against another edition
3.0
A very interesting subject but the book was lacking some things for me. More details on the trial and on the outcome.
fleeta_mullins_reads's review
1.0
I very rarely cannot finish a book. I am a fast reader, and I usually power through if the book is not that great. For this particular book, I could not finish. The story skipped around so much (which, if done well, I don't mind at all), the character development was shallow and choppy...and finally at almost halfway through, I put it down for good. I just couldn't get into it at all. I wanted to like the book, I love a strong female character and a book that makes you think, but this just couldn't get me hooked.
jezebelsk's review
1.0
Josh Goldin has the perfect life. He's a star TV ad salesman. He has a beautiful wife at home - Dori. And his infant son Zack is the light of their lives. Things go well for Josh. He has the kind of personality that makes everyone adore him.
One Friday afternoon the bottom drops out of Josh's life. His little boy is rushed to the hospital. He coded - for a person like Josh, what does coded even mean? The doctors bring him back - but can't find a reason for the toddler's illness.
Dr. Darlene Stokes, head of Pediatric ICU, steps in. Even with all of her training, she can't determine a cause for the sickness. But something doesn't feel right, and these ill feelings all point to devoted mom Dori. Dori, who used to work in the medical field. Dori, who was too argumentative with the doctors. Dori, who didn't want "unnecessary tests" for her young child. Dr. Stokes' diagnosis: Munchausen syndrome by proxy .
I really really think this book could have been so much better. It has such an interesting premise. Unfortunately, the author spends more time going into Dr. Stokes' backstory than he does on the real story. The climax was a let-down. And the reader, Arthur Morey, was just awful. I'm not kidding. He never finds a happy medium. He's either overly dramatic or deadpan. And his women sound like idiots! I'm pretty sure that I've listened to him before - and disliked his work then, too! My rating: 1/5
One Friday afternoon the bottom drops out of Josh's life. His little boy is rushed to the hospital. He coded - for a person like Josh, what does coded even mean? The doctors bring him back - but can't find a reason for the toddler's illness.
Dr. Darlene Stokes, head of Pediatric ICU, steps in. Even with all of her training, she can't determine a cause for the sickness. But something doesn't feel right, and these ill feelings all point to devoted mom Dori. Dori, who used to work in the medical field. Dori, who was too argumentative with the doctors. Dori, who didn't want "unnecessary tests" for her young child. Dr. Stokes' diagnosis: Munchausen syndrome by proxy .
I really really think this book could have been so much better. It has such an interesting premise. Unfortunately, the author spends more time going into Dr. Stokes' backstory than he does on the real story. The climax was a let-down. And the reader, Arthur Morey, was just awful. I'm not kidding. He never finds a happy medium. He's either overly dramatic or deadpan. And his women sound like idiots! I'm pretty sure that I've listened to him before - and disliked his work then, too! My rating: 1/5