Misconception

Rating:
Summary: Misconception is a Misconception
Review: The story line is a good one, but the character development is extremely weak and what little there is of it, in many instances, is not believable. Just one example of many: a man with the discipline, intelligence, clear-headed thinking and focus to become a doctor and a serious candidate for Surgeon General would not "fall in love" with or seriously "bond" in any way, with as insecure, wimpy, needy, unsophisticated, and somehwat dull girl as Sarah Corbett is portrayed. Her only redeeming quality that we are given is that she is physically "beautiful," and while the doctor's mid-life doldrums may have led to lust, it was not plausible to me that he didn't recognize it for what it was. The scenes where I am supposed to be dragged into believing he truly cared for her were simply not credible. And then, in the snap of a finger, this wishy-washy, timid girl who ends all of her grade-school level sentences with question marks, suddenly develops the hutzpah and sophistication to show up at an elementary school program where she introduces herself to the doctor's wife and offers to baby-sit their 3 children? Give me a break! The Sarah Corbett we had all come to know and not love could never have pulled this off, and never again in the book showed that kind of moxy. One more example: In the first two-thirds of the book, this doctor and his wife don't exchange a single tender, funny, open or passionate moment, not even in historical reference, but when he is arrested and she leaves him, he begs her not to leave because she is, and has "always been, his whole life and love." Where is the foundation to lay that on? Nothing I had read up to that point made that convincing. And these are just two instances of weak character development. There are many more. Add to that, the flaws in the bumpy transitions and flow and you don't have a book worth reading. There are too many good writers in this genre!